Thanksgiving Day/Black Friday!!

After the Turkey Trot, I dropped my mom off at home and made my way back to my house…I still had a few more dishes to prepare for our Thanksgiving meal!

The week before Thanksgiving, I raided Oh She Glows’ website for as many healthier Thanksgiving options as I could find!  My dad does 80% of the cooking, but I wanted to try and be conservative as much as possible!

My homemade crust for the Pecan Pie recipe!  This crust is from Oh She Glows…see below.  (See how I made it into Mickey ears? I made two tester cups for Jason and I to try!  He LOVED it!)

This is a Pecan Pie that I made!  I got the Recipe for the crust from Oh She Glows… (the middle of the pie is a recipe version I found online using Pure Maple Syrup instead of Cane Syrup!)

My mom made a Pumpkin Pie using her own crust but the middle is from Oh She Glow’s website.  My Pecan Pie used the crust from the recipe and my mom’s Pumpkin Pie used the filling from the recipe!  Hah!  Just a little backwards but oh well! :0)

You can find that recipe here:  Vegan Pumpkin Pie with a Spelt Crust

This Pumpkin Bread is also from Oh She Glows!  (See, I told you we raided her website!) Hah!  I made 2 loafs and brought one to Jason’s Parent’s house that night.  EVERYONE raved about this bread and they all want the recipe!  It was really really good!

You can find this recipe here:  Pumpkin Swirl Butternut Pecan Bread  (For the Pumpkin Butter recipe, I used a Butternut Squash and added a little pumpkin to make 3 cups. It was REALLY good!)

My mom also made “This Ain’t Grandma’s Sweet Potato Casserole”.  Let me tell you…this is my favorite dish at the Holidays and always has been.  I knew it had a ton of sugar in it and I actually suggested to my mom that she make a different version.  She did and oh my gosh it was SO good!  I could actually TASTE the sweet potatoes in this recipe!!  Usually, it’s just super sweet but not this time!  Thank you, Angela!  Seriously, thank you!

Let the eatin’ begin!

My homemade rolls! :0)  (Via the bread-maker! lol)

At first, I thought maybe my eyes were bigger than my stomach….YES this is my plate!  (I only ate one meal on this day! lol)

            

But apparently I was wrong…my eyes were NOT bigger than my stomach cause I ate almost every bite on my plate!

  

My sweet 90  year old Grandpa!  I love him! :0)

My dogs know just where to go on the Holidays….to my dad.  He’s the one that taught them what table scraps are.  Thanks, Dad! :0)  (Note: I made sure he didn’t feed them TOO much…neither one of them got sick from over-consumption!)

   

  After dinner, we looked through the papers to make our game plan for Black Friday!  We also went to Jason’s parent’s house to spend time with them on the Holiday! :0)

Friday morning, we woke up at 4:15 a.m. with a plan to be out the door by 4:45 a.m.  We did VERY well and made it to the mall right at 5:00 a.m.!

I have never seen SO many people at the mall on Black Friday at 5 a.m. EVER!  It was CRAZY!  Our goal every year (or my goal every year at least) is to make it to JC Penny to get the free Mickey Snow globe they give at the door!  I now have 11 of them….one every year all the way back to my high school years!  I started collecting them the year they started giving them out and I haven’t missed a year yet!  I was scared this year, though.  When we pulled up to the mall, I saw all of the cars and I got really worried!  However, I remembered that they had a back door entrance to JC Penny and sure enough, they had 1 giant box of snow globes left!  Note to self: If you are going to continue collecting these, you need to get to the mall earlier!  Ugh.

Ready to shop till we drop!

We made REALLY good time this year!  None of us really had any major needs on our to do list, we just liked being out and about with all the crazy shoppers!  Hehe! 

This goes to show you just how tired we were.  Kim had her jacket on and couldn’t figure out why it didn’t line up at the bottom!  She had it mis-buttoned!  Whoops! :0)

After the mall, we made our way to Best Buy!  We arrived about 7 a.m. and saw this outside!  CRAZY!  People had tents set up (from what I heard) and these people left their trash and sleeping bags on the ground!  Sleeping bags!  Is it really worth it to spend the night outside to get a TV that is discounted by $200?  I guess to some people, yes.

After Best Buy, it was time for a Starbucks break! I needed a pick me up and this did just the trick!

A Peppermint Mocha and Banana Nut Bread!  Yum!  Another Black Friday tradition of mine!  Hah!

We also went to Lowe’s, Hobby Lobby, Old Navy, and Academy.  Kim found herself a nice place to rest in Lowe’s!  :0)

We left Lowe’s and it was POURING down rain!  I was very thankful for the Hot Hands that I had purchased a few days before!  How odd…on Thanksgiving, I had to shave my legs and I was wearing shorts and a tshirt! The following day, it was in the 50’s early in the morning and quickly dropped to the low 40’s by mid morning!  CRAZY weather!

Kayla shaking up her hot hands!

I did get a few good deals but nothing really exciting.  This jacket is for me for Christmas!  Hah!  It was regularly $40 on sale for $14.  I’ll take that!  I also got a few video games for Jason that were on sale from Best Buy and a Jersey for my dad from Academy that was on sale!  At Best Buy, we also got the Taylor Swift CD and Rascall Flatts CD for super cheap  (like $7-another Christmas present of mine!)

             

I think we made out pretty good, don’t you?!

Enjoy the rest of your Thanksgiving Weekend! :0)

 

Did you go Black Friday Shopping?  What kind of deals did you find?