Thanksgiving was the usual affair at my sister’s house.  This year was a little different with it being the first year without Bill.  It reminded me of the first holiday season without my father.  But life goes on.  We drank a toast to Bill, had a good meal and good conversation about anything and everything.

I was so stuffed that I almost couldn’t do dessert!  But I did manage to partake in the chocolate cake and pumpkin pie (yes, both for dessert).  You can see the photos from Thanksgiving in the //photos section.  All photos are not visible.  To access all photos please log into your //Flickr account, and be on my Friends and Family list.  I didn’t take too many photos, but just enough to capture the day.

The following day, Black Friday, I dropped off Farrah at Valley Fair.  I did not dare enter the mall on that day.  I did however go into Fry’s in San Jose.  I managed to find street parking close by, only having to deal with the slight drizzle that filled the day.  I didn’t buy anything, but managed to kill an hour before heading home.

Saturday we found ourselves up in the City with hundreds of other people.  Union Square was packed!!!  I wanted to take pictures of people around me, but I forgot the memory card for my camera.  I took it out of the camera to download photos from Thanksgiving dinner and forgot to place it back in the camera.  Doh!

Before starting off on our - or actually Farrah’s - shopping quest, we ate a nice lunch at the Nordstrom’s Bistro.  After getting the all needed fuel to make the rounds, we headed to Forever 21 - which is one of my favorite stores (he says sarcastically).  Next was //H & M which is new to the City.

I initially stepped into H & M with Farrah, after we waited in a 50-person line outside the store.  Crowd control was necessary for the store - I guess - so as to not create a fire hazard.  I stepped out of the store after ten minutes of waiting. I wandered around Union Square, passing by //Macy’s which had an SPCA display in one of their windows.  The display had live cats and dogs playing around cartoonish cutouts.  This created a small crowd along the windows.  Damn, I wish I had my camera to take photos!

I made my way back to H & M where I stood outside waiting for Farrah to come out.  I found it very amusing to look and listen to the crowds of people walking by H & M commenting on the store and the people waiting in line.  I heard repeated remarks like: “What store is this?” “Oh, this is like the East Coast one.” “What’s the line for?” and my favorite - “I’m not standing in line just to go into a store.”

The day ended with a few more stores to stop by (Old Navy, the Apple Store) then we headed home.  All in all I don’t think I bought much.  I was just disappointed in forgetting my memory card to capture any moments of the day.