turkeys, shiatsu, football and shoeboxes

ok, first of all i just want to throw this in. it's the turkey from the thanksgiving blend bag. he really has nothing to do with anything. but i like him.

last night blake and luke went to the cmhs football game to see the first game in the playoffs. (also the last for them because cmhs lost. oh well.) they stood in the cold cold cold rain rain rain but were ok i guess because we didn't get any frantic texts to come pick them up before the end of the game. of course they didn't care if they were wet or cold because they're teenagers and they were with their friends. i remember not caring so much about that myself. while they were at the game, greg and max and i went shopping for jeans for max and coats for all 3 boys and goodies for our shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. we do 3 boxes each year, one for each of the boys, and have for as long as i can remember. it's really something for all of us to know that a child somewhere in the world will receive these boxes and be thrilled with what they find there. and we know that none of us would be particularly thrilled with a box containing the items we put in. and this would be because we are spoiled, along with the majority of people in this country. anyway, the shopping was fun as usual, even though we were missing 2 of our people. and max and i got in some relaxation time at kohl's while greg was wandering around the men's department. we found a couple of massage chairs and decided to try them out. we tried them out for a pretty long time! long enough to draw smiles and assorted other funny looks from other shoppers. but that kind of thing seems to happen to me anyway so i'm used to it. one man even told me that he got one for free because he kept transferring prescriptions to rite-aid and every time he did they gave him a $30 gift card and when he had enough he spent it on one of those chairs. (i still think i must have "talk to me/tell me your life story" tattooed on my forehead.) max and i tried all of the settings and decided we like the whole back shiatsu with heat, with occasional concentration on the mid to lower back. if anyone wants to buy us one for Christmas, they're on sale at kohl's at least through the weekend. (i DID admit to being spoiled.) after all that we went to kroger and finished up my grocery shopping just in time to go pick up the big boys when they texted that the game was a few seconds from over. (nothing like giving us some time to get out there!) when we got home we spread out all of our Christmas goodie stash, divided it up and got those shoeboxes all packed. they'd never get it all in there on their own - well, blake would - but they've got their dad and his packing skills to help them.