- I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, having missed it last year due to dinner preparations for nine people. I could do without some of the bad pop, but you've gotta love the Sesame Street and Care Bears floats, the Smurf balloon, and of course the appearance of Rick Astley.
- Per family tradition, Dan threw in some Italian food with our usual Thanksgiving fare. This year, he made some scrumptious meatless meatballs with homemade sauce. Thank you, God, for pecorino romano. And Dan's mashed potatoes? Fabulous.
- I don't think I have participated in Black Friday in at least a decade (my mom, sister, and I used to head out each year). In fact, I usually purposefully avoid it. But Dan and I have been on the hunt for a Garmin, considering that we will soon be in a metro area of nearly 6 million people with no idea where the nearest grocery store is (and possibly no Internet when we first arrive). I decided to check the sales ads, and there it was--the basic model we wanted for $100 off on Friday morning. We lined up outside Target at 5:30am, picked up our Garmin within minutes of the store opening at 6, and were walking out of the store (along with several other discounted items) by 6:20. We saved $170 on things we were already planning to buy. Score.
- Such savings precipitated more searches for deals, as we both have been in need of more winter clothing and more clothes for work. I don't think Dan and I have ever spent so much time shopping together, and I'm quite sure that we have never spent that much time together in a mall, but we got great deals on lots of things we've needed, including some much-needed new shoes and boots (no more frozen toes for me!). And we managed to time it so that the crowds weren't bad at all.
- Our lease for our apartment in Philly arrived in the mail over the weekend (it's official--we have somewhere to live!), and someone came out to do an estimate for our move on Friday morning. After moving from Wilmington to St. Louis, Dan and I pinky swore never to drive a U-Haul across the country again, and while we looked into services like U-Pack and PODS, we discovered that it really wouldn't be that much more expensive for a full-service move (the real estate market has hit moving campanies hard, so there are deals to be had). The movers are going to pad our furniture and shrink wrap our couch. They are going to load it all up. They are going to drive it all halfway across the country to Philadelphia in the middle of winter and then carry it up three flights of stairs. They are going to be my new favorite people and totally worth the extra few hundred dollars.
- The pre-moving purge has begun. I am usually anti-stuff, but of course nothing motivates you to get rid of stuff quite like moving does (particularly when you are being charged by the pound for every little item you take with you). I love the extra motivation to get rid of things.
- At my suggestion, my family has officially decided to skip giving gifts to everyone this year and start what will (hopefully) become a new tradition. . . the Secret Santa stocking filler. We are each going to fill the stocking of one person with fun little things like candy and gift cards and little items (only my mom will know who has been assigned to whom); it will allow us to be creative and give a variety of gifts without spending too much. Not to mention that I think the poor stocking has been reduced in status over the years and should be reinstated as the bearer of Christmas joy--what happened to the simple pleasures of an orange and a candy cane? This is going to be so much more fun that the endless "What do we get so-and-so this year?" conversations, and the fact that my father-in-law and my sister's fiance will also be participating only adds to the excitement!
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