{another photo challenge type thing that i will ultimately fail at....oh well}

i know.  i never finished the grateful challenge.  i know.  i'm a failure.  a giver upper.  a loser.  i know.  but i have a great excuse!  kind of.  lol.  i get caught up in "real life" and forget.  it's been such a busy month over here in my neck of the woods.  this week alone consisted of one emergency visit to the emergency room and one scheduled visit to the surgery center.  all for little ones under 7.  i'm not real good dealing with stress related to my kiddos.  i'm really good at hiding it though.  i tend to bottle it up because i don't want them to see me upset and get upset or scared themselves so i put on my brave face as all parents do.  and then, i get sick.  lol.  i feel like absolute poop this week. 

but more on my crazy week later.  for now, i leave you with the {list}.  i found it over at {positively present}.  i might be most excited about this challenge.  i wanted to start my own holiday photo challenge but then i found this one and it's perfect.  because really, how could i start a challenge for other people when i can't finish them myself?!

I have confidence in this one because i LOVE LOVE LOVE christmas.  it's my absolute favorite holiday and favorite time of the year.  this month is going to fly by and i'd love to have some pics to remember it by.  i'm going to attempt to use my dslr for most of the days but *may* use iphone fill ins.  and again, no rules.  i'm gonna fly by the seat of my pants!  ;)

Day 1: Lights

Day 2: Decorations

Day 3: Gifts

Day 4: Tradition

Day 5: Santa

Day 6: Stockings

Day 7: Snow

Day 8: Tree

Day 9: Treats

Day 10: Joy

Day 11: Carols

Day 12: Vintage

Day 13: Festive

Day 14: Glitter

Day 15: Warmth

Day 16: Ornaments

Day 17: Wreath

Day 18: Giving

Day 19: Reindeer

Day 20: Memories

Day 21: Bells

Day 22: Cookies

Day 23: Sparkle

Day 24: Xmas Eve

Day 25: Unwrapped

{insta-friday 11/25}

today's insta-friday is black friday.  since i work for a big box retail store my life this week has been about preparing for black friday.  i'm going to start with those pics and kind of work my way backwards....it will be ok.  i promise.  :)  although i'm gonna go back to the middle of the week and then work my way to today and then go back to the beginning of the....oh crap you know what?  let's just start at the beginning.  :)

last friday night we had a team outing at work.  we went to a providence bruins game.  it was fun.

i wore my cute necklace this week....

on monday we went to lisa's mom's house to inventory what we already had for the kids for christmas. we read the paper and looked at some catalogs too.

lisa's mom has these cute pilgrim doll things out.

then we were off to target where we did *almost* all of our shopping for the kids. and when i say almost, i mean like 99.9%. oh and we also had some hot chocolates with whipped cream and cinnamon. yummy!

we went to chilis and got take out for lunch. i took these while waiting for the food.

i really wish we had been able to go to this. it would have been epic. ;)

chloe had a thanksgiving event at school. it was super cute.

ian made a potato pumpkin at school.

i might have a slight problem....

balsam is back! and we attempted a holiday card photo. :)

now on to black friday. i could bore you with everything we did at the store to keep people safe this year but i won't. i'll just share the few pics i have of our line. this year we had about 900 people in line. which was a crazy huge amount. to put it in perspective, last year we had about 350 which was the most we had had before. everyone was polite and well behaved for the most part. NOT like over at another store in our plaza. rumor has it that he threatened someone that cut him with a gun. really????! you wanted that tv that bad????! i'm pretty sure they don't have good deals on flat screens in lock up at the local pd. just sayin'. ;)

this was my set up outside that we did wednesday night before we left.

kendra took these pics of the line when we got there for crowd control.  

the twins wanted a "security" pic. :)

this am i got home, napped for two hours and dragged the kids to the coffee shop. i was in my pajamas with my rockin' hat. don't be jealous.

this filter makes me look like i have a black eye. i don't. promise. :)