Christmas decorations: Check (well, almost)

Oh, Christmas tree, originally uploaded by MCuthbert.

While other poor suckers were stampeding for Black Friday sales or watching some silly football game, we spent the day putting up our Christmas decorations.

The girls have been looking forward to this for a while and were very enthusiastic about helping -- so much so that Misty continually had to tell them to stop because they were handling breakable ornaments, pulling out too much at once, or simply putting things in the "wrong place" (Misty has a very structured system to how she likes to decorate the tree, and it is not to be trifled with).

With as much staying-out-of-the-way as possible for me, the job is complete (inside, at least -- outdoor lights are another story). Thanks to Misty, our house looks beautiful and festive, with Christmas decor everywhere (the picture above doesn't begin to tell the story).

And those Black Friday deals we "missed out" on? We compared prices online this morning and did some shopping that fared equally or better, price-wise -- and we didn't have to stay up all night, hunt for parking spaces, or cram ourselves into a huge crowd.