Whatever Wednesday: Midnight Madness

So last week I obviously took Thursday off for Thanksgiving. How was everyone's, by the way? Ours was fun, and super tasty. My cousins announced that they're expecting! I was a tad jealous, but they don't have any kids together, (my cousin Jamie has a daughter, he married Rebecka and she doesn't have any.) And, they've been trying for - get this - two years. I know people try that long, and longer, but man. That's just crazy for me. I hope we're not trying for two years! (I'm not pregnant by the way. I got my period. So. I'm hoping maybe Santa brings me a positive pregnancy test for Christmas?)

I am very glad, however, that I decided to also take Friday off. We decided, for some stupid reason, to go to Toys R Us at midnight when they opened. I've never been out on Black Friday, at least not anywhere near the times when stores opened. And, I will never go out again. It was just nuts. It didn't help that Toys R Us had NO organization what-so-ever. And, I don't think they've ever chosen to open at midnight before, but they had to know that opening before ANY other store was going to draw a crowd. We showed up at 11 to stand in line, and the line? Was already behind the store. By the time they opened at midnight, it went down the street and back around. People were fist fighting, cops were called, and everything flew off the shelves and was just gone. We got everything that was on our list though, and we helped my friend Rachel (who has four kids and is pregnant with her 5th) get everything on her list. We got in pretty much right around midnight (it may have been 12:05 or something) but we didn't get out of there until 3 AM. And it wasn't like we had a ton of shopping to do. I think we had four things on our list, and my friend Rachel had like, 8? If that? And most of our shopping was done while one of us was standing in line. It just took that long to get through the line. The line was a mess in itself. People were trying to cut line, people would stand in the electronics line thinking that was the checkout line, only to wait and finally get up there and find out, no, they had to go stand at the back of the line which was another 18 hour wait... Toys R Us just had no organization. It being my first year out, I thought everywhere was like that. But, after we were done, we decided to run over to walmart (Not for their sale, there was a movie Jeremy wanted that had gone on sale at midnight, their sale didn't start till 4 or 5 I think.) And I mean... From the looks of it? They had their shit together. They had information booths at each entrance where you could grab an ad, a map, or ask a question. They had lines forming in area's that wouldn't be so crowded (like at the grocery) for hot items like TV's or whatever. I mean I wasn't there when the sale started, but it just seemed like it should have run a lot more smoothly than Toys R Us.

So then we got home around four AM and went to bed. I then got up at 9 to take my sister to work, and to go out shopping some more. The stores weren't too bad then, actually our longest wait was for lunch. But we were shopping ALL day Friday. We had to stop a few more places for us, but I also told my Mom that we would get some of her shopping done, so we had to run a bunch of places for her. All in all, I would go shopping ON black Friday again, but NEVER when a store opens, not unless it's at Walmart or something is SERIOUSLY on sale.

We are, however, done with our shopping for the most part. I ordered Cayden's last real present, I'm picking up a few random stocking stuffers, and then we just need to pick up a gift for my Mother in law, which we know what we're getting and we're ordering it online, I just need to wait till Jeremy gets paid to do it, and I need to get my sister's gift, which again, I know what we're getting her, we just need to wait to get paid. We were going to wait to get Cayden's last present, but we couldn't find it ANYWHERE, it was even sold out everywhere I looked online (Toys R Us, Etoys, Amazon...) Finally I found it on the Mattel website. It's Rocky, the robot truck. He goes nuts for that thing every time he sees it in the stores. But I've pretty much been shopping every day since Wednesday of last week. We went grocery shopping Wednesday, Thursday we went out to a few stores before we had dinner, Friday we did the crazy Black Friday thing (we also hit up a thrift store and I managed to find Cayden the little tikes pick up truck I wanted! 15 dollars! I'm so excited, I love good deals!), Saturday and Sunday I went out shopping some more with my Mom, and last night I got a message from my friend saying that they had zhu-zhu pet accessories at a Toys R Us, which my Mom has been looking everywhere for. She managed to get Cayden one of those (I personally think they're dumb. And I think Cayden's going to care less about it, but whatever, it's her thing) But she REALLY wanted an accessory, so we drove up there to get it. My goal for the rest of this week? Not to step foot in another store. Seriously, I'm done.

Anyone else go out on black friday? I know a couple of you said you were working it, how'd it go? Did everyone else get any Holiday shopping done? I also did the rest of the decorating and some of the wrapping. All of Cayden's gifts except for one (and the one we're waiting on, which should be here tomorrow) are wrapped. I'll probably bust out the rest and get them done tonight. The tree is up. I was terrified of doing it. Between the cats knocking off the ornament, the dog eating them, we had enough to battle with last year. Now that Cayden is walking, I was worried about him pulling the tree down on his head or breaking some of them. He has taken a few ornaments off the tree (he keeps finding the ornament we bought him this year, even though I keep moving it. He takes it off the tree and talks to it, so cute.) He's so far only broken one. And luckily it was plastic, it was a Minnie Mouse and her head popped off. Whoops. I damn near killed myself though, putting up the tree. I stepped in dog poop getting it out of the closet (I hadn't noticed that my dog had had an accident.) I hit a stroller with it that was leaning against the wall and caused it to fall on Cayden's head (I felt really bad) I nearly fell down the stairs, and almost broke the computer with it. Then when I was upstairs pulling it out, Cayden climbed up the stairs and started playing in the toilet. And finally, when I was taking ornaments out of their boxes, I managed to give myself a paper cut on the cardboard.

I love Christmas. I hate decorating. How about you guys? Tree up yet? For any Jewish people, do you guys ever set out the Menorah early or anything? I know the family I worked for used to put out blue lights too. Any Kwanzaa people? What are your guys Holiday traditions?

I know you guys said you want to hear about in law drama, and we may have some here soon. Jeremy's starting to get really upset with them, and I have a feeling we may be fighting on Christmas.

Here's so background information before I tell you what's going on: With my Father in law's heart condition, they have him off work until at LEAST he gets his stents in. Maybe longer, we don't know yet. He doesn't get his stents in till the 10th, so he's been off work since his heart cath. He had a little bit of vacation time (like a week, I think) but now he's got nothing. He can't collect short term disability because he recieves a pension. So. Basically money right now is tight for them. On top of everything else, their car is broken. It still runs, but something (and I know nothing about cars) is leaking, so to give it a short term fix, they had to turn off their heater in order to be able to drive the car. Which means the defogger also doesn't work.

Alright, on to the story. My Mother in law's birthday was the 18th (I think, it was on one of the teenth days in Novemeber) They call us up and ask us if we wanted to go to Joe's Crab Shack with them. We tell them we can't, we don't have any money. My Mother in law offers to put it on their credit card, and we can pay them back later. OK, fine. So we go out to dinner with them. My father in law is stuffing his face with one of their huge buckets of crab (which aren't cheap either.) While crab isn't horrible for you, it is when you're dousing it in butter (they told him he needs to lose a ton of weight for his heart). Then his portion sizes were out of control (he ate one of those huge buckets, along with fries, and then got 18 peel and eat shrimps and ate them by himself. It was kinda funny to me because he got the fries without salt for his heart. We decided not to say anything, it was a special occasion, he can splurge and then back on his diet. We talk about going out to lunch the next day, someplace cheap because everyone is broke. They were talking about going shopping over here, so we picked a cheap place. The next day, they call us. They don't want to meet us anymore because then they would have to drive when it's dark outside and their defogger doesn't work and they can't see very well. So they cancel on us. We ended up meeting them to drop off my Mother in law's birthday gift and to borrow their camera. We met them at O'Charleys, where they were eating out, again, and when Jeremy walked in, his Dad was eating cheesy bacon fries. So then we invited them to my Uncle's house for Thanksgiving. We know they don't want to take their car, because it's broken, so we offer to drive them in our car. We've never spent a Thanksgiving together, so we thought it would be nice. They cancel on us, instead opting to go out to eat again.
We called them a month ago to ask them to buy Cayden this robot truck for Christmas (they had asked for suggestions). So we called them yesterday to find out if they were going to get it for him. They told us that they were going to have to wait on Christmas gifts. They were out to eat when they said this. Not only were they out to eat, but they were also getting ready to head across town in the dark to go shopping at this Pottery place.

Jeremy's pissed. And I don't blame them. I know Christmas isn't about the gifts, and I could honestly care less if they get me or Jeremy anything. But to not get Cayden anything? I mean not even something cheap? Or make him something? I mean, we don't know for sure that they won't, they just really sound like they're not going too. I also think it's ridiculous that they're complaining about not having money, and yet they've been out at least four times in the last what, week? At least four times, and who knows if it's been more that we don't know about? And they don't eat cheap. It's not like, oh, I'm going to get a McDouble from McDonalds that's only a buck. It's at least forty dollars for the both of them. And that also means that my Father in law isn't eating healthy. I mean from what I saw, and from what Jeremy saw when he dropped off his Mom's gift? He's not. And then there's the fact that they canceled on us because they don't want to drive over in the dark, but they have no problem going shopping when it's dark outside. And they have no problem going shopping for themselves when they have no money.

I mean I'm just frustrated. I know it's their money and they can spend it as they like, but I just am really pissed off that Mary Anne gives me this I am the greatest Grandma in the world act and then turns around and acts SO selfishly towards her Grandson. Or that Mary Anne can give me a guilt trip like "Oh we never see him, can you pencil us in to your busy schedule" and then cancels on us when we make plans, or opts to go out to dinner instead of spending a holiday with us. And I'm REALLY pissed that we're all so concerned about George and his heart, but he can't even put down the cheeseburger to save himself. It's like, why should I even care? Why should I worry? I love George, I don't want him to die, but he obviously doesn't care either way.

Am I making sense? Or am I just the one being selfish?