Katie and Julie have been out of school all week and have been burning the candle at both ends. This meant we got to bed annoyingly late last night. Sadly, if I'd stayed up about another half hour, I apparently would have been awake as the Black Friday online sales started. By the time I got up, the only thing that I'd been looking for (an iPad Air 2, which is going to be my big Christmas present) was now out of stock at the places that had offered major discounts. But that's ok. I could try to chase one down at the stores that will shortly open locally, but that is far too much work for too little reward.

And it would mess up Thanksgiving dinner something fierce. Gretchen, with actual help from Katie and Julie, has been prepping things much of the afternoon. The turkey breast is in the oven, along with a roll-your-own cornbread stuffing that started with the Trader Joe's mix, but which has been heavily adulterated with sauteed onions and apples, dried cranberries, and pecans. It looks extremely promising. And there are baked potatoes, corn pudding, and two kinds of rolls, so there will be plenty of starch to offset the turkey.

Katie and Julie are both doing well in school and their teachers love them, which is a wonderful thing for which we are quite thankful.

And we have a lovely home (with a pile of debris that I've swept into the center of the family room for later sorting) and all of the bills are paid.

And they still like me at work.

We have good friends and good family.

These are all things to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.