Let it snow, let it snow let it snow

Snow storm round 2 hit today. Actually we woke up to winter wonderland. I say, if it's going to be winter it might as well snow-we look pretty funny snowshoeing in the mud. Winter trail running is a great cross training workout.

Back to the, "I'm a bad blogger" posting. Thanksgiving was a success-I made the bird and it was the best ever (by trifamily standards), if I should say so myself. We run the 5K with a group of friends in the morning and meet up with a larger group of friends for coffee. Great mental preparation for the assault on the Thanksgiving kitchen. Unlike Verticleman, I leave all the cooking to essentially the day of- but it was tasty.

The moratorium on Christmas ended at 12:06 am when Trihubby and Hyphengirl woke me singing Jingle Bells- they thought they were so funny-actually so did I. Then the alarm blasted at 3:55 am. It was Black Friday and there were sales to be had, so I picked up my neighbor at 4:30 and off we went. Unbeknownst to the entire metro, especially the weather guys, a winter storm was blowing through town. Can you beat a snowstorm on the first day of Christmas? We went to the evil, slave whoring Walmart and arrived at 4:45 to a line of 200 or so people. There was no body marking, but a definite race intensity was in the air. My neighbor and I chatted with 3 teen boys behind us in line and try to pry the insiders info from them. What in the heck got all of these Polaris clad people out of their turkey slumber to stand in line at Walmart. At 4:58 a cheer erupted at the front of the line and the first waves charged into the water, the Walmart .5K was underway. There was a slow press of mass broiling towards the two entrance doors. At first it was all civil and orderly, then one elderly Viking jacket slipped, the slip was mistaken for a run and all shopping hell broke loose-Viking jacket was never seen again. We were running now- Why are we running? I have no idea! I was here for the humor, not the $388 laptop. The carnage continued in the entrance where panicked shoppers wrestled over carts and bumper cart madness ensued. We headed to the toy aisle, wisely picking up a cart amongst those lined up in an aisle along the way and promptly hit a snarl of electronics traffic. Now the temptation in Black Friday shopping is to get caught up in the fervor and insist on having what everyone else insists on having. No, I don't need $2.88 dvd's I'll never watch. The dinner roll madness will not effect me today. We arrived at toys and quickly found the two sale items that had tempted us to brave the snow and the morning, clutching them close as leaving them in the cart might forfeit them to a cart burglar. Now time to employ my favorite spritely activity. Listening intently and looking in carts, I ascertain the "must have" toy and seek it out. Then you wander up and down the aisles careful to display your booty. "Oh, you found the twin Light Sabers with 1202 options! Where did you get that?" Using the Light Saber, you point the sale maddened mom down the aisles to the Light Saber kiosk and watch her hurdle electric cart man enroute. I am evil. I don't even want Light Saber with 1202 options, but I carry my little symbol of shopping acumen with me all the way to the check out line and nochanlantly hand it to the sales clerk who is busy returning merchandise to shelves. By 5:40 am we are off to the -Evil Empire- run by homosexuals who hate the Salvation Army -Target. (I learned so much about retail politics at Thanksgiving dinner where opposing talk radio addicts clashed over pie-another glass of wine anyone? Thanks I'll take two.) The local tv station was filming the melee, which had dissipated considerably, at the big red. We paused long enough to watch and remember that we had yet to ingest any caffeine. So, leave the carts and walk through the mall to the local coffee shop kiosk. There was a line, not bad by Black Friday standards, but a line none the less. The poor barista was working furiously but the wait exceeded corporate's "2 minute wait to service" standard. Poor girl. "1/2 caf, skinny double whip fa la latte for Beelzebub- please come again...soon. By "soon" she was already shuffling through the next drink so it came out in "@#$% I just burned my hand on that groupa again angst 'soon'" I wanted to jump behind the counter and give her a hand- I was a mighty efficient barista in my day-although don't ask me for a cap-I can't make foam. Drinks in hand we headed back to Target, and had to find new carts-talk about effeciency. I left at 4:30 am and arrived home at 11:30 a.m. summary-shop, shop, shop. Four stores, lot's of money and lot's of fun with neighbor, promises to make this a tradition. By noon the snow was falling in buckets and blusters threatening the longest standing trifamily tradition-Christmas Tree Friday. We drive to a little tree farm about 45 minutes north or south (two farms owned by the same family) and cut our own tree. With trepidation we head out and weigh our options; we could go to IKEA, but that means not cutting the tree ourselves, we could go Saturday and aaaaagggghhhh break the Tradition! We were ready to turn back for the Saturday option but Hyphen Girl began to cry. Why do daughter's tears have such an effect on dads? We kept driving. Almost lost it on the road a few times, but nothing life threatening. It was a winter wonderland, complete with horse drawn sleigh rides with "Blue Blocker, whiskey flasked, Santa" candy canes and a petting zoo (2 guinea pigs and a chiken with chicks) we cut the tree, sang songs and had a merry time. When it comes time to strapping the tree to the roof, we have it down to a science, thankful for my girl scout knot training and Trihubby's ability to hoist the thing to the roof in one sweeping motion. Never lost a tree yet on the "test highway frontage road". Stopped for lights and a snack on the way home to Thanksgiving leftovers.

Thanksgiving leftovers. What a great challenge, to be so full of Thanksgivings that there are always leftovers the next day.

More tomorrow-I think. Biked 60 minutes at high rpm (whatever that means) swim run brick today.