Very Thankful

Every year when Thanksgiving rolls around we take the time out to be thankful for all that we are fortunate to have in this world. This year my family was lucky enough to have My (maternal) grandfather's brother and sister in law visiting from Cuba.

As always there are plenty of pictures to document the little ones being just down rite adorable. But before you are mesmerized by my boys... I want to take the moment to just make a short list of all the wonderful blessings we were given this year.

I am first thankful for the arrival of little Aiden Eric into our family, although very high maintenance he is my little laughing goblin. Having my family healthy and together is another blessing, one that can sometimes be taken for granted. Not taken for granted in a not appreciated kind of way, but taken for granted that it is like that for everyone. When I think of all the madness that there is in this world, it is comforting to know that I have a little slice of perfection in my boys. There is definitely madness in our home, but it is such a more enjoyable type of madness.

Speaking of madness, this Black Friday did not disappoint. As always my brother and I have a shopping spree date every day after Thanksgiving. Last year we began with the Toys R Us line which was utter chaos, this year we decided to mix it up a little bit. Since we both agreed that Toys R Us opening at 10 pm would be a zoo.. we decided to change our plan of attack. Yes ladies and gents we hit up Walmart first. For what you may ask? Surely Wal-Mart which is loony on a Tuesday at 2 pm, would only be worth tackling for an ubber deal of all Black Friday deals. Well we decided to stroll in at 11:30-ish (since it WAS open on Thanksgiving, which I did not agree with at all) to buy nothing other than.... a Buzz Lightyear that was on sale for $12.99. BWAHA HA HAH... it even sounds crazier when I type than when we were actually just wandering around the store. To be honest, it was not that crazy when showed up. Literally just walked right in. Below is a video clip that I was fortunate to capture, although the best part is really just the last 2 seconds. Allow me to set the scene:

The Wal-Mart black Friday sales were suppose to begin at Midnight. No big deal, we expected chaotic behavior from our surroundings. We do the Black Friday thing every year, at this point we have seen it all. Wal-Mart had decided that in order to "hide" door busters with brown shipping paper. Than it happened, about 10 minutes before 12 the masses just started ripping the papers off of the shelves and it was crazy! I actually had already placed the Buzz Lightyear in our shopping cart and was just waiting for the official sale to begin so I could pay for it. All the while taking in the show that was going on around me. So I decide that I want to capture the moment of the people just pushing and shoving each other. Than as I am filming, I hear in a muffled sort of commotion so I turn to see a special kind of crazy going on. Two women just stacking these little pink bicycle boxes into shopping carts only to get in to a scuffle over the last one in the pile. It was priceless.

The rest of our evening was pretty uneventful. Toys R Us went very smoothly as did Target. The Disney store to my surprise was the worse line, lasting over an hour (Toys R Us maybe lasted about half hour). Our Black Friday outing was productive, I completed all my Christmas shopping (except for my brother) ... now to get cracking on that gift wrapping.