Moving Day, Thanksgiving, Shopping, and Chanhassen Dinner Theater

I've covered a lot of ground since I left work on Tuesday. After school I raced to Snap Pea and picked up my 10-pound turkey. Then Shawn and I headed to Fargo to move Courtney home. We got up there around 8:15 and went straight to the Mexican restaurant where she works and had dinner with her. We stayed in her apartment and got up early to begin moving. Luckily, we got a hold of some carts to help us with the couches, desk, table, and her bed. It was snowing softly outside. Courtney finished up packing, Shawn moved the furniture and boxes to the trailer, and I packed up the kitchen, vacuumed, and cleaned. We were done by noon, grabbed a bite to eat, and hit the road. That night Courtney had 13 girls over for appetizers and drinks. We took lots of pictures (this group of girls loves to take pictures. . .Shawn was a good sport climbing up on chairs to get the whole group shot) and giggled with them. They went downtown Rosemount and Shawn and I unwound for a bit. Kelsey got home about 8:00.
Thanksgiving. I love this day. I got up early and made my corn casserole and a new salad. I kind of made it up as I went along. It was spring greens, sliced red pear, pomegranate, toasted walnuts, and a peanut/sesame dressing. We went to my mom and dad's around noon. My two sisters and their families were also there. All the food was so good, right down to the pumpkin cheesecake my sister had made. My mom even made me a pecan pie. I request that every year. Later on we got out the Black Friday store ads and planned our shopping day for the next morning. We got home and watched Ocean's Thirteen - very good.
I was up at 4:00 A.M. this morning. We headed to the Hastings Wal-Mart for the biggest shopping day of the year. The store is open 24 hours so by the time we got there at 4:50, the parking lot was full and there were people all over that store! Some people had huge TV boxes balancing on their already-filled carts. You should have seen them trying to navigate these carts down the aisles with so many people around. This morning was one of the first times I have ever felt frustrated on this shopping day. Usually I get what I want, get out, and move on to the next store. But today the crowds kind of got to me. We checked out and drove across the street to Target. That was a better experience. We met my sister Jane and her daughter Casey in the store. We exchanged notes on the "hot deals" and had our Caribou eggnog latte. We were home by 7:00 A.M. Lindsey went to Macy's for me and got a Santa Bear.
Also today, we left for the Chanhassen Dinner Theater at 10:00 for a luncheon matinee of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I have seen it twice at the Orpheum - we took our girls one of those times, and we own the CD and the DVD. We all love it and all of us know just about all the songs by heart. It's road trip music for the girls and me! Anyway, we took my parents, Pete, Lindsey, Courtney, and Kelsey. It was our way of kicking off the holiday season. The lunch was great, the wine was a nice compliment to the meal, and the musical was amazing. I didn't want it to end, but it did. We all talked about it on the way home. My family was with me today and I had a really good day. I'm exhausted and glad I have two days yet before I go back to work.