Long weekend

I just love long weekends.
It all started Wednesday night - DH and I finished up some final house preps for Thursday's company. We also brined all 3 turkeys. Yeah, 3. It was just a simple brine - water, dark brown sugar, kosher salt. Early early Thursday morning around 5:45, we got up and got the turkeys ready for smoking and frying. The smoked turkey was rubbed with butter, garlic, pepper and seasoned salt and then stuffed with coca cola, 1 apple, 1 onion and garlic powder. It was good - next time we'll leave out the onion and add an extra apple instead. The 2 fried turkey's were rubbed with Cayenne pepper, black pepper creole seasoning and garlic powder, then filled with some Italian dressing. The smoked went in around 6:15 am and was ready around 1pm. The fried took about an hour start to finish. The birds were delish. We had a lot of food to accompany the turkey - sweet potato casserole, sweet potato patties, green beans with ham, acorn squash, cranberry stuffing, mashed potatoes, herb rolls and more! Apps were deviled eggs and Parmesan puff pastry. And for dessert - pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, apple pie and pumpkin bread. Yeah, we're still eating it all.

Friday DH and I went out around 8am for some black Friday shopping. We were on a mission to find some furniture for our den. Started out at American Signature - their sales weren't really sales. The same living room set we got 2 years ago is the same price. Then to Ashley Furniture where we had great help from the manager/interior decorator. We found a set we loved and she helped show how we could place each piece with sketches. The collection is called Logan Stone. I have been thinking about a chaise lounge, but for the space, 2 chaise's would only make seating for 2 people. Here's a nice chaise sectional combo. It's too big for our den.We decided on the chair+1/2 and the loveseat. I also loved the tables they had with it and the ottoman, but we decided to wait until we get the furniture in to see how it all looks. Loveseat is on the right in this photo. And the chair+1/2 fits both DH and I comfortably.Since we were there between 7am-9am, we got a coupon for 20% off our purchase, which made the already affordable pieces really affordable. We got up to the counter to pay and were told it was additional $100 (well, $99.99 as the quietly spoken woman said) for delivery. We said we'd just pick it up, but she said that wasn't an option, unless we wanted to drive to Tampa. Now I still don't know what the huge sign notifying customers about their pickup policy was for since we didn't have the pick up option. We decided to look elsewhere. It wasn't the extra $100 that made us leave, it was that no one told us about it before hand. Why didn't they just have a weekly delivery to their store and give people the option to pick it up. We went to Rooms to Go after that and I kept comparing everything to that set at Ashley. We decided since that room's been empty since we moved in, we didn't have to get anything that day. But we decided to make one last stop at Haynes Brothers since they didn't look too busy. We walked right in and they were also having 'beat the clock' sales. We walked around and saw a couple pieces that would have been ok, but I told the sales lady I had to ask about any extra fees beforehand. Then I told her about the adventure at Ashley earlier that morning and she said 'oh, we carry Ashley furniture and will get it for you at the same price and deliver it for free'. I was happy!

So next time we go to get furniture, we'll look at Ashley's showroom and then order it from locally owned Haynes Bro's. (hopefully, we'll see how the whole delivery process goes within 5-10 business days).

Then it was back home for some Thanksgiving leftovers and out to Target to check out their sheets. We ended up getting a 2 pack sheet set in camel (only 300 TC) for $40 and also a chocolate brown duvet cover for our comforter for $20. The 1000 TC sheets were sold out in king size, so we got a raincheck for some in pewter gray. I'm looking forward to 1000 TC. I had wanted to get Walmart's 500 TC set for $20, but didn't want to get up at 5am and risk my life with the other early shoppers. I put one of the 300 TC sets on last night and didn't really like the way the color blended in with our oak headboard. DH convinced me that it wasn't that big of deal, so we'll keep them. They were actually pretty comfy last night.

Saturday and Sunday we did some housework, more shopping and did some of the Christmas decoration. The tree's up and decorated, most indoor decor is out and we've only got the icicle lights left for the outdoor display. We had a tornado watch and 40 mph winds yesterday so DH didn't get to get up on the roof to finish the lights. Hopefully we can do some today after work before it gets dark.

Oh, today's the first Monday of the month, that means it's Dog Night at Ritters!