We had a very nice Thanksgiving weekend– it started with Craig and Megan’s visit Wednesday night as they were on their way down to Indiana. We broke open a Mommessin Beaujolais Nouveau, which was very nice despite the plastic bottle. 🙂

On Thursday we went to my parents’ house and enjoyed a great dinner including Lisa’s secret cranberry sauce and a new version of Magic Pumpkin Pie. My sister and her kids were there, so even though Becca and Emma weren’t there, there were still other little voices in the house.
I went into the office on Friday as I usually do, mainly because I can actually get something done on that day. I typically hate going out for the Black Friday madness, but this year I did wind up at Best Buy since it’s walking distance from my office, and I managed to knock off a little Christmas shopping. There weren’t long lines, but people were spending money.
An interesting side note: as I approached the store at around 8:30 am, I could see the line of trash left by the people who waited alongside the building earlier that day. Clearly, Dunkin’ Donuts was the preferred refreshment, given the number of cups and bags left behind that bore their logo.
Around noon, Lisa came and picked me up and we took off for her folks’ house. The 94/65 junction in Indiana is fully repaired and open, so we whizzed right through to the land of $1.50 per gallon gasoline.
We broke tradition this year and missed the annual Arlington Heights Tree Lighting Event, but we’ve more than made up for it with our previous attendance.

We arrived in Frankfort on Friday evening, and spent the next couple days eating, playing Tripoley and Scrabble and watching this year’s Apple Butter video.

We had our first Chick-Fil-A experience in Lafayette on the way home. We were there on “All You Can Eat Nuggets” night, but we didn’t partake. Our verdict: good, but not really exceptional.

On Sunday, we had breakfast at TNT and then picked up our Christmas tree at Lowe’s. I know, it’s not exactly the Currier and Ives image of cutting down our own tree in a snowy woodlands, but our feet stayed dry and we wound up with a really fresh tree.
The holiday season has officially begun.