Black Friday, Christmas Grinch, and My New Hobby

I've been cowering in my home for the day. I admit that I'm afraid of this day more than most others. I don't like shopping (much) and I HATE crowds. Oh, last year I braved my fears and got THE best deal at Walmart for Cameron, but that was LAST year. When what he wanted wasn't only found in ONE store! But I no longer find the horrors of this day that I used to. After my 3 A.M. excursion last year I know what die-hard shoppers find in those wee hours. THE RUSH! Yes, it's such a good feeling to know you've gotten the best possible deal on any item that you wanted. The weirdest sensation I had experienced last year was the sound of 5:00. Now, mind you, the store I was at is open 24 hours a day, so we could go around and find our items early, but we couldn't touch them until that magic minute of 5:00. So I camped out in the middle of the aisle for an hour and a half. Pointing out to other shoppers which box was mine, once the shrink wrap was removed. Then the sound of hundreds of hands...maybe thousands just grabbing boxes filled my ears. That was THE weirdest/coolest sound I have ever heard!
This year, I found no such deals that tickled my fancy enough to leave my warm bed at 3:30 in the morning. In fact, I woke up after my turkey induced coma at 5:55 A.M. I looked at my clock, while stumbling to my bathroom and thought to myself, "Hey, I would have been done shopping if I had gone out at 5!" The odd thoughts that come to me in my stupor!
Anyway, being cooped up here has been pretty good for me! I've been cleaning and re-arranging my closets and home. It's nice to have an organized home!
Our family Thanksgiving tradition is to put up our Christmas decorations on Thanksgiving night. We do it ALL! The tree, lights, window clings, little knick-knacks...THE WHOLE SHE-BANG! Last night as we were shivering out front, trying to figure out our net lights on our bush, a neighbor man came home. I don't know the man, but all I wanted to say to him was, "BAH-HUMBUG!" The guy was commenting to us that Thanksgiving isn't even done yet, and we're putting up our Christmas stuff? Some people just don't understand that it's RESTRAINT that keeps me from putting up my decor the day after Halloween! We have a radio station around here that starts playing Christmas music ALL day long until Christmas day beginning the day after Halloween. I sneak in my holiday listening when I can. Steve loves Christmas, and all that goes with it, but he only loves it between Thanksgiving dinner and shortly after Christmas. Now I'm allowed to listen to my music, and decorate my house with the things of the season! And some random stranger comments to me about being too early!? WHATEVER!
There's one more thing I've discovered I have a love for. I've actually known that I've had a love for this particular kind of thing, but I didn't know it could be useful until now. I've always loved organizing things on paper. I love filing things (when I was a secretary, it was a good thing!) and making sure things are in order! Now I've started doing some good things for my Church called Family Search Indexing. It's SO fun! It's a volunteer program where you try to decipher handwriting from over a hundred years ago. It's hard, but so much fun. Since I got started on Tuesday I've completed 3 projects and started on my fourth! Steve now fears that he'll NEVER get his computer time, and I'm afraid he's probably right! It's just a blast to try to figure these things out for a good cause! If anyone wants to sign up (you don't have to be a member of my Church to do this) you will NOT be disappointed!