Thanksgiving with the Irishman

One of the biggest perks to having married someone from across the pond is Thanksgiving. Until he moved out here a few years ago, Morgan had never celebrated Thanksgiving. This means there is absolutely no question about whose family we celebrate with - Houston here we come!

Morgan's first Thanksgiving was quite memorable. We did all the typical things - slept in, watched the parade, visited with my family. Then there was the dinner. He was most impressed with my mom's cooking. Food and family - he was sold on the holiday.

Then came Friday. We'd scoured the ads looking for the best deals as we ate our kolaches on Thursday morning. So at 5:00am we were at Kohl's. Morgan was in shock that I'd dragged him along so early. I tried to convince him that it was 6:00 in Florida, but it didn't help....

...until we made it in the store. The lines were so long (estimated two hour wait) that by the time we found what we wanted we decided to come back. At Walmart we were blocked in by carts in the electronics department...but Morgan was impressed. He got out the phone card and called his brothers and sisters in Ireland to ask which CD's they might want. He could not believe the sales.

I always give Morgan a hard time about the exchange rate...he (and his father) tend to slightly greatly exaggerate the exchange rate to favor whichever way it sounds like a better deal. There were lots of "That would be ____ euro at home! That is the same as (insert slightly inflated $ amount here)!" to me and "How much is it in town? It is only ___ euro here!" to the crowd in Ireland.

We made it to Kohl's (twice), Walmart, Target, Baybrook Mall, Circuit City (twice), James Avery, Old Navy, and Best Buy. At 4:00pm I called Morgan on his 'mobile' while we were separated in Barnes and Noble. I was the one to fly the white flag...I'd had it.

My friends and family gave me a hard time that year for "dragging" Morgan out shopping...little did they know that the Irish cannot pass up a bargain! The next year we were much more efficient. We ran into Kohl's looking for a bag and we took turns standing in line. We cut out a lot of wait time from the year before. We were completely done shopping by 11:00am.

Morgan is a Christmas person...so he is quite happy that Thanksgiving means the beginning of the Christmas season. In Ireland they tend to go with the more traditional Dec 8th Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Thanks to my husband, all the radios at our house are already tuned to the all Christmas music station. We have had early Thanksgiving with Grandma Betty and Grandpa Boo twice already.

We fly to Houston this afternoon. My brother is going to fry a turkey this year (another thing Morgan loves). I am making the green bean casserole and Morgan is making the mashed potatoes with his secret Papa John's ingredient.

Morgan has already been online to look at the early copies of the ads. He is rethinking our route this year now that we have a Kohls in Florida. There are still details to work out, but our game plan is almost set. We are going to try to get back early enough to take a nap before Arkansas and LSU play so you can bet we will be efficient!

So...

Happy Thanksgiving to our friends and family!

Go Hogs!

and....

Let the games begin!