Thanksgiving and after

Four days after the move and there are still lots of boxes in the living room to be unpacked but we're getting there. Didn't get the free turkey on Tuesday. The Pathmark bonus coupon was good for anything from the meat department so for ease of preparation, we got chicken instead. Thus, the first use of the gas oven was to make baked chicken thighs. We did the chicken drumsticks two days later.

It was a quiet Thanksgiving. We didn't head out early on Black Friday for the early bird sales. However, there were still plenty of interesting specials this weekend so we went out a little later. Found the Oh, Well geocache in New Castle along the way. For a cache rated 3 stars in difficulty, it actually wasn't that hard. But I still didn't see it the first time. In 46-degree weather though, I was glad it didn't take too long to find.

After the cache, we went to Walmart in Wilmington, Young's Oriental Grocery in Wilmington, Target in Brandywine, and Pathmark in New Castle. (had to stock up on groceries too) Also made a quick stop at Concord Mall just to check it out but there wasn't anything spectacular about that mall. Contrary to what one might expect, the shopping crowd wasn't really that bad. Sale items, at least the ones we were looking for, were still available and there was no wait to checkout at any of those stores.

Saturday: Did more unpacking and put more items in their correct places in the house. The dining table and living room lamps are now in place. Also wrapped some gifts and gathered up some toy donations for tomorrow's SJG event in Deptford.

2009 SJG Christmas Story geocaching event

I'd planned on attending the SJG Christmas Story geocaching event on Sunday but that was a dinner event, which meant I had a whole day to go geocaching in South Jersey! I had a bunch of geocaches loaded into my GPS. I don't think I went for those in the most efficient way though. I started out at Red Bank, near Woodbury. Then I got more geocaches over in Deptford, after taking care of a few errands in Runnemede. (since I knew where the bank and Wawa store are) Then I somehow ended up near Woodbury and Westville again.

In any case, that wasn't too far from the event so at sunset, I stopped geocaching and headed over to the restaurant. It was quite a crowd. We filled the party room. At this event, there was a Toys For Tots donation table and a White Elephant gift exchange. I'd just moved and I had lots of plush toys packed away in boxes, so I brought two bags of plush toys for donation. The toy donation table was a sight to behold. Lots of attendees brought toy donations so it was overflowing with toys. Evil Chicken wrote in his event log that they took 2 full shopping carts of toys into Toys R Us in Deptford and filled the Toys For Tots bin there. I also had two wrapped gifts for the gift exchange. As for food, I had lots and ice cream too.

Near the end of the event, there was a raffle for door prizes. My ticket was called and I picked a first aid kit in a bottle from the prize table. Then I got a flashlight in the gift exchange. Both prizes are useful but I figure as long as I come home with less stuff than I brought there, it's good for clutter control.

( The caches... )