We Survived Thanksgiving, Black Friday and a Birthday!

November 29, 2010 By · No Comments

Thanksgiving gave me jitters to be honest, this would be the first one in 10 years for our family and also a first to see if SoccerBoy was still allergic. I’ll admit I had my fears, fears of failing with the dinner, burning something and of course the biggest….an allergic reaction to the turkey. We had everything planned though, the medicine and hospital all nearby just in case. Thankfully, we didn’t need any of that.

Thanksgiving went off without a hitch, well except for having to run to the store for a few last minute goodies. hehe. Take a peek at our Thanksgiving and remember normally this is a day we go out to eat dinner, we haven’t had a real Thanksgiving in 10 years.

Of course we went and bought a Thanksgiving Newspaper so I could check the deals for Black Friday. Boy were there a bunch of deals. I stopped at Walmart (everything good was gone before midnight), Target (the line outside went down the parking lot and around the building…crazy), Walgreens, CVS and Kmart. Kmart we actually stood in line to buy a few toys for the kids. That was the shortest line all day. hehe.

But my favorite part was yesterday, see my birthday is tomorrow and the family decided to celebrate it this past Sunday because we are always busy during the week. Look at this lovely cake the hubby brought home and he said he needed to go get more milk. I love you babe!

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Are Your Ready for Thanksgiving Dinner?

November 25, 2010 By · No Comments

I got ready for Thanksgiving, by this I mean we braved Meijer’s Supercenter and went shopping for Thanksgiving meals. Boy was it packed inside too but this year we had decided we weren’t going to drive around and find places open to eat at. See every year for the past 10 years we’ve went out to eat, this year we are staying home. SoccerBoy asked if we would get a turkey this year and let him try again. See, he was allergic to turkey 10 years ago. We have benedryl just in case he break out.


Here’s a few things we got:
- Pumpkin pie (of course)
- the turkey
- ham
- green beans, cream of mushroom, fried onions (think that’s what they are called for the casserole)
- corn
- buns (honey & Reg)
- egg nog (hey my favorite)
- apple pie and ice cream
- stuffing
- potatoes and gravy

So are you ready?

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MurphyUSA Gift Cards are Great Stocking Stuffers!

November 24, 2010 By · No Comments

Many of you know that I now LOVE my local @MurphyUSA gas station. First, I think a MurphyUSA gift card would make a great stocking stuffer and I’ll explain why. Did you know MurphyUSA actually has great coupons to offer you and many ways to win FREE stuff? Head on over to Murphy’s and sign up for their e-alerts to be sent to your phone so you never miss out on a deal. That’s right, currently MurphyUSA has a Whrrl page. For those that don’t know, Whrrl.com is an application you can get for your phone (or do from your computer) and you check into where ever you go, post pictures, make little stories about your adventures at the store, etc. MurphyUSA is giving away the following whenever you check in and get picked to win a prize:


- Free Red Strike Shot
- Free Slim Jim (giant)
- Free 20oz Coke product
- Free M&Ms (plain or Peanut)
- Free minute maid beverage
- free $5 gas
- $1 off your gift card purchase

Sounds like fun right? Of course it does, everyone loves FREE stuff. Imagine pulling in for gas and checking into whrrl only to discover you just won $5 in free gas or maybe a drink. Cool right? The first thing I did was sign up for the alerts and then I got a $1 off coupon for the Gift card purchase. Of course I immediately bought a MurphyUSA gas card.

Did you know that Murphy’s offers not only gift cards for their own store but others as well? Yes, they even offer gift cards for Walmart. A regular MurphyUSA gas station gift card works with amounts of $25, $50, $75 and $100. Now lets take a peek at what a person could do with a Walmart gift card bought at Murphys.

1. Use the gift card to do Black Friday shopping. With all the deals in town this would be a great gift.
2. Use it as a gift to give someone for an office secret santa. (the exchanges)
3. Stocking stuffers, I don’t care what people say gift cards are always welcomed.
4. keep it for yourself and use it to go shopping but use all types of coupons so you don’t actually pay out of pocket. I wonder how many of you $5 challenge shoppers could really take advantage of this one.
6. Use it as an incentive. Tell your kids they can get a gift card if they do their chores without fussing, get good grades, etc.
7. Give it to your babysitter for always doing such a great job. I mean he/she didnt burn down the house the last time they watched your kids right?
8. To give to a bum the next time you see one. Imagine the difference you could make with just one gift card.
9. Use it in a gift basket with all types of fun things you bought the person at Walmart.
10. Use it to cheer someone up that might need a little holiday pick-me-up.


What are some fun ways you could use a gift card to Walmart? Above is a coupon you can print, it is $1 off a gift card purchase at MurphyUSA. Now if this does not print correctly you will need to sign up for the e-alerts to get them to email you one. These will end in one week so get those gift cards now before it is too late.

(I am getting paid to write up this post, but the opinion and ideas are mine.)

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Making Holiday Gift Baskets for the Teachers!

November 23, 2010 By · 2 Comments

The kids and I went shopping this week. Hmm, no surprise I know, everyone does. But we went because the girls wanted to create little gift baskets for their teachers. Sweet right? I’ll admit I had to try out the “Coldstone Cocoa” so this was a great opportunity and figured we could put some of those in the baskets as well.

I told the girls they had to picture in their head what they wanted to get:

-  Candy Canes
-  mugs
-  hot cocoa
-  marshmallows

Those were just the beginning of their lists, they also had Santa, toys, music, etc. Once we got to the store we narrowed some things down and added others. In the end we felt we did some really good shopping, once at home the girls popped in a movie when daddy got home and the entire family watched “Back to the Future” and drank hot chocolate. We had to test the product before giving it to the teachers right? I mean we didn’t want to give them something bad. Everyone agreed it was good (well everyone but hubby but he is picky and like things super sweet).

How do you drink your hot chocolate? The girls and I came up with a bunch of ways. Some like it:

-with marshmallows
-without marshmallows
-with a candy cane stirring stick
-with water
-with milk
-reddi wip
-sprinkled with cinnamon

Got a favorite? Now lets watch our tour of gift basket making:

More check-ins at Walmart Supercenter #3435
Powered by Whrrl
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Watching the Town’s Tree Lighting!

November 23, 2010 By · 3 Comments

Over the weekend we got to watch our first real tree lighting. The town gathered together a block away from our town library in the ‘old downtown’ area and gathered around a very tall pine tree. Apparently this pine tree they have had growing there for many, many years and every year they decorate it and then light it a week before Thanksgiving. I love the tradition.

As the kids and I (hubby had to sleep a bit, bad headache) gathered to the meeting area we saw the townspeople gather around as well. There were two concession stands where church’s were passing out hot chocolate and cookies/cupcakes for those that wanted them. The kids had to have a cupcake but no hot chocolate this time around.

The high school was up front on the stand and sang to us some Christmas Carols, even the kids and I were singing it a bit. We made sure not to get too loud in case it was frowned upon. Soon we saw a horse drawn carriage come up the road, it was a bit odd seeing this as there were trucks and vans going up and down too. The carriage would be for after the lighting of the tree, people could pay $2 to ride around the block with Santa. After was also crafts for kids over at the library.

A few minutes after spotting the empty horse carriage we saw it appear again, but this time Santa was in it. The kids went nuts, screaming and shouting “Santa.” As Santa pulled in everyone spotted his wife beside him. Yes, Mrs. Clause was there too.

They slowly made their way up to the front and they counted backwards to have the lights go on. Don’t think I didn’t get pictures of the kids with santa either. Of course I did. Have you ever gone to a tree lighting? I think we’ll go every year from here on out. I love this town.

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