Hummin Bird

Oh man, I thought I was the only one.

I dont know if this is the right place to ask, but does Target price match on thier clerance items? I bought my nephew the VSmile cyber pocket for xmas on 12/23 and now I find out its 50% off... ugh

Try any of the craft stores. If you cant find one there I've purchased some from Sears and Macy's. You just goto the wrapping department and ask them to sell you the box. Sometimes they charge you a buck or 2, but sometimes they make you pay the whole price of wrapping (depending on the personw orking that day) so if you go that route I would take the coat with me just in case and if they want to charge you the whole price for wrapping just let them wrap it . But the boxes are plain white that they use so you should get what you want.

we use to do cookies ALONG time ago, but we have a big family dinner on XMAS eve and once when the kids were setting out the cookies my aunt (a dentist) "Maybe we should make Santa a plate, because he needs real food instead of always getting cookies from every house which can make his teeth rot out" so thats what they did and Santa left them a wonderful letter about how happy he was to get such a hearty meal since he couldnt have dinner with Mrs Claus and the Elves. It freaked the kids out so now they always make him a plate of food (ham, mac and cheese, dressing, blackeyed peas or green beans and dinner roll) and a disposable toothbrush kit that has a cheapy toothbrush, travel size toothpaste, and travel sized mouthwash. Even though the plate of foods gets eaten, it still kind of perturbs me that she said something like that and took the joy right out of a tradition we had done since I was a kid. Im really quit sick of everyone and these PC things, cookies and candy are bad for teeth, dont say Merry Christmas, blah blah blah. Sorry for the rant.

You get more of a potatoey taste i would say. I know that sounds funny but you know how with boiling them sometimes you can taste the watered down starch I guess you could say.

I always have to make mashed potatoes for every family dinner/party we have and funny thing is I dont boil them lol Tasha's Total Taters 3lbs red new potatoes (washed, skin on do not peel) 1/2 cup chicken broth 1/4 cup olive oil kosher salt course ground black pepper 1 tablesppon crushed or minced garlic heavy whipping cream 1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese 1/4 block softened cream cheese 2 tablespoons chives or chopped green onion stalks 1 pakage of pre-cooked bacon (crumble or rough chop it up you dont have to use the whole package if you dont want to) Preheat oven to 400. Combine olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic in a plastic bag or large bowl and mix well and sit it to the side. Throughly was potatoes and pat dry with a paper towel or let air dry. Use olive oil mixture to completly coat the potatoes. Place potatoes in baking dish/pan and use a fork to poke holes in the potatoes. (Once per potato with the fork is enough). Pour the chicken broth into the pan and cover with lid or aluminum foil. Place in oven and cook for approx 30 mins or until potatoes are soft (think baked potato). Remove from oven Drain the broth off of the potatoes and cut them in halves with the skin still on. Put potatoes into a large mixing bowl with cream cheese and 4 tablespoons heavy cream. Begin to mash them with a hand masher or use a hand mixer. While mashing add a little more heavy cream at a time until they are almost to the consistancy you want. Next mix in bacon, chives, and cheese. Continue to mix until they are the consitancy you want. Serve with a dolp (lol) of sour cream on top. The trick to really creamy mashed potatoes can also be contributed to mashing them while they are still hot.

We always do honey glazed ham (spiral sliced), mashed sweet potatoes, green beans, and cornbread dressing, baked mac & cheese. We still do the tradtional holiday dinner theme pretty much.

Well, started out at TRU and stood inline for over 3 hours (with friends) about 10 mins before 12 my DH and I got out of line because we didnt have anything we were going to get from there. We walked around to the front of the store towards where we were parked. Well at midnight when they opened the doors a rush of 100+ people came out of nowhere and completly started trampling the line/line jumping. NOT ONE SINGLE employee or Police officer (5 of them at the entreance) tried to stop the line jumpers. Finally a lady went ballistic because she had been in line for over 5 hours and was livid. One of the line jumpers cursed her and they started to fist fight. Well that prompted them to close the doors to TRU and announce they would not repoen the doors until everyone could calm down and get in order. My friends got out of line and we left to goto walmart *rolls eyes* We get to walmart at 12:30 there is only around 15 people int he store (yay!!!!!!!) so I go find out where the $198 laptop is going to be and get in line. I rarely ever do walmart because I had my leg broken one year there on BF. Well we are standing in and the lady comes and counts us out and says everyone after #28 can leave the line because they only have 28 laptops. I thought that was nice of her that way those people could get in other lines for things they needed. Well at about 3 am she goes down the line and hands everyone a numbered ticket BUT tells us we still can not leave the line because they will bring the laptops out and hand them to us in exchange for the tickets and even if we have a ticket if we are not there when they bring them out she will give to the next person wanting one. So okay, im thinking no problem because Ive cased the store and know where all the other things I want are (board games and $3 pajamas). So all of a sudden at 330 am they start taking all of the plastic off the BF items and bringing out the pallets. By now the store is crowded, and people are snatching up all of the black friday items that werent ticketed. Everyone in the line is asking can we please leave the line since we have tickets since they put the items out early. She continues to say no. By 4:30 EVERYTHING is gone!!!!!! and guess what WE STILL WERE STANDING IN LINE!!!! Even the people who came for TV's have them and are standing in line waiting for 5 am to come. Did I mention they brung the pallet of laptops out at 4:40 ish and still refused to give them to us. They did not start handing out the laptops until 5:11 on the dot. Another walmart employee had come by at like 4:50 and was like "Do you want help handing them out so you can get it done" and the old asshole of a man who was over the line sad "Nahhhh they can wait it out" and laughed a little bit. I was extremly annoyed and pissed off. Once I got my laptop I got inline and waited for 2.5 hours to check out because the lines were so backed up because everyone had gotten thier things before 4:30 and were already inline just waiting for 5 am to hit. Once I paid for the laptop, I drove over to target. BEST FREAKING STORE EVER. Even though it was well after 8am when I got there they still had plenty of pajamas and board games and everything else. When I walked in there were workers ont he floor restocking just about everything!!! So i got lots of board games and the $5 pajamas. Even tho it was a few bucks more I would gladly pay that rather than indure the uglyness of walmart every again. I left and went to BBW and Kirklands, and a few other places and was able to score everything i wanted and more. I went back to target around 3pm to buy dogfood and guess what!!! The workers were still restocking doorbuster items. I asked one of them and he said the store manager told them to extend the doorbuster prices until all of the product was gone. So needless to say I ended up buying more pajamas and 4 of the gamer rockers. Now THATS how you handle Black Friday. Target will always have my business.

If we are going to get the item and NOT sell the ticket, then I let my daughter get a ticket. They never have given us any problem with giving her a ticket and she started at age 9. I think alot of negitive comments in here stem from what was said by OP in the other thread about selling tickets.

Just a heads up, went to Walmart (Lakeland, FL ) and they already had just about all of the smaller toys and some of the smaller items at the BF's pricing. My sister works there so I went up to the CS Desk and asked her what was going on and she said alot of the walmarts are doing this so that it cuts back on some of the traffic on BF, so needless to say I got alot of the smaller stuff like dolls and games that I wanted lastnight so I might be able to just forgo Walmart all together on BF

Target actually has the lincoln logs right now under 20 bucks. Fisher-Price put out a nostalgia line kind of. It has the licoln logs, those hanging monkeys, the little tv where you wind it and a scene scrolls across it, and the little telephone, and a few other "old school" toys most were under 20 bucks at Target as the regular price

when you heat your oven up to such a high temp, it takes a long time for it to cool off. if you dont open the oven door. by the time the temp in the oven drops to even say around 300 the bird will have been in the oven for atleast 3 or 4 hours. But then again this all varies by oven.

lol thanks :) Some people tend think im a bit obsessed with having a real tree, buts its really all about the nostalgia for me. Besides I love being able to pick the widest tree in the bunch. I love fat trees lol. And most of the time the fakers under $200 arent as fat (lol) as I want them to be. But im sure i'll be okay.

So my DH just called and informed me that since I relingushed and said okay to a fake tree this year ( I prefer real trees) that he wants one that spins around? Apparantly in the lobby at his job they have a 8 footer that spins. Do they have trees that do this, or is there a special stand I need to buy?

lol the Tony Chachere's marinade comes with the needle that you use to inject the turkey with. I just poke it all over differnt places to make sure I get marinade just about everywhere int he bird. But you know in all acuality, its not very spicy once you fry it. I was afraid the first year we did it that it would be to spicey but its really not, it has just a little kick, like say those saucless fried wings from KFC.

We do a cajun style deep fried turkey. 24 hours before frying time, I remove the gizzard/inards (lol) package and then use the spary nozzle int he sink to wash t he turkey. Next in a bowl I mix a bottle of Tony Chachere's Creole Butter Marinaide, 1 heaping teaspoon of ground white pepper, 1 teaspoon of ground black pepper, a few pinches of cayenne pepper and then I inject the bird with all of the mixture. Once the bird has been injected I put it in a big bucket and pour Lousiana brand hotsauce over it until its completly covered. (They seel it in the big gallon bottles here, usually takes a gallon and a half) Then I set it in the fridge to marinate overnight. Next day We use peanut oil in the gas turkey fryer and once its hot, I take the bird from the bucket, put it on the fryer rack and into the oil it goes. I have no idea how long it frys for as I make the hubby do that part since im deathly afraid of oil splatter lol. But the number one trick for fried turkey I have gotten from everyone is to use PEANUT oil, not veggi or canola oil.

ive never even heard of grocery stores giving a free turkey away How ever my company gives every employee a free turkey, my husband works for the city and they give them a free turkey, and my mom always gets a free turkey from some club she's in, and my mother-n-law gets one from her job. Since i host all holliday dinners lol I get all 4 turkeys. I usually cook one for our thanksgiving, cook one for the soup kitchen thanksgiving dinner we have at church, 1 i usually give to my son's bestfriends mom because she's a struggling single mom, and the 4th we usually save for new years day (its gets deep fried and then pulled apart to make sandwiches for the game)

When I use to live alone I use to put up a tree on Nov 1 (real one) and then take it down and put up a new one Thanksgiving day (real one) because I just dont really like fake trees. But that all changed once DH decided it was a waste of money. However last night we were strolling around Walmart and he saw some really pretty ornaments and made the comment maybe we should but our tree up sooner. I was all gung ho and thought YES a tree early again! Until he told me it would have to be a faker so we can use it again every year for the early tree. So now im saddened because I really wantt o put up the early tree but my heart hurts a little when I think of putting up a fake tree. Anyway, I put out my Christmas Village stuff last night. I have a huge round coffee table so I usually cover it with the spiderweb stuff from halloween (since it looks jsut like the snow padding stuff and i usually get it for like 90% off lol) and then set up the village figurines.

My company respresents Mars, and no we dont get the candy back, the stores usually make it down and sell it off really quickly. Or they donate it to charities or food pantries

This is what my son marked on his list as his MUST HAVE from Santa gift. So according to DH even if its a rip off we must not break tradtion and he will be getting it. He has been begging for this since August. Gosh im praying I can find it atleast 20-25 bucks cheaper than the current price.

Just typing it out made me cry a little. Her daughter (who is now my goddaughter lol) had a wonderful christmas that year (i got alot of people to help make it that way ), and they (mom, daughter, and mom's brother) are now apart of our family. Its the times like these and the friendships Ive formed that help me remember that its not allllllllllll about shopping during the Christmas season

I use to think the same way, however a few years back there was a young woman in line infront of me with a 1 year old a few people made snarky comments about it and she could hear them ( i was nto one of them) eventually she and I got to talking and I found out she and her brother were the only living members of thier family and her Husband didnt have any family either (he was raised in foster care) And not even 6 months before her Husband had been killed (army) and then her brother had been injured and lost his leg (Marines) so she really had no one and didnt know anyone really. I felt really bad for her, I asked her what she was looking for and it was mainly just the deals ont he clothes for her little girl that she really needed. I asked her for her name and number and she gave it to me, needless to say I added a nother 2 people to my list that year and we are great friends now and her daughter stays with my kids at my home on black friday.

ALL GIFTS in our house are wrapped. But then again I am QUEEN of wrapping. lol I mentioned in another thread how when we cleaned out our storage sheds this summer I had to throw away wrapping paper that has started to dry rot and crumble ebcause i have had it for so long. lol I buy so much wrapping paper its a shame, but I cant stop.

One gift and a few of the stocking stuffers. Every year our kids pick one gift as the "if I could only get just one thing it would have to be this" gift on thier list. And thats the one that some how Santa always manages to bring. We stuff stockings as a family on Christmas eve, so usually Santa will bring them something EXTRA int he stocking that they didnt know about.

But honestly, my kids are 7,12,13 and they all still believe. Although about 2 weeks ago my DD12 was ont he computer and she looked like she was really stressed out and deep in concentration. When I asked her what she was doing she said she was doing research. So me being mom I asked what was the research on and she told me she was trying to prove that Santa is real because an elder cousin told her he is not. Needless to say somehow she came to the conclusion that Santa is indeed real, and her cousin who is 16 got grounded for the weekend. Santa and believing is really big in our family. And the the 16 year old is in a very rebelious stage in her life and is down right mean and nasty to EVERYONE. So thats why she was grounded, not because she doesnt believe, but because she told some of the younger kids this to upset them.