Holidays in Michigan!

We left for Michigan the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We had great plans for the short trip, and they all went swimmingly! We got to Grand Rapids about 2:30, just after Beth got home from work. Our plans for this Wednesday were to prepare her home for Christmas!! Yes, that's right! The day BEFORE Thanksgiving we put up the tree and lights and ornaments! Ahh, the joys of being first! We listened to Christmas music and ate green and red wrapped Hershey Kisses.

Andrew gave subtle tributes to Meredith by taking note of how many ornaments have here name and how few have his! Mer, we talked about you a lot while preparing the house for Christmas and for your return!

The next day we went to Lansing to have Thanksgiving with the zurBurgs! It was great to see Mary and Henry and to meet their "kids" for the first time. Their kids are about 10 years older than Andrew and me. The zurBurg tradition is to do a holiday craft after dinner. This year we painted ornaments, which was great fun! In the early hours of painting there were about 5 of us, and after maybe 2 hours, it was just me (Jen) and Deb and our ornaments! Deb was great and taught me a lot about this kind of painting. The Packers beat the Lions and we had a lot of laughs with these guys, so it was a great day!

The next morning, "Black Friday", we woke up at 5am, and were at Circuit City(which opened at 5am) by 5:40 and still had to wait in line for about 15 minutes before getting in the front doors! Once inside, I quickly found the "shortest" line and stepped in. Andrew and Beth gathered purchases and gave them to me in line. Then they went to Menards. They called when they finished and I was still in line. Then they went to Staples, and I was still in line. Then they picked up some breakfast at Panera, Andrew ate his, then came and took my place in line! I was finally about 4th in line, but after standing in line for 1:30, I was ready to get some breakfast!

The rest of the day was fun too! We shopped for ourselves and had a marvelous time! We took a break after lunch to watch Enchanted and take a sit break, then back to shopping! We got home after 7pm, which made for a long but fun day!! The next morning was back to Chicago because I had to work at 3pm. It was great to take a break from home and see Beth!