Thankfulness...Day 105

Today I am thankful for stores that opened at midnight in honor of Black Friday.  I have been struggling a bit with insomnia...so this morning instead of trying to find something decent to watch on T.V. or starting yet another crafty project...I got to go shopping.  I woke up around 2:30 and wandered around the house until about 3:45...then I headed out to Target. Let me just say for a Black Friday, there were not an insane number of people tearing the store apart.   I asked the lady at the checkout if it had been busy and she told me that when they opened at midnight it was CRAAAAZZZYYY.  I was glad those folks had moved on to the next retail feeding frenzy.  So in an almost empty Target store, I wandered up and down each aisle...I spent quite a bit of time in the Christmas section because they had rainbow items galore...

I admit it...I stared at this tinsel for quite a while.

I was so focused on this ornament
I missed the gnome two pegs over!

rainbow knife set...I am officially in heaven 

this is a gift sack, but i plan on printing it as a 5x7 and
putting it in a frame on my mantle.

Here are the knives without the block.
This is the only way to see the blade.
Target locks their knives into the display block...
sad testament to the times...but really smart too!

I also took a spin around the toy section. I always love looking at the new complex toys released each year to keep this generation of children engaged.  I mean we had "Speak and Say" a "Rubik's Cube" maybe Tetris for our Game Boy...if we were lucky.  Kiddos these days have brains that travel at the speed of light.  Speak and Spell with his robotic voice and simple red and yellow color scheme, would be a joke to them. I have an entire folder on pinterest labeled...Remember when.  I would not trade my childhood for all the money in the world. I am thankful for the ability to see the wonder in simplicity.  To solve a puzzle..or make the sides of Operation, buzz and slightly vibrate my fingers.  Now everything has to be bigger and brighter and do a crazy something to be considered. Perfect example...I am now and will always be thankful for the floppy lump of blue fur and stuffing, named Grover that I received shortly after my brother was born.  It was disturbing to my mother that as she would nurse my brother I chose to nurse a blue monster, but I think he was then and still is my most prized possession. As I wandered the aisles at Target I found Grover...well Grover with a 21st century makeover...

 I love this toy.  I love super Grover.  I remember turning my Grover into super Grover using a hand towel.  I was forced to use my imagination to create something new.  With the purchase of this toy the imagining has almost been completed without the child.  This toy has various preprogrammed sayings...and amazing costume, and it is super soft to boot.  Don't get me wrong I had to use all my willpower not to purchase the new and "improved" version of my fuzzy blue friend.  I did walk on...knowing I had created my own super adventures, and those adventures had helped create the mind that gallops away with ideas everyday!  So i guess in addition to being thankful for the lack of crowds...I am also thankful for the simplicity of play when I was a child.

see...no cape...no helmet..just matted blue fur and
sharpie drawn blacks of his eyes.
This Grover has been with me for EVERY
step in my life....and that makes him super!

Sorry this is so rambly.  I have my thankfulness thought for Saturday, but I think I will wait until I can pull my brain together a little bit better before posting.  I hope everyone had a pleasant Black Friday.  Please leave me a commetn about your favorite childhood toy.  I would love to know more about the people who read what I write. 

To the Moon and Back,

Sarah