November 24

Ah, Black Friday. Truth be told, I look forward to it every year. It's true that the sales have gotten progressively lamer over time (thanks COVID), but it's not really about the acquisition of stuff for me anyway. It's about spending quality time with my one and only girl.

So this morning Abby and I got up at an entirely reasonable hour and headed out to take part in our mom-daughter retail tradition. We started off at the Mother Ship --coffee for me, hot chocolate for her-- and then headed out to a variety of stores, including Walmart, Target, Ulta, Old Navy, the Lego Store (to add the next piece to our Christmas Village table centerpiece), Miniso (where I found a seriously sweet vintage'y-looking Cheer Bear that I couldn't resist! Woohoo!), JCPenney, and others. By the time we left the mall, I was excessively hungry so we stopped at the Cheesesteak Shop for lunch. (My legs were also a bit sore from yesterday, which added to the overall effect.)

Then we went home, where we took a brief breather before donning our Santa hats (thanks Walmart!) and driving to the Christmas tree lot. We meandered through rows of firs (I think they were mostly firs) before landing on the beauty to the right of the kiddos there in the picture). They also re-created their favorite pose --with a fair amount of difficulty, given that Brady is bigger than he used to be--in front of the big NOEL sign (not pictured as it's in contention for the Christmas card). 

And now the brositos are up in their rooms for the evening and Adam, Abby and I are watching the holiday classic "Daddy's Home 2", which happens to be one of my girl's favorite flicks. 

It's been a sweet day filled with the fulfillment of family traditions, and I am thankful.