The Holiday Season

Well I survived my first US Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving really is about a 5 day event down here starting on the actual day (the last Thursday of November) and then followed by Black Friday (what most people consider to be the biggest shopping day of the year) followed by the weekend (obviously) and then some people (like the schools and some of the surgeons) will take the Monday off as well. I did take part in a nice Thanksgiving dinner with the family of one of the girls I work with (thanks for the invite Tara) and then enjoyed some leftovers as well (thanks for those Mary) so although it was about 6 weeks late I did feel right at home for the holiday. I did however decide to skip Black Friday this year. For those of you who have never heard of Black Friday the closet thing we Canadians have is Boxing Day but believe me it is way crazier down here. The outlet stores in Hershey opened at Midnight and people sat in lines to get into the parking lot for hours, then they waited in lines to get into the stores for hours and then they waited in lines to get to the checkouts for hours. Not really sure how good the sales were but people really seem to buy a lot. One of the radio stations here actually gave away reserved VIP parking spaces at the mall. If you don’t get there by 8am don’t bother going because there will be no room in the parking lot. Some of the girls who went this year said they actually saw people stealing things out of each other’s baskets. People can get quite mean I guess. I decided to hold off starting any Christmas shopping until Sunday and I must say the crowds were not bad at all (even in WALMART).

Well Thanksgiving does officially mean the beginning of the Christmas season so I am getting ready to decorate my place. It is a little hard though because I like to put my lights up when the temperature is below freezing (a little habit I picked up from my Dad. It was very hard to hold those little tacks when my fingers were freezing but the house always looked good so no complaints) but the weather is still pretty nice (it actually rained on Thanksgiving…who ever heard of rain at the end of November ….. well, maybe you guys on the west coast!!!) so I may have to suck it up and put them up on a warm day. I am debating right now if I am going to get a little tree (a real one of course, there would be no room in the car to pack up a fake one when I leave). They are out selling them everywhere already but will probably wait a few weeks. Maybe a poinsettia though.

Don’t worry pictures will follow!!

Julie