Thanksgiving: A Recap

Wednesday:
Lunch & shopping with Carolyn. Ate at East Side Las Maracas (not to be confused with the new Belle Meade Plaza location), had 2 margaritas & decided to spend my $100 store credit at Bed Bath & Beyond. I bought a can colander & 2 wooden spoons. The margaritas seriously inhibited our decision making abilities.

Thursday:
Made Loveless Cafe hashbrown casserole recipe, which turned out really well, I must say. Went to my Aunt's house for lunch. Ate, drank, ate, ate, took picture for Xmas card, ate, went home. Attempted to watch Eagle vs. Shark, but turned it off about 30 minutes in & sealed it back up in it's Netflix envelope. Completely unwatchable. Watched TV until I fell asleep, which was probably around 8:30pm.

Friday:
Black Friday. Woke up (sans alarm) at 4:30am. Tried to go back to sleep. Couldn't. Decided to make the best of it & hit the early bird sales down the street @ West Nashville Shopping Center. Went to Old Navy first. Tried on 100 pairs of jeans. None fit. Moved on to pajamas, (always fit). Then moved on to the toddler section to score some deals for my 3 year old niece. Spent $66 on pajama pants, tank & ballet flats for me & a fleece, fleece pants, jeans & 2 tops for my niece. Not bad. Then I went to Target, where I had 2 $30 gift cards & a $15 store credit. I bought 2 more curtain panels for the living room, a set of curtain pull backs, 2 bath mats & shower curtain rings. At this point, I had 2+ hours until I was supposed to meet my mom & sister in Cool Springs, so I decided to go to the Bed Bath & Beyond in Bellevue to finish spending the store credit I failed to spend on Wednesday. I bought a set of bamboo bathroom accessories that I ended up returning. Not having much luck at Bed Bath & Beyond lately....

Side note: my car has been having trouble starting for a month or so now. I took it to Firestone & they said it was the battery, so they put in a new battery. It wasn't the battery. Took it back to Firestone & they assumed I needed a new starter, but didn't put one in because my car started every time they tried it. Grrr.... So for weeks now my car randomly doesn't start. It's been progressively getting worse. It took forever to start on Friday, so I called my dad while I was driving to Cool Springs & he said he could fix it if I'd drive it to Smyrna. So left Cool Springs, drove to Smyrna & rode back to Cool Springs with my mom & my sister in my mom's car.

Once in Cool Springs, we go straight to Macy's because the early bird sale was only until 1pm. I had an $80 store credit, $30 mixing bowls to return & coupons coming out of my ass. I made out like a freaking bandit. I got the last $20 hand towel I needed & a $140 Martha Stewart 7-quart cast iron dutch oven all for $54!!! God bless Black Friday.

Later that night we headed over to Delaney & Austin's for our 2nd Thanksgiving. I got home from Smyrna too late to make the dessert I was supposed to bring, but luckily I had already bought a bottle of wine & then we stopped & got some beer. The meal was fan-freaking-tastic. Delaney is hands-down the best cook I know. Her desserts were out of this world. 4 words: caramelized apple pecan pie. Seriously, I ate enough dessert to induce a diabetic coma -and I'm not even diabetic. Not yet, anyway....

Saturday:
I spent the majority of Saturday morning online designing our Xmas cards. Then John & I went to lunch & he had to go help someone move or something, so I went back to Bellevue to return previously mentioned bathroom accessories at Bed Bath & Beyond (yes, for those of you keeping count, this makes my 3rd trip to BB&B in 3 days). There's a Michael's next door to BB&B, so I headed in there because I had coupons & needed some frames for a bunch of Etsy prints. Again, made out like a bandit. Spent $40 on easily $100 worth of merchandise. Came home & started putting up the Xmas tree. Got the tree assembled only to realize that none of the Xmas lights work. John came home, went to Lowe's, bought more lights, ate at previously undiscovered Indian restaurant on Charlotte Pk & then came home & continued trimming the tree. Watched TV, finished book 4 of Harry Potter series & went to bed.

Sunday:
Woke up with bizarre need for sugar, so decided to make the lemon bars I was supposed to make for Delaney's Friday night. Made them, used my new stand mixer, ate half of them, woke John up, made him eat one, he went back to bed & I watched some old Sex & The City episodes on TiVo. Ate lunch at Jason's Deli. John decided he wanted to go to Toys 'R Us, so again, I find myself in Bellevue. Before this week, I haven't been to Bellevue in like 5 years. I'm totally serious. After Toys 'R Us, John dragged me next door to Circuit City so he could fondle the new Blackberry Storm. Then we headed back home for the day. I ran into Target & bought Twilight. Yes, I'm going down that road. Shut-up. Then I went to Kroger. I'm making chili tonight in my new Martha Stewart dutch oven. Speaking of which, I need to start cooking if we're going to eat before 10pm....