Thanksgiving Brain Dump and a Friday Fib

I feel like I have been celebrating Thanksgiving for a million years! Georgia and I traveled to Boise this last weekend to attend my mom's annual ornament party, and to have Thanksgiving on Sunday with them. My sister got her wisdom teeth pulled and so the early dinner was mostly for her benefit. She's STILL swollen, so I'm happy she had turkey early. Once baby and I got back to Utah (forgot my music = longest. drive. ever), we welcomed Scott's brother and his family back to the Beehive state for the holiday. We spent two straight days at my in-laws and I was all: "Geez, why am I so exhausted? Why is Georgia so grumpy?"
Duh, Carrie. It's because sometimes you forget to take a break from adventures. How grateful I am that I can live my life from one adventure to the next, though. Not a lot of people can say that.

I somehow dragged my mother-in-law to her very first black friday... thursday... at Wal-Mart so she could get a couple of Wii's. I grabbed a new TV (you should have seen our boxy ancient one) and some wedding gifts. I got everything I wanted and was home by 9:30pm. That was the best feeling ever! I may or may not have had the help of some 6'8 BYU linebackers who were around me... they were there for the crazy, and I asked them to help me find Brave on Blu-Ray. They were pretty pleased with themselves when they brought it back. "GIRL! LOOK! WE FOUND BRAVE!"
I was weirdly relieved they called me "girl" and not "lady."

Today was spent with Scott (pretty much) all to myself and we were so relaxed. We leisurely left the house and got lunch at Costco. Scott went shooting with his dad and brother later in the afternoon so I ventured with Georgia to Target to see what scraggly deals were left over. I am currently wearing the most comfortable $10 pajama's of my life. Georgia found a Baby Disney Princess doll that was $5.99. Now, when my daughter wants a toy while we're shopping, I let her play with it through the store and then usually leave it at the cash register. My logic is that I would rather have a screaming 17 month old as I walk OUT of the store than as I walk THROUGH the store. So we get to check-out and Georgia is fah-reaking out that she can't have this doll. The lady behind me in line looks more heart-broken than my daughter. We have the following conversation mist Georgia's sobs and me trying to check-out.

Lady: "Oh! She is so sad! She really wants that doll!"
Me: "I know, life can be so hard right?"
Lady: (clearly not picking up/caring about my sarcasm): "She is so sad. She needs that doll!"
Me: "She has so many dolls, and a Grandma that has gotten her plenty for Christmas"
Lady: "But she wants THAT one. Oh she is just so sad! Isn't only like six bucks? You need to get that for her."
Me: (starting to be annoyed) "Nooope."
Lady: "She NEEEEEDS that doll!"

I ended up just laughing at this lady's pleads for me to purchase this doll instead of continuing to engage in the conversation. I was not amused to have TWO people whining at me and I was annoyed that this stranger was trying to boss me around or something. I paid- LEAVING THE DOLL, and left the store.

I'm in the parking lot loading a very grumpy and hungry Georgia into her car seat when the lady from behind me at check-out is running towards me with what? The doll I left with the cashier.

"I got this for your daughter! She NEEDS to have it! 'Tis the Season!"

She is smiling so wide and is so pleased with her act of service that I completely melt. I feel stupid for being grumpy with her and I gush over how kind she is. Then I reply that while this was such a great gesture, my daughter is truly NOT in need and that perhaps she could donate the doll to a child who really IS in need. I thought this was a good compromise. Her smile stayed as I talked, but her tone got more serious when she said:

"But I could tell by the expression on that beautiful girl's face that she NEEDS this doll."

I accepted the dang doll and drove home. What a kind woman. At first I was determined to donate the doll myself, but now I feel guilty... this lady REALLY wanted Georgia to have it. Perhaps I will pay it forward and go pick up another one tomorrow to donate. I mean, they were only six bucks after all ;)

I have a late Friday Fib for today too, I just kind of forgot it was Friday earlier... But tonight Scott and I went with his family to see the lights at Temple Square. The dark and the lights kind of disoriented us and we couldn't find the visitor's center with the statue of Jesus where we were meeting my in-laws. Though we didn't say it, I knew that both Scott and I felt too embarrassed to ask anyone... but it was cold... and we couldn't find the building...
So I found a group of nice looking people and in my most BASHFUL fake-something accent asked:

"Sorry... where iz... um... statue?" I outstretched my arms like the statue. They spoke to me very loudly and clearly and over exaggerated pointing to where the building was.
"Ok! Sorry! Thank you!" They were very happy to help a poor struggling-to-speak-English family find Jesus. So that fib isn't that bad right? They got to serve and feel good, and Scott and I dodged the embarrassment of not knowing our way around 5 buildings in the middle of our city. Win-win.

Phew! How was your week?