Oh what a weekend!

How was your Thanksgiving? Can you believe that Christmas is just a few weeks away now? Holy Cow!!
I enjoyed my days off and stayed busy everyday.  I have volunteered by feeding the homeless every year for the last several years ( eleven, twelve, or thirteen - i lost track). My friends own a very popular diner chain  Norma's around Dallas and has opened their Oak Cliff location every year to serve free meals. The tradition starts by having a huge Thanksgiving meal on the Wednesday night before at their house. I bring a hashbrown casserole every year that i like to make.  I get over to their house by noon and help cook all day and set up the folding tables and settings until guests arrive at 6:30.  We had 43 people total eating dinner this year and it was so much fun. This year of course my honey Todd was with me which made it extra special. The next day on Thanksgiving, i got to the diner by 9 am and then we spend 2 hours cutting pies, making tea, wrapping to go containers, everything in preparation for the diner to open at 11. We serve until 1pm and the time FLIES by. All my waitressing skills from college come back and i serve food the whole time. It's a blessing to see the same faces every year and i always get to hold the sweetest babies in between while the mom gets situated in the booth.

Me and Pam. Yep, already had gravy run down my shirt from a loose lid

Once i was done with serving , i had Thankgiving meal this year with my Honey (Todd) and his family. They live north of Dallas and i got there the same time Todd and his brother did so good timing!  The meal was wonderful and i enjoyed hanging out with them. I had bought a newspaper on my way there so i could work on my game plan for Black Friday specials and after dinner while watching the football game , i made my list.  Can i just tell you what a trooper Todd is? He went with me to Target that night and stood in the longest line ever with me. Target was opening at 9 and we got there at 8:45. The line was completely around the whole building (Its a large Super Target) and we had to walk behind the building which was not lit up and kinda creepy. We did a divide and conquer plan where we each had items to get and we would meet near the boys wear. The line moved pretty quickly once it opened and we were out of there in my truck by 10:10. Man, Target didnt play around either! The aisles were taped off and we had all these different lines to stand in for electronics, check outs, anything. There were tons of employees in red shirts and they would stand guard on all the aisles. They made announcements that there is no running or shoving  or yelling and we would be asked to leave by security if someone didnt abide.   I feel like it was a little too organized if that makes sense but there were no craziness like what happened at several Wal-Marts. A girl in line next to us  said that she had been at Walmart and got knocked down that night. Nothing is worth that!!  I got some great door busters that i'm excited about like a cute red 8$ waffle maker, some boys pj's for 5$ for my friends little boys, a suitcase for my honey that was half off normally 120$, and a few little gifts.
I got up early on Friday and went to Kohls, Ulta, and JcPenney's for their early bird specials and was done by 10am. Later that day i cooked my very first turkey and it turned out so yummy! A friend of mine gave us a 12 pound frozen turkey earlier in the week and Todd asked me " what are you going to do with that"? Since i had never cooked one i wanted to practice and if it didnt work out we could throw it away and not care. I used one of those cooking turkey bags and it worked great. I made homemade red bliss potatoes, gravy, and stuffing and invited Todd's brother over for dinner to send home with leftovers.
Speaking of waffle maker- I saw this on Pinterest and had to try for myself. Using cinnamon rolls instead of waffle batter. Y'all it frickin rocked!!! It took 4 minutes to have a yummy cinnamon roll waffle.

We got our Christmas decorations out of storage and put up our tree on Saturday. The tree is special because between the both of us we each had lots of ornaments. Todd and I had to compromise and use our favorites to put on the tree. I think it turned out so pretty and he said it was his prettiest he's had in 10 years.

I had to decorate my birdcage

Grinch Table

I got all my Grinch stuff out on my tea cart and i am SOOOOO Happy!  I am so in love with all things Grinch and i am looking forward to watching the cartoon and the Jim Carrey movie. Of course i have both.

This post is long but i havent blogged in forever and see what happens. :)