How I Spent My Thanksgiving Break

For the past week I have been on Thanksgiving Break. Not only did I not have to go to work, but I also got a lot accomplished (and had a lot of fun). From Monday thru Wednesday, I worked on my dissertation, and I am almost done with the first three chapters. Of course Thursday was Thanksgiving Day, and I enjoyed being with family. However, all of these things must take a back seat to what is quite possibly my favorite day of the whole year. Of course I'm talking about Black Friday. I seriously think that I look forward to this day more than any other. For the past eight or nine years, Hannah and I have participated in the Black Friday sales event. Most of the time Quincy has gone with us, too. What made this year so special, though, was that Cassie was able to go. We stayed in Valdosta overnight on Thursday, and got up early Friday morning. Our shopping day began at 4:00 am and ended at 3:00 pm. We hit almost every store in Valdosta, and I got 95% of my Christmas shopping done.

The week ended with us cleaning and decorating the house for Christmas. This is still a work-in-progress. We did manage to get the tree up, though. The kids were really excited to put their ornaments on the tree. Overall, this was a very productive Thanksgiving Break, and I look forward to Christmas Break which is a mere two-and-a-half weeks away.

Fun at the Fall Festival

This weekend was my school's annual fall festival. I have to say that it was a huge success and that my school raised a lot of money to help pay for our spring field trips. Once again, we took Owen and Olivia to the festival. Olivia remembered riding the horses last year and went straight to them again this year. Owen also got to ride the horse once, but he was not quite as excited about it as Olivia was. Both kids were also able to participate in various games- such as the "Dino Dig" and the "Ring Toss". One good thing about our festival is that most of the kids games only cost .25 cent to play, and most give prizes to the kids for participating. Our winnings included bubbles, a 2-liter Mountain Dew, and several plastic fish.



The petting zoo was a big hit with both kids this year. There were various farm animals that the kids could touch- including a cow, chicken, turkey, goat, and bunny rabbit. Owen was glad to touch any animal, while Olivia seemed to keep going after the rabbit. The petting zoo was located near the school playground, so naturally we had to spend a lot of time on the playground equipment. The quarno-kids were here and went to the festival also. Zach and Mackenzie were both very helpful with Owen and Olivia on the playground, and they helped the kids get onto the structures that were too tall for them to get on by themselves. I didn't get to stay with the kids the whole time because I had to work the last hour and a half at the popcorn booth, and then I had to clean up for about an hour after that. Brian has figured that the kids were at the festival for about three and a half hours and that we only spent about $10. You can't beat that!