This Thanksgiving was so fun! Growing up my family never had really big Thanksgiving traditions and I think that is because the first ten years of my life we were moving around a lot, and then the second ten years of my life we couldn't decide on where we wanted to hold it. However, we have ALWAYS had delicious food. That is the tradition that holds in my family.
Marcus' family has other traditions which I really like. They have a huge dinner, which goes without saying, but whether they're just with themselves or with extended family there is always a big dinner. Another thing that they do is hand out three popcorn kernels during dinner and for each one you say one thing you are grateful for. I said I was grateful for delicious food, epidurals, and the talents of others. The BEST tradition that they have is frying a whole turkey! They have this pot of boiling oil set up outside or in the garage and they lower the turkey into it. The last thing that they do is go on a Thanksgiving walk. I think this is a great idea because we spend most of the day eating tons and tons of food. This is their tradition but I did not participate this year because I woke up late and I was in the shower.
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| This is my Father-in-law lowering the Turkey into the pot of oil. |
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| That is the turkey in the oil. It was pretty hot! |
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| This is my cute Marcus after we put it in. |
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| That is steam over the pot because it was cold outside. You can see my little baby bump. |
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| This is the Fried Turkey all done. |
Our meal was so yummy. We all made side dishes that we looked up online. I made Broccoli Cheddar Casserole which was sublime! Marcus made a most delicious and creamy White Chocolate and Raspberry Cheesecake with a chocolate chip cookie crust. Mmmm... it is mouth-watering!
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| The top left is a turkey cheesball that Anna made, next to it is my casserole, the end is Sarah's Green Bean Casserole and the bottom is a spinach salad also made by Anna. |
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| This is the other turkey that my mother-in-law made because we weren't sure if we would be able to deep fry one this year due to the terribly rainy weather that Washington is well-known for. |
So, Thanksgiving was great. After we ate, while we were settling in bed, our baby kicked me super hard in the gut like five times. She has NEVER kicked me that hard in her life! But it was cool because it was the first real kicks that you could see from the outside. The next morning was funny, too, because I woke up to a huge lump protruding out of my stomach because little girl was pushing out as hard as she could with her little back. She was all rolled up in a ball. My stomach looked hilarious! Next time I will take a picture. This is probably the only part of pregnancy that I have enjoyed so far.
I have to talk about Black Friday. Marcus has been obsessed with the Asus Eee Transformer Tablet for what seems like months. He has done tons and tons of research and this is the tablet that fits his needs like a glove. It has been selling at retail locations for about $500 plus an additional $150 for the keyboard docking station. This Black Friday it went on Sale for $250 and then the keyboard-docking station went on sale for $100 if they were in stock. So altogether they would cost $350. It was a DOORBUSTER deal! And by doorbuster, let me tell you. We went to stand in line at Best Buy on Thursday at 5pm. The doors were to open at midnight. We got there and there had been people camping there since Wednesday! What the heck?! These people must not have lives...or they don't care to celebrate Thanksgiving. Needless to say the line was outrageous! We decided not to wait. By the time we would get in everything would be gone AND we would have had to wait next to this creepy guy AND I am pregnant AND it was raining. Marcus was so disappointed. It made me so sad to see him like that. I have never seen him so down-in-the-dumps except when he got a bad grade on a test. There was no cheering him up either because there was nothing that we could do about it.
The next morning, Black Friday, we looked on Craigslist and of course there were tons on sale. Guess who was selling? Those individuals that were crazy enough to camp overnight were re-selling their new buys for profit! Marcus was so mad but he was glad that they were still decently priced. We got in contact with this one Japanese guy who was 2nd Generation American or something. He did not celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday the way we do. He charged us $325 for the tablet. So we basically paid him $25 a day for getting us the tablet. He didn't get the keyboard with it, but we can pick that up later. Marcus hasn't put the thing down. He LOVES it. He is showing it off to anyone he thinks would appreciate it.
But...now I don't know what to get him for Christmas and I don't want to spend a lot of money since we got the tablet. So does anyone have cheap Christmas gift ideas?
We went to Target to find me a Black Friday deal for maternity things. I am in great need. We found the perfect item; a Belly Band. This is pretty much a piece of clothing that wraps around your stomach and acts as an extra support and an undershirt. It has been really nice so far. We got it for $15 which is a great buy because in stores they usually cost $30-40 which I would never pay. We also got me a maternity dress. It is so cute. It is long and blue and green and white. It has a tank-like top so I need to wear an undershirt with it, but I LOVE it! We picked that up at Ross for $15. It has been difficult finding cute and affordable maternity clothes. I got these maternity jeans last week, and they are comfortable but they are NOT very flattering. They don't really fit my legs the right way. Whatev. I won't wear them after pregnancy.
