Black Friday Thoughts

Every other year I hit the pavement at 5 or 6 AM.
I dont know why I had an obsession with Black Friday and going out to the stores but I always have. This year was different. Recently I had been ordering a lot of things online, especially when the gas prices hit the roof.

I read on many blogging sites that you could get many of the same deals online that you could in the store with free shipping. So....I saved myself the sleep, the stress and the sanity and woke up at a 8 AM, opened my computer and got to work!

BEST DECISION I made!
I really hope not too many of your went out there or had any problems like what happened at Walmart.....But ALL of my Hanukkah shopping is done, I am relaxed and couldn't be more happier with my decision to stay home on Black Friday for the first time EVER!

You should think about giving it a try next year. Save yourself the sleep!

I will note that I did go out to one specialty store around 11 AM and IT WAS DEAD OUT THERE!? I don't know if it was the economy or other smart shopper's like myself but I couldn't believe how many empty parking spots I found. I had never seen anything like this on Black Friday...even at 11 AM.

Turkey Time

Thanksgiving was finally here!

Cousin Brittan prepared a beautiful Thanksgiving Turkey for us to enjoy!

I woke up bright and early ready for the day to begin at 7 AM.

We figured since we would be eating TWO Thanksgiving meals we would hit up the gym beforehand. Best decision we made all day, aside from eating!

First stop was the Bass House....2 PM: My future brother in-law's parents came in from Winston Salem to spend the holiday with us and we truly enjoyed meeting with them and spending time with them. They are two of the sweetest people and you can tell they adore my sister. What more could I ask for...right? A Bass family tradition is to go around the table to say what we are thankful for. Boy we have so much to be thankful for this year and this upcoming year....and we made sure to get it all out in the open! Dinner was yummmmy....probably the best Thanksgiving Dinner my mom has ever made. Yup that is right. BEST SHE HAS EVER MADE! Turkey, brocoli casserole, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoe casserole, stuffing and cranberry sauce (which I dont eat) I ate a tiny bit of everything so that I could try it all but not fill up before our 2nd stop. We headed over to the 2nd stop around 5:30p.

Second stop was the Schreibman House...5:40 PM: Uncle Bill and Aunt Hilda were in from Texas, Aunt Janet and Cousin Brittan were in from TN and The Littauer-Brodsky family came over as well. We had a total of 12 of us. Luckily we didn't start eating till 7 so we had time to breathe and digest....Oy! We again indulged in another meal of Turkey, two kinds of stuffing, green bean's, squash casserole, sweet potatoe casserole with pinneapple and cranberry bread. Yumm! Around 8 PM my family and Rich's parent's came over to enjoy dessert all together as one big family. We had a great time and by this point we were all stuffed and exhausted.

All the ladies...

All the men...

What a wonderful way to spend Thanksgiving. With family and friends that are so dear to all of us.We felt great....at least I didn't over eat... Philip might be a different story :)

Cruisin...

Vacations are the best... time off work, no cooking, relaxation...what else more could we ask for!?
We found a killer deal for a cruise out of Jacksonville, FL for 5 days that would take us to Key West and the Bahamas. We couldn't resist the temptations to get away right before Thanksgiving so we booked it. My mom found the deal and the whole clan came along and it was a blast.

My parents, Philip's parents, my sister and Rich, Uncle Jay, Aunt Betsy and a friend Iris. Eleven of us set sail on Saturday Novemeber 15th which happened to be my sisters 25th birthday! We celebrated her birthday in style on the ship singing at her during dinner and presenting her with many cards. The trip was her gift from many of us. Philip and I also gave her a gift that will last the whole year (her wedding dress!)

The first day (the day we boarded the ship in Jacksonville) it rained on and off and the weather was less than desireable but at that point we didn't care... we were on vacation.

The second day was a day at sea and it was beautiful. We spent most of the day relaxing on the ship, soaking up the sun, reading our books and napping while the boys played ping pong, shuffle board etc.

The third day we spent at Key West. We had been to Key West before on our last cruise but we got off to check out all of the shops and eat some good food. We ate lunch at this lovely street side restaurant Fogarty's that a handful of the ship's entertainment staff was eating at so we figured it was good! We spent the rest of the day on the ship relaxing which was the theme of this vacation. Several evenings we played bingo and we always attended the shows. I can't leave off the fact that Philip got called up to be a part of one of the shows. We have a lovely video capturing his participation in the entertainment which was priceless. It involved a boa....

The fourth day was spent in the Bahamas and we spent the majority of the afternoon in the Bahamas. We shopped all of the streets and ate crabs cakes and conch at a local restaurant on the streets. It was pretty windy so we ended up heading back to the ship for dinner (and it was free as always which was a plus!) This evening was the talent show and Rich entered and performed for the guests of the cruise ship. He was definintely the best act! He sang and played the piano....!

The final day was at sea and it was quite rocky. Not the rockiest I have been on but pretty rocky. Enough that the barf bags appeared all over the boat! We REALLY Relaxed today because it was too chilly to spend time on the deck sunbathing. I finished reading TWILIGHT!

ENJOY THE SLIDESHOW of OUR TRIP!

We truly enjoyed our very relaxing vacation minus the constant headache I had from all of my recent neck/back pain. We slept really well thanks to the slight rocking of the ship. NONE of us got sea sick :) We are all very well rested and ready for another short week before THANKSGIVING (our favorite holiday!).

Aunt Hilda and Uncle Bill are coming in from TX, Aunt Janet and Cousin Brittan are coming from TN, Rich's parents are coming from Winston and Eliza and Rich from DC! We can't wait to have everyone in town including all of our friends for the big annual Friday night JEW CREW PARTY!

Lots of big updates this coming weekend/Monday! Stay tuned...
Family...shopping...lots of food...dress shopping with my sister...and so many photos!

Blessings!

Wednesday evening was a very busy evening for two very close friends of mine.

Raleigh:

Cassie Hall one of my best friends since my freshmen year of college gave birth to her first child Garrett Christopher Hall at 10:40 PM via emergency C-section. Garrett weighed 8 lbs 4 oz, 21 inches long and was almost two weeks early! Both mom and baby are doing wonderful. I am so sad I won't be able to meet little Garrett until December but I know he will be worth the wait! Congratulations to Cassie and Nathan on their first child!

Charlotte:

Kim Amster a very close family friend of ours gave birth to her second child! Kim and her husband Payam waited to find out the sex of their child and were surprised with a bouncing baby boy! They already have a daughter Soraya who is 2 years old! Kim was due Friday so he came right on time! I have yet to confirm some of the details however I am 99% sure they named him Ari. Congratulations to Kim, Payam and Soraya on their new edition! We can't wait to meet Ari!

What a wonderful blessing for two wonderful friends.

I am in baby heaven....

Faster than the speed of lightening!

You would've thought we were Speedy Gonzalez this weekend.

First stop to visit Lauren, Shawn and 3 week old Ella Grace. Lauren and I not only went to high school together but we also went to college together... we have known each other for a a VERY LONG time so this was really exciting....she is a mommy! Unfortunately we could only stay for 45 minutes but we had a great time. Ella Grace is beautiful and she loves to snuggle on her mommy's chest. Lauren and Shawn are definitely blessed with a beauty! Thanks for letting us stop by to see your new bundle of joy!

Second stop Panera to pick up lunch to bring to Cassidy and Andrew's.

We picked up lunch for everyone and headed over to their house to visit for a few hours. Philip had never met Keelyn and I don't think he had seen Hailey since her 1 year old birthday party. Hailey is now 3 and Keelyn is 9 months! I think Hailey was a little scared of Philip at first, but by the end of our visit she was running around showing off all of her stuff to him. We had a great time hanging out with the kids, feeding our bellies and taking lots of fun pictures! Thanks for letting us stop even if it was only for a short visit!

Third stop was to Courtney and Josh's....were I preceded to take a nap. I know go figure. I go over to a friend's house and crash :) They are used to it. Thank god. Courtney wasn't even home so Philip and Josh hung out and watched football.

Fourth Stop: NC Tigers End of the Year Banquet Dinner. About 50 people ending up coming which was a fantastic turnout. The dress code was cocktail attire and Philip and I had a bet about the dress code. He was convinced that these sweaty stink athletic dudes were not going to get dressed up and that the women or wives wouldn't be wearing cocktail dresses.... I won....! Everyone looked so sharp and snazzy. It was the perfect way to congratulate the team on a fantastic year (one of their best year's since Philip has been playing with the team, which has been 7 YEARS!) The three course dinner was fantastic and it was great to catch up with everyone!

I didn't make it to the gym at all this weekend. What a let down....

and because my back has decided to flare up I haven't slept either.

Bah humbug! Poor Philip!

Pain in the Neck...

You would think that I slep in some concocted position (like my friend's baby) when I talk about the amount of neck/back pain I am in....

Yes I have a history of really bad neck and back pain... and it comes and goes without any warning. But this is out of control.

I am breaking down and heading to the Chiropractor today to get re-aligned.
I cant even sit in some of my pilates positions, or on both butt checks because my hips are completely uneven!

Side note... for the first time ever in my life my insurance does not cover ANY chiropractic care.
I think this is such a joke....no coverage.

Boy does our healthcare system need to be straightened out....and so does my medical coverage (which is sub-par!). So glad we have a NEW PRESIDENT TO MAKE NEW HEALTHCARE CHANGES!

7 lbs of sugar!

Friday was a blast...

Ever since I moved to Charlotte and left Global Knowledge (which had the BEST Halloween celebration I have heard of or found anywhere)...although Leah Guenther's company is a pretty close 2nd...I have tried to make the most of Halloween on my own.

I love Halloween. I love giving out candy, telling the kids to be safe and brush their teeth and checking out their super cute costumes. I also love to entertain...so I decided this year to combine those two things. We invited several couple friends over to enjoy homemade chili, pumpkin chocolate chip bread and beer. We had a great time and everyone enjoyed checking out all of the trick or treaters.

I would run to the door when the door bell rang...or just leave the door open so I could spot the little ones. We had big ones, little ones, not dressed up trick or treaters (which Philip always gave a hard time to), slutty looking trick or treater's (who let's their kid go out looking like this!?), and the one that won best costume was Operation Man.

Let me elaborate for all of your because I didn't take a photo because it felt super creepy. It was bad enough I asked the mom to bring the child into the house to show everyone her costume. Yes I really did that. OK so back to the costume your dying to hear about.

Now you remember operation man looks like this:

Well this parent didn't just do the typical operation man with the cut outs for the different pieces...they also put foil around each opening and there was a pen just like with the real game that when you touched it to the foil the ENTIRE COSTUME VIBRATED!!!!!! I mean seriously.... it was the best costume of the night.

Philip decided that our children will never wear He-man costumes that zip up in the back from Walmart that have the big muscles...he thinks that they lack creativity and the child should go without a costume instead of that....he was pretty opinionated about this and I told him that I thought it was fantastic that he wanted our children to have creative costumes....so he gets to make/create them, while I carve the pumpkins :) Nice compromise don't you think? Bella's costume was pretty darn cute if I might add....

After spending two days preparing for this party I was exhausted by 930 and the party was dying down. We ended up giving away 7 lbs of candy. We had THAT MANY kids come through. I would estimate about 250 kids.

Philip dressed up as an Australian Rules Football Player and wore his very short shorts....hopefully he didn't scare the guests too much! We also captured some photos of Bella with our next door neighbor Amelia before it got too dark. They are best friends and enjoyed hanging out over some Halloween pretzels!

Jeff and Naomi brought Ella with them for the party and I carried her around most of the night. When I would come to the door people would ask me how old my daughter was... oh how I loved that :) Another neighbor said, "Boy I havent seen you in a while but not long enough for you to have a baby...what's the deal!?" hahhahha. She was so good and so cute in her Halloween outfit.

Happy Halloween. I hope you and your children all had a wonderful time...AND make sure they brush their teeth, PLEASE :)