Second Annual Thanksgiving Overnighter and Subsequent Black Friday of Awesomeness

Second annual. Woot! I like making new traditions.

Thanksgiving was an interesting affair this year. Normally what happens is I call up my parents, figure out what we're doing, when, where, and who's going to bring what. I make food, clean the house, the fam comes over for a bit, we watch a few episodes of some old time TV program like The Andy Griffith Show (courtesy of me and whatever season I gave my dad for his birthday that year), and then they go home. Holiday over, no real conversation necessary.

Or my parents decide they want to go out for Thanksgiving and we try to go to Boston Market. It's usually too crowded so we end up at some hole in the wall breakfast place for their Thanksgiving special. Those are the years I'm thankful for a good stock of Dennison's chili at home, where my sister and I go back for a real holiday meal.

This year, my roommate Brittany decided she wanted to do a dinner for those of us whose family's are too far or not celebrating that day (i.e. Ryan and me). She went and got the turkey, Ryan brought (Boston Market's!) mashed potatoes and corn, and I tried my hand at a Pioneer Woman recipe: Roasted carrots. 

And, because I want to be just like Pioneer Woman when I grow up, I take pictures of my step-by-step cooking process. 

Except my kitchen pictures don't come out looking nearly as nice as hers. It's kind of not fair.

Before:

After:

While the carrots came out tasting fine, mine weren't the mouth watering vegetable goodness the recipe promised. But then again, I didn't use fresh thyme so maybe that's where I went wrong.

No matter. Ryan still looked excited about the carrots, fresh thyme be damned.

The overnighter started after dinner when we popped in season four of NCIS and the three of us settled in for the night with our laptops at the ready and the Union Tribune ads strewn about the floor.

Colleen and her roommate Ashley came by for awhile, as did Boy Jordan, and then finally Sonia and Lauren, who were participants in the first annual overnighter last year.

Although the troops this year were fewer, we managed to stay awake all night this time. In fact, Sonia thought I was lying when I told her it was 3:30 a.m., and we were all still wide awake and talking. We watched the movie Fireproof (great premise, but cheeseball acting), talked about boys (yeah, that means you, OSF!), and Ryan dozed on the couch (I think trying not to listen to us talk about boys). Russ and Jen came in around 4 a.m., having stayed up all night as well, and needing motivation to make it the rest of the way.

We split up into Team Best Buy and Team Wal-Mart and hit the road at 4:45. Sonia and I, on Team BB, thought it wiser to wait out the line in the heated car, as we reviewed our lists:

Best Buy was amazingly organized as usual. We got all five of the things on Sonia's list, then met Team WM at Target. 

The Target was absolutely ridiculous. The line pretty much went around the store twice. The good thing was that there were five of us, so it was easy to wander off and browse during the hour and a half wait in line, with at least two people guarding the cart at all times. But it was still pretty rough going, as Sonia demonstrates here:

And here we are, with the end of the line in sight, which accounts for our bright smiles (well, that and the Starbucks)! Poor Ryan, though. Actually, I'm pretty sure he's faking exhaustion here, because after we all went home and crashed, he went shopping at Fashion Valley (What?! Who goes to the biggest mall in San Diego on Black Friday?!) and then up to Costa Mesa for another Spring Awakening. Who is this guy?

After Target, Sonia, Lauren, and I did a quick stop at Michael's for beads and frames, then it was home for naps, much to everyone's relief. I hadn't been looking for anything big anyway, and I found nearly all the little gifts on my list- only have Ry left to buy for now!