It’s Black Friday, so that means one kid has already watched his Curious George Christmas DVD twice, another kid has already ripped a hole in his snow pants and come inside wailing for hot cocoa because he is soooooo cold, and the other kid has played puppet-master to a Lego rancor and a Star Wars action figure who engaged in an epic battle fit for J.J. Abrams.
Speaking of epic, have you seen the trailer for Episode VII?
Right after I pushed Play on the video I said a little prayer, “Please don’t
let this suck.” After the disasters of Episodes I – III, I’ll admit I’m a
little skeptical. Not gonna lie – the trailer left me impressed. Can’t wait for
next December when “the force awakens.”
We try to remain very hermit-like on Black Friday. I have no
desire to wrestle with anyone wearing Tweety Bird pajamas over a flat screen TV
I don’t even need. The idea of standing in line for hours in single digit
temperatures for a cheap Barbie doll that looks like Queen Elsa sounds insane
to me. Nope, I want nothing to do with it. Quite frankly, I really wish I didn’t
have to actually put on real pants at all today, but I’m pretty sure my boss
would frown on that if I showed up for work in my pajama pants and the fluffy
pink slipper/socks I’ve been shuffling about in all day. I probably should wash
my hair at some point, huh?
I like to use Black Friday to start the decorating for
Christmas. Usually we would have used the time when both Evan and I were home
to get out the tree and start shaping it to look real-ish and hanging the ornaments.
Instead, he sold me on the idea of a real tree this year, so the plan is to
find a local tree farm and go cut our own on Sunday. In the meantime, I was
still able to bust out the totes of the rest of the decorations and get things
looking a little festive. That’s the way I love to do Black Friday – in the
comfiest clothes possible, listening to Christmas music, “decking the halls”
with my kids. It was great.
The other big goal for today was to get our TV mounted on
the wall so we would have more room for the Christmas tree when we brought it
in. Evan had redeemed some airline miles to get a wall-mounting kit and started
tearing the electronics apart while I pulled out stockings and the Little
People nativity set. He suddenly realized that our HDMI cables weren’t going to
be long enough and that he was going to have to make a run to Target…
On Black Friday.
Is it bad that the thought in my head was, “Better you than
me!”
Long story short, a series of frustrating events including a
forgotten wallet, poorly labelled packaging and a failed Google search ended up
with us putting everything right back where it was – no TV mounted on the wall
and a very frustrated husband.
So if anyone is looking for something to do tomorrow and
wants to come over and mount our flat screen on the wall, I’m sure Evan would
appreciate it.
Oh, and since I know many of you may be using your vacation
days to stuff and address your Christmas cards, I want to take a moment to
issue a very important message. Please, for the sake of my sanity, take a
moment to review how to make your last name plural. I swear, I have almost
unleashed a stream of obscenities not even suitable for HBO in past years when
filing through my pile of mail only to find an adorable photo card ruined by a
rogue apostrophe.
Friends don’t let friends use unnecessary apostrophes.
I tell you this because I love you.
For a much funnier post on this very important topic, I
invite you to venture over to Kate’s blog to get all your pluralization
questions answered. This is especially important if you are reading this post
and there is a pile full of holiday cards and envelopes spread across the table
in front of you.
STOP. NOW. Please don't make me have to give myself a sound face palm when I open your well-intended Christmas card. I won't be able to bring myself to hang it up on the pantry door with the others if that cursed apostrophe is there. I'm sorry, but I just can't do it. It would just be there all December, mocking me, heckling me, taunting me.
Please accept my many thanks...and also my apologies if I just offended you.
But you know what offends me? Apostrophes used to pluralize last names.
Wishing you love and appropriate apostrophes,
Sarah
