Thanksgiving and Black Friday 2022

Hey everyone, it's Thanksgiving again, which means it's time for my annual Thanksgiving and black Friday blog. Let's start things off with Thanksgiving. Every year my parents host and now we've started that we spend the night with my in-laws that weekend (mainly because their guest bed is comfortable and can hold 2 people). When we got there I started showing the black friday deals to dad-in-law because there were some things I figured he might be interested in trying to get, and while he said "oh that's really cool" a lot he didn't say "that's a thing I want you to try to get." Eh, no big deal. Thanksgiving morning was pretty low-key. I got my paper with all the circulars, and while it's a little expensive at $5 a paper, I ended up getting meijer bucks which saved more than that (but I'll get to that later). IRA and I went over all the things so we could know where we wanted to go. Mskate and her mom watched the parade and it was fun ocassionally getting called in to see a favorite character, but it's not exactly my thing (I've been to the Detroit Thanksgiving parade once and that was really cool, but just watching on the TV isn't super interesting). Whatever, after that it was time for the main event.

Mskate and I arrived around 1 or so I think, and this is where I had a lot of fun. In my lets play of TMNT Turtles in Time, I mentioned how my brother and I used to play this arcade game a lot whenever we went to the Wheels Inn, but were never able to get very far. Well, with the release of the Cowabunga Collection, we finally had our opportunity. I brought over my PS4, both controllers, charging dock, and the game, booted up the arcade version of turtles in time, and we played through the entire game start to finish. Under normal circumstances my mom would probably be encouraging us to spend time with more people, but she was there those 4 or so years and knows how big of a deal this was, and we were accomplished. This was probably close to 20 years in the making, but we finally beat TMNT Turtles in Time. I had beaten it a year or so prior, but never both of us. Now we just need to beat the NES game and all will be complete.

Before I get to dinner, I should talk about the other event. My grandma, TanMan's grandparents and uncle, and grandma's friends all came as well. Grandma's friend's wanted to buy some copies of Mskate's book, so we ended up having a little book signing which was fun. I got some pictures of the event for mskate to put on her book instagram and facebook page so it looks like it was a real book signing. OK, with the book and game out of the way, time for dinner. My parents made a traditional dinner with turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, and cranberry sauce, and then ham for those of us that don't like turkey (like me). Mskate and I have basically decided that our contribution will be brussels sprouts since we have a good recipe and it goes over so well, and then on like Wednesday I picked up a loaf of pumpernickel bread from the grocery store and brought that as a contribution. My mom was making a big deal about how "that is such a grown up food" (I'm kind of picky), and I was like "Mom, I've always liked pumpernickel bread, we used to get it every time we went to Frankenmuth [starting from when I was like 3]." Dinner was pretty good, I got my non-China plate like I do every year (now adays I could be trusted with the China, but I like to keep that "tradition" alive). After dinner grandma's friend always brings deserts, especially her lemon meringue pie. She said she had some trouble getting enough lemon and wasn't sure if it was going to be good, but what she lacked in lemon she made up for in sour so it was still a win in my book. 

After dinner we did the accordion sing along. IRA and mom-in-law joined us for that, and it was a fun time. Not long after it was time to go home mskate and I went back to her parents house and IRA and I watched some of the south park specials on paramount plus before bed. We had to wake up at 4AM because the first store opened at 5 and we had to make sure we got there.

After a mostly restful night, it's 4AM and IRA and I need to get going. I had pop tarts and a bagel and I don't remember what IRA had, but it was something on the road. Our first stop was Best Buy since they opened at 5 and had the most things we wanted. We got in line and it just so happened that the local news was there interviewing people. I got interviewed and showed off the loop and list of items we were out hunting for. The cool thing is we ended up on the news.

Once 5 hit we went to the movie section and started searching for what we were after. I ended up finding Spiderman No Way Home and Morbius, and IRA ended up finding some other things. After the movies we went to the videogames and I got Doki Doki Literature Club Plus and Death Stranding. I don't remember all that IRA got, but I do know he got TMNT Cowabunga Collection on switch, so that's good for him.

After Best Buy we went to Walmart because we thought it would be open at 5 according to the commercials, but there were people waiting and apparently they opened at 6, so we improvised and instead went to Kohls about a mile away. I had 2 things I was looking for, Harry Potter Defense Class Lego set and an Air Conditioner cover. Here's the problem I ran into, they were out of the Lego sets (they had them, but not what I was interested in), and the AC cover was only available online. I did end up finding some things, instax film for mskate and a winnie the pooh shirt for mskate's mom (and when I got home I ordered the AC cover).

By now it's 6AM and we were going to go to walmart but gamestop was close by, so IRA and I went there even though I didn't see anything of interest (I almost bought Sonic Frontier, but it was a little to expensive for my interests so I decided to wait it out), and I think IRA got something but don't really remember. The employees were kind of weird, saying they thought it felt more like closing time (probably just Gamestop syndrome). Anyway, after that we went to Walmart. There wasn't a lot of things I was looking for, but for my parent's new 4K tv I got them a 4K Roku for $20. IRA picked up some value DVDs that weren't on sale but were dirt cheap anyway.

After Walmart we went to Meijer. This is where things got kind of big. The main things I wanted to get were new joycons for my switch (because mine are drifting bad) and a new Disney welcome mat, both of which would utilize the Meijer bucks. By chance I saw a Nightmare Before Christmas puzzle which will make for a great gift for IRA at a later date, and a Lego Harry Potter Polyjuice set for mskate since the Kohl's set didn't work out. I also got some blue Christmas lights that I am using for a craft project, buy 2 get 1 free and $5 for 100 lights, which works out pretty well for what I need. We also got some Puperoni dog treats for Duke and Delila, so that will work out well. After Meijer because it was kind of close I picked up 4 poster frames for the puzzles mskate and I regularly do (70% off, great deal).

Now it's time for Target. The main things I was after were the apple gift card for the $15 rebate, pop socket for mskate, a second tree for mskate and I for all the Disney ornaments, and tide pods for the $5 rebate. IRA got some things I think, but these were the main things that made the trip worth it. After Target IRA and I went to Barns and Nobel because IRA was a little interested in the graphic novels, but didn't find anything. Since Bed Bath and Beyond was pretty close we went there and I got mskate a popcorn popper since she really likes popcorn and microwave popcorn isn't all that easy due to her allergies, so this is hopefully going to be a fun thing for her.

Now we're pretty close to the mall, and that means Macy's and Bath and Bodyworks. At Macy's I had 2 things I was after, the sterling silver Micky head pendant for like 75% off and the Micky and Minnie plushies. Since we were so close we went to the mall and to Bath and Bodyworks. The sale they had was buy 3 get 3 free, so we got 6 different $7.50 hand soaps. IRA ended up paying me for 2 of them so he could give one to my mom and one to my grandma, and the other 4 are basically going to go to those people as well (maybe my aunts as well). We stopped at the other target but I was running out of energy and interest, so I just stayed in the car while IRA ran in. He didn't find anything, but that was OK since we were tired and wanted to rest (it was like 9AM, we had been out for 5 hours).

After about a 2 hour nap I did some amazon black friday shopping (as well as getting the AC cover from Kohls.com). I ended up getting Ed Edd n Eddy the complete series (I know it's not "fully complete," but I love this series and it's complete enough and if they ever release the rest I'll just buy it separately like I did with Teen Titans and Teen Titans Trouble in Tokyo), nerds ropes, amazon fire stick and luna wifi controller (because my computer can't accept a controller while playing luna, and this would be good when traveling), the movie Used Cars, gaffer's tape for either my dad or brother, disposable rubber gloves for cleaning and crafting, apple juice, tomato sauce, and 4 different allergen free snack boxes for mskate.

After the shopping it was time to go put up my grandma's tree. VikingPolak and I went down to her basement and got her tree, and then everyone else just brought up her ornaments, lights, hip shaking santa, and pants down santa. I helped put the tree up and strung the lights, and put up the window lights while getting the timer set-up. After that I "did my part" and mskate put up all the ornaments. We had left overs for lunch/dinner, and that was pretty much that. After the tree trimming we went back to mskate's parents house and relaxed. IRA and I watched more south park specials, and then I passed out from being tired. We spent the night one more night and then went home the next day.

Nothing of major note happened on Saturday (mskate worked on our Disney tree, and I did some processing of things), so I'll just jump to my Aunt's Sunday Thanksgiving trip. We went to see my Aunt and Grandpa for the day, and after church mskate and I went to my parent's house to pick everyone up, and we all rode up in our truck. While we were waiting for my mom to get home from my grandma's house, I showed dad how to get to the Hallmark Channel on Sling, because I got the Hallmark Channel on our sling account to share with my parents since they cut the cord and my mom isn't the most technologically literate person (and when I first showed mom how to get to it she was surprised to see all the movies she had access too that aren't Hallmark).

Our visit was good. I was able to get my switch back after forgetting it at her house the month before. We filled them in on how Mskate's book and part time retail job was going. We fixed some things up for them since she is replacing all her smoke detectors and they're not the easiest to replace since the connectors are different, and she needed some blinds put up in her sewing room and they were kind of complicated. We had a combination of left overs from both of our dinners (aunt made some stuff for her and grandpa, so dad brought some of what he had as well). I brought what was left of my pumpernickel bread and grandpa enjoyed it. It was a good visit. This was a good Thanksgiving. Well this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.