It's the Holiday Season....

...so hoop de doop, and dickery-dock. (Don't ask me, Frank Sinatra sang it.)

It's been an interesting start to the stretch from Thanksgiving to Christmas, more from the personal end than the job end. Heck, the job half of the equation I half-expect to be chaotic, stressful and basically a pressure cooker. I'll start the narrative last Wednesday, when Kel and I put our initial holiday plans into play. Kel and I had planned to go up to her folks' estate in Sauk City, where we would dine with the fam and she would go to the new Twilight: New Moon with her sister (who oh-so-conveniently lives across the street from the parentals) and I would hang out in the basement and watch DVDs. We would spend the night there, take part in the preparation and consumption of the Thanksgiving feast the day after. After watching some televised football, I would drive back home Thursday evening to work at 6 a.m. Black Friday morn while Kel, her sister, mother and aunt would scour the doorbuster ads and plan their early Friday strategy accordingly.

So I get done with work, get packed for the little trip and soon we were off, she in the van and I in the red Neon. The whole way it is raining cats and dogs, so we take the highway instead of the interstate. Once the highway meets Madison's beltway, traffic has slowed to a crawl and we get separated (no doubt because I am an over-cautious driver and she's a decent driver.) So I eventually meet her at the in-laws, which is...empty. They had gone out to eat in Baraboo 35 minutes previous. Kel's sister soon arrives and she is not feeling well at all. So no dinner, no movie. Kel decided to chek in with her aunt, who was staying at a hotel at the Dells. On a lark, we contact the hotel itself to see if they had any openings. The clerk told her the regular rate (which was a little above the imaginary price in our collective mind) but then gave us a much lower rate if we came in that night (which our collective mind liked.) If nothing else, it meant not having to share a twin bed in the basement, which by previous experience is a bit cramped. We left the car in the parents' driveway and drove the van up to Tourist Trap USA, er, Wisconsin Dells.

We checked back with Kel's aunt who gave us general directions to the hotel. We agreed that we would find the hotel and then find somewhere close to there to eat, sicne we were both famished at that point. It only took us one wrong turn and some clever guessing, but we found the place and then took off to the nearest Mickie D's to catch some quick grub. There, we were surprised to find out the assortment of things that normally came to about $11 in town cost over $20 at the Dells! (We should have been suspicious when we looked at the Drive-Through menu and saw no Dollar Menu... the McDouble cost $1.70!) We passed and instead went to a Burger King, where the prices were a little more reasonable AND they had little Twilight: New Moon postcards with coupons on the back. Score?!

At the hotel, we figured out why we got such an awesome rate, because the place was practically deserted -- if the hotel from the Shining had an indoor pool park, that would have been the place we were staying. We ate, watched a little TV and then decided to try out the pool facilities. (Since we knew Kel's Aunt was staying there, we had packed swim trunks anyway in case we decided to do some post-turkey swimming.) The hotel had two separate pool areas on the grounds: we went to the smaller one as it was doors away from our room, but it still had a generous pool with a small slide, a hot tub and a steam room (which sadly was out-of-order.) Kel and I spent most of the time in the tub, and her aunt and uncle joined us soon afterward. We had a lovely conversation that I heard about ten words of; with the hot tub bubblings and a child's birthday party happening nearby, I could basically see jaws move and little else, so I just nodded occasionally, hoping that would cover. After hitting the main pool for a spell and another hot-tub soak, we said our good-byes and headed back to our room, where we watched some DVDs before getting some shut-eye.

Morning found us behind schedule and in packing to leave we nearly forgot our swim outfits. While still at the Dells, we got a pivotal Thanksgiving paper stuffed with all the Black Friday ads and then took the short drive south back to Kel's folks. When we got there, Kel's dad tried to get me to help him out with something on the computer, which we figured out after Kel came in. It seemed a little tense for whatever reason, which was weird because not only was it Thanksgiving but it also happened to be Kel's sister's birthday. So the birthday girl came over, we lengthened the table to accomedate everyone, and the newspaper began to get dissected as the turkey was tanning.

I was going through an ad so I missed the main brunt of it, but words were exchanged between parents and kids, Tracy was out the door and we soon followed. Tracy walked back to her house and after getting the Aunt and Uncle from the hotel into the house without actually entering the house, we decided to head back home. Kel's folks have had a lot of stuff on their plate this month (we had just buried Kel's grandma a few weeks before) and rather than take part in potential fireworks just decided to bow out. Don't get me wrong -- I love eating turkey, potatoes and all that jazz but it seemed to me there was a black cloud looming over the whole thing. So we headed back to home and had a quiet Turkey Day with us and the doggies. (Kel's sister returned to the house after a bit and the rest of the party had their dinner as scheduled, and even went to the nearby casino.) Kel cooked up some cocktail weinies and that was our holiday dinner. Obviously it was not at all how we planned it, but it was still cool, and it really showed how tight a couple we are that we were still able to enjoy it. I really can't commentate on what went or will go on with Kel's folks; I guess time will tell.

Among the notable drawbacks to un-inviting ourselves to the Thanksgiving meal was leaving the ad paper at the house -- we visited a gas station because the Neon was running on vapors, and a large paper right by the doors said "SORRY NO PAPERS." I suspect they weren't the only ones. As it turned out, the only Door Buster sale I attended was the one I, you know, get paid for. Working at a 24-hour store makes doing early morning sales a bit strange, as the whole need for someone to actually open the door to begin the sale is eliminated. Previously, we had started the sale at 6 a.m. and had someone behind each and every register, which guaranteed at least 90 minutes of white-knuckle cashiering. This year, the powers that be decided to start the sale at midnight, which meant the white-hot portion of shopping was handled by our graveyard shift, who reported that they were crazy busy for about two hours. While it must have sucked for them, it was nice to have a pretty quiet, unpanicked morning as far as customers went. Of course, we did have to unload and put away a 550-plus piece truck, so at least we weren't bored -- and it did seem to pick up after 1pm. After my shift, I looked for a few things at Target, went back to my job to get the best sales there (Patroit Candles 3 for the price of 1 and $1.99 Red baron Pizza and $1.99 pints of Ben and Jerry) and cleaned up my office as Kel had gone to Madison with her sister to see New Moon and 2012.

Saturday we cleaned the house a tad before visiting one of Kel's cousins for an early dinner in Rockford. We took a scenic route to avoid the tolls and made one wrong turn so we were a little late to meet cousin and hubby. The place had the same general idea as Kel's current fave Madison restaurant Hu Hot, so we went to see how close it was to that. I thought it was OK, but I am also not as big a fan of the "put all your ingedients in a bowl and we'll cook it" style. Since my knowledge of cooking techniques doesn't go much beyond preparing freaking Jello, I'm not the person to know what sauces and spices go with each meat, etc etc. So I basically wing it with each successive trip and while I like everything, nothing knocks me out enough stay with something consistently. (Once I get a combination I like at a restaurant, it's always good, which is reflected in my loyalty to my local Subways and Qudobas.)

After our meal, we departed to head back home and decided to hit the Target in the next town north and see if there were any great sales left to test our newly expanded Target card limit. Without saying too much, we gave it a good test. Kel got a new jacket, we got a new scanner and I got new work pants and a crap-ton of DVDs and milk (which was the only thing we truly came in for.) We were home by 8:30pm, which still gave us enough time to go to my work's holiday party which was fun, if sparsely attended. (We had the party at a bowling alley, which allowed me to display my sub-triple digits bowling dominance, which paired with three other co-workers who actually bowl more than once a decade guaranteed me last place.)

The next day brought a new wrinkle to my day-to-day, which was working on Sunday, which I hadn't done since I got promoted back in March. I had forgotten what a different pace and wavelength working on Sundays is. That might sound funny for those of you reading who don't work retail, but every day has a different vibe -- both referring to days of the week and the weather outside. Sundays happen to be the first day of our sales flyers, so we get a steady stream of bargain shoppers who fill their carts to bursting. It was also cold, so people seemed more likely to wheel around the store leisurely. Normally, Sundays in winters are quieter but since the Packers had already played Thanksgiving Day, that didn't seem to be the case this Sunday. Whether it was working Sunday, having three days off or working more of a mid-day shift (I started at 10am when usually I come in at 7:30am at the latest) I wasn't feeling it 100% but still got most of my projects done. With time and routine, that'll change. The worst thing about working Sundays mean I'll have to miss a few Packers games, but that's why there are DVRs, I suppose.

Believe it or not, we're looking pretty good coming up to Christmas. Almost all of our holiday gifts are purchased and ready to be wrapped, and that for me is the most stressful part of all. The tree, the trimming, the endless parade of Christmas programming, all of that is a little easier if the gifts have been bought already. So whatever holiday or holidays you have coming up, I sincerely hope your next few weeks are plagued with as little stress as possible. And maybe Santa Adam will write a blog or two in December.