Wow, it's been a while since I've been here. I will admit things have been busy. We have been crazy busy at work -- I was hoping for some extra hours and we sure got them. Lots of sick people.
I had a great Thanksgiving. Cody and Elizabeth are in Philadelphia so they were missed. It reminded me of last Thanksgiving when they were in Philadelphia and the rest of us made the trip out there to see them. Such a good time with such good memories. But this year was a little quieter. We spent the day with Mark's mom and dad and his 100-year-old grandpa. He is an amazing man, still living alone and driving when he needs to go somewhere. I have a lot of respsect and admiration for Mark's mom. As long as grandpa continues to be with us, she won't go out of town for a holiday because she wants to provide a meal and place for him to spend the holiday. That is love in action and I can take some lessons from that.
Then I did something I have never done before. I went to Jordan Creek Mall at 12:01 a.m. Friday with Monica and Callie. That might be a one and done. It was packed, 35,000 I read in the paper the next day. Now this mall is an average sized mall, bigger than the mall in Sheboygan, but nowhere near the Mall of America. The hallways outside the stores were packed, some stores you could not even get into. We walked around the mall, bought nothing and then went home where I slept a couple hours then got up to be at Target by 6. I am nuts. I wasn't even really shopping for anything specific, just wanted the experience. The Target crowd was a very civilized crowd and Target had employees making sure it stayed that way. I understand the crowd at Toys R Us was not so civilized.
Crazy.
Dena does this early Friday after Thanksgiving morning shopping every year. I believe last year, she even slept in her car for a while. It was an experience that at this point I don't see myself doing again. But who knows maybe next year, I'll totally forget how wild it was and go do it again. Never say never.
