1. For cozy, grey, cloudy and rainy days. I look outside at the dripping rain and snow falling on the mountains and want to cuddle up under a blanket. Ahh!
2. For online shopping and the fact that we have the big “Santa” gift under our belts thanks to it. Whew!
3. For our Wii on rainy days like this and how it keeps the oldest busy and active and OUT OF MY HAIR.
4. That feeling you get after you’ve taken a shower where you’re warm and clean and comfortable.
5. For two little kids that take such awesome naps in the afternoon and let me get a little time to myself.

I saw Carrisa posting her Thanksgiving menu and I got inspired to do the same.  Except ours is probably MORE pathetic since ours will only be for TWO adults and one nine year old. Liam may eat some table scraps.  Evie gets a jar.  Yeah, we just had to beat off the social invites this year with a STICK, I tell ya.

And even goofier?  I’m not the one who will be doing the vast majority of the cooking.  HEE!  Yeah, Kile is doing it because Kile is the bomb.  So, as far as I know, this is our menu:

• Turkey!  Of course!  I’m not sure how big it is, but it’s rather small.  We’d like to brine it but with the shopping and everything tonight?  Not sure if it’ll happen.  Chances are it’ll be your average turkey.  Which is fine by me because nothing beats turkey sandwiches the next day.
• Gravy.  Duh.
• Stuffing.  We don’t actually stuff the bird though, so it’s “okay”.  (That sound you heard was me rolling my eyes.)
• Mashed Potato Casserole.  It’s unbelievably bad for you but tastes SO good.  My mom always made this for Thanksgiving and Christmas and it’s pretty much not the holidays without it.
• Roasted Asparagus?  We’re still considering this one.  Pioneer Woman’s recipe, of course.
• Butternut Squash Puree.  I don’t care if you don’t like squash, you need to try this stuff at least once in your life.  IT WILL TAKE OVER YOUR SOUL.
• Rolls.  We’ve found that if you take Pillsbury pizza dough and make little balls out of it that they make FANTASTIC rolls.  So we’re gonna do that.
• We’re sorely tempted to try these green beans.  Don’t they look awesome?  If we do these, we probably will skip the asparagus.
• Cranberry sauce.  From the can.  What??
• Pumpkin Pie.  it’s not Thanksgiving without it!
• Cherry Pie?  This is my wish.  I would love cherry pie.
• Sparkling Apple Cider.  Martinelli’s.  Again, not Thanksgiving without it.
• Wine.  I’m thinking a nice Pinot Grigio.  You like how it seems like I know what I’m talking about?

And… that’s it.  I think that’s enough, don’t you?  GAH.  So what are you having?  And what’s your favorite?  Mine is the mashed potatoes.  BY FAR.  Though I do have a fondness for those turkey sandwhiches.

In the next several days, we’re going to be doing the bulk of our shopping for the next month.  That’s generally what we do EVERY month, but this month is singularly interesting because of Christmas.  And the fact that Black Friday is in two days.  So… yeah.  My brain has been a mess of ads and websites and lists and… well you can see how this would drive a person batty, can’t you?

Tonight we’re doing grocery shopping.  Maybe not ALL of it, since we will have limited time tonight to get it done and we don’t want to be out all night with the kids.  I don’t know when we’d finish it though, so we’ll see.  That leaves Black Friday.

We’ve been fleshing out what we want to get the kids and each other and I think we have a good idea of what we want to get and how much we want to spend.  It’s going to be tight this year, but then, it’s tight every year.  The initial game plan is that Kile is going to get up at the butt-crack of dawn on Friday and hit the stores.  I will stay home and sleep in with the kids.  He’ll come back, have a nap, have some breakfast, whatever and we’ll go back out in the afternoon when things are less “hairy”.

I’ve been looking though and I see that a lot of stores are going to be having the same sale online come Friday so now I think I might try to snag some of the things off our list online, help ease things up on Kile some.  Some stores are having their Black Friday sale starting at 1am EST on Friday or thereabouts.  That equates to 10pm here on Thursday. There’s a few I’d have to set an alarm for and get up in the middle of the night but if I can just wear my jammies and go right back to sleep afterward, then why not??

Gotta love online shopping.

So what’s your game plan for holiday shopping?  Are you hoping to do a lot of it online, like I am?  Do you know what you’re getting your kids?  Does holiday shopping stress you out as much as it does me?  Because, holy hell, I feel like I need a drink already.