‘Tis the Sunday after Thanksgiving and all through the house
Not a creature is stirring, especially not my lazy dog
The stockings have been hung by the TV with care
Because this is Texas and we don’t have a fireplace — get real!

And enough of the writing in verse.  It’s gotten chilly down here in America’s south, although it’s not as bad as, say, up north in DC or Seattle or Ireland, but let’s be perfectly honest: I’ll bet I can deal with the heat better than those guys can (except maybe Brian since he grew up in Atlanta).  Challenge extended, I’m going to exercise my right to sit here and be a lazy bum on the sofa today.  We have a free extended cable “preview” weekend, so Ray and I have watched nearly the entire first season of True Blood and are now catching up on Dexter.  Or we will whenever Ray gets up.

Thanksgiving this year was a small affair — just the two of us and my parents, who brought their photos from their recent “If it’s Tuesday, it must be Belgium” trip through Europe.  Ray chided me slightly for critiquing my father’s photography skills (or lack thereof) but, honestly, how many times can you shoot through your bus window with flash … when you’re using a digital camera … before it occurs to you that maybe you ought to turn the flash off?

This year, the menu consisted of ham (I’m ambivalent about turkey; Ray doesn’t care for it, and my parents always have one on Christmas if they’re jonesing for a tryptophan fix), cornbread stuffing, sweet potato puree, mashed potatoes, and asparagus.  We ate outside–Thanksgiving purists, recoil in horror!  It was 80 degrees on T day this year, and I suggested that we eat on the back patio because, after the stress involved in getting the damned thing built, I kind of feel as though we ought to use it as much as possible.

I insisted on going to the outlet malls down the street (they’re only two miles away) when they opened at midnight.  For those of you not in the US, I don’t know if you can appreciate the cultural phenomenon that is Black Friday.  Frankly, I was a little astounded at the number of people who showed up at midnight, and even more astounded by the number of people who brought small, tired, cranky, whining children with them.  Isn’t the whole point of hitting the Black Friday sales to buy gifts FOR your children?  What good does it to to wake them up in the middle of the night to bring them with you??

Ray and I went together because our primary objective really wasn’t gifts for each other.  We are going on a family visit to Korea in January to visit my brother and sister-in-law (along with my parents), and, based on the advice of everyone I know who’s been to Korea in the winter, I wanted to get thermal underwear, which was on sale at the Jockey store. 

That mission accomplished, we hit a few other places–Brooks Brothers was having a sale.  I have long coveted Brooks Brothers trousers.  I own many BB shirts, and they’re the easiest damned things to take care of.  You can practically wad them up into a ball at the bottom of your suitcase and, as long as you hang them up when you get to your hotel, they’ll be free of wrinkles by morning.  I hate ironing in hotel rooms — they never make the cord long enough and the ironing board tends to leave very little room for one to actually stand in front of it and … well, let’s just say I got my trousers.  Three pair, in fact

Ray actually got up again at 4 am to go hit a bunch of other stores when they opened.  I slept right through it.

It’s been a fairly quiet long weekend — after what has been a hellish fall, I’m kind of enjoying it, actually.  Yesterday we put up some of the Christmas decorations, and I guess we need to decide how much we’re going to put up outside today or put the lights away. 

Oh, and my car is now overdue for its annual inspection.  Seriously –this is earthshattering stuff here, ain’t it?

Other than that.  I hope your weekend(s) have been fun and exciting or lowkey and relaxing, whichever your hearts desire!