Day after Thanksgiving

Today is the biggest shopping day of the year, therefore I am going to remain locked in my apartment until it passes and may consider venturing forth into the world again tomorrow. I hate shopping in a crowd, so rather than some sort of shopper's dream I consider this day to be a shopper's nightmare. But the good news is that I no longer have to feel like I'm breaking some law by listening to Christmas music. So what Christmas music will I be playing, you ask? (Okay, so you don't ask, but I'm going to tell you anyway.) This Hope, A Cappella Christmas - CD I got in college one of the times they sang for chapel (my freshman year, I think) that has been on the top of my Christmas music list since; Il Divo, The Christmas Collection - this is a relatively new release, and, Jess, they don't sound quite as "schmoozy" as in their debut album, although I'm still trying to figure out how "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" is a Christmas song; VeggieTales, A Very Veggie Christmas - I have to get my fill of "The Eight Polish Foods of Christmas" and "Feliz Navidad" with the chicken dance in the middle of it; Handel, The Messiah - wouldn't be right to let the season pass without pulling that one out; I also have other Christmas CDs that I may or may not pull out over the next few weeks.
This seems an appropriate time to mention a few key countdowns: Christmas is in 30 days and I am going home for Christmas in 25 days.
Yesterday came with some firsts for me. It was the first time I spend Thanksgiving away from home. It was the first time I have looked outside and seen wild turkeys in the yard (while it was snowing, no less), which I found rather appropriate. It was the first time I drove in the snow (snow that stuck, anyway) and the first time I experienced some of the fun things that come with it, like skidding on ice (I didn't run into anything, wasn't going fast, and didn't spin out) and not being able to get enough traction to accelerate quickly at all when a light turned green - woohoo!