The Marlow Memoirs: Black Friday Shopping

I put a ponytail in Alegria's hair again today and decided to top it off with a bow. I thought it looked super cute...

...but Alegria thought it looked stupid. She pulled it out. :(

When Daddy woke up (we let him sleep in on days when he doesn't have to go to work), we finished getting ready and headed out the door to run a few errands.

First on our list was to go get Cameron's new insignia sewn on his garrison cap (no, people, I don't sew!). For $1.50, he got it sewn on by a professional. :)

Then we went to one of the ranges on Post for Cameron to sight in his weapon. While Alegria and I waited, I took a few pictures of her playing geologist again:

I actually got a good one of me, too! Cameron liked this one so much that he asked me to print off a copy for him. :)

M4 zeroed in and ready to go for tomorrow's hunting expedition!

On our way home, Alegria didn't like the radio station we were listening to and covered her ears. Also, I don't know if you can tell, but the poor baby has got a bad case of dry skin on her face! I'm putting ointment on it as often as possible in hopes that it will go away soon. :(

Also on our way home, we noticed that there were a lot of cattle along the road. Cameron told me that whenever I'm in that area on Post, to make sure I watch out for cattle...they like to wander out in front of traffic:

We got home, had some lunch, and then Alegria had a nap.

When Alegria woke up, we went on a shopping spree. We first hit Sears, where we got a couple of Christmas presents for each other. Cameron got me an automatic garage door opener, and I got Cameron a small deep freeze to store our meat in.

Then we went to Wal-Mart for a Christmas tree, a wreath, and Cameron's hunting license...joy of joys, being military, he got the license free! And it was all-encompassing...hunting, fishing, you name it, he can kill it! :)

Last, but not least, we went to Academy for Cameron to buy a couple of game knives (we actually had to turn back around and go back to Killeen because the Cove Wal-Mart didn't have the hunting knives that Cameron needed). He doesn't know what happened to his bone saw that he had in Montana, so he had to get a new one.

Alegria enjoyed playing with the small shopping basket:

Can you believe she tried to climb in it?!

On our way to the checkout, Alegria decided she wanted to make sure that Daddy was buying things that were necessary:

At the checkout, a few customers and cashiers that were nearby were commenting how cute Alegria was. Alegria kept playing with the basket. Then one of the cashier ladies who had come to comment on her, asked if she could take the basket and began taking a hold of the handles...and Alegria grabbed her hand and began to take it OFF the handles!!! It was SOOO funny! :)

Back home, the first thing we did after unloading our buys was to bring down the Christmas decorations. Alegria wanted to help to bring stuff down from the attic:

Once inside, Alegria helped me hang the wreath on the front door:

Then I set up the Nativity while Cameron set up our new Christmas tree.

I miss having a real tree like we did in Montana. The day after Thanksgiving was always so great...we'd go up to the woods behind Cameron's parents' place and cut down a fresh tree, then back home, the scent of pine would fill the air as we decorated our little apartment. I must admit, though, I won't miss having to water the tree (especially with the potential of Alegria wanting to play with the water), and I won't miss the pine needles falling all month long. Plus, the pre-lit tree we got makes it so much faster to decorate! :)

Once Daddy had the tree set up, Alegria did a great job helping to place the ornaments on the tree:

Then it was time to clean up the mess:

Alegria LOVES the Nativity! As soon as I got out the box to start setting it up, she wanted to play with the figurines...so we let her play with the two lambs for a few minutes. Luckily, Alegria's not too aggressive with toys, so she did fine with the little ceramic lambs.

Once everything was set up and Alegria was in bed, I realized that we didn't really have much in the way of decorations. Or maybe it was that our small apartment back in Bozeman made it look like there was more, I don't know. Luckily, Cameron had to go back to Wal-Mart, so I asked him to please pick up a garland and bows for our entertainment center and also some new Christmas stockings that match...we still didn't have one for Alegria since last year we weren't in our own home and didn't decorate at all.

Last but not least, Cameron set up some Christmas lights around the front windows: