Woodbridge, VA (USA)

[I made breakfast for the kids (cereal, bagels, leftovers). Brenna spent the morning working on college applications while Mollie watched YouTube videos. Lunch was leftovers. Around 1300, Brenna asked me to take her to Springfield Mall because she'd heard that Erin and Nicky had found good things there on “Black Friday.” I left Mollie at home and drove Brenna to go shopping. We walked all over the Mall, looking for deals, but didn't buy anything. We had a nice talk about me being in her life and our future relationship. She asked lots of questions about Christmas traveling, next Thanksgiving (possibly with the Morans) and decorating my house for Christmas. We got home around 1500. My friend, Kelly, had told me about a tree lighting in Woodbridge and she said that it started at 1820. I was able to convince Brenna to go by telling her to bring her laptop. All of us went to the Stonebridge shopping center around 1715 and met up with Kelly and her Uncle Jeff at Firebirds. We ended up having to move across the street to Not Your Average Joe's and got a table right next to the huge Christmas tree. We had drinks and appetizers until Kelly’s husband, Jason, arrived with their kids, Emma and Aidan. Everyone had a great time watching the festivities (dancing gnomes, sparkly light wands, music and crowds). I even got to see Brenna and Mollie playing a hand slap game together... The tree lighting didn't work out well (there was a big countdown to no lights came on) but they eventually got part of it lit (it looked like layer cake) and then the rest by the end. After it was over, we drove over to Kelly's and (after I carved the leftover turkey) she made an amazing dish she called "Turkey Spaghetti". The kids played the game of "Life" and the adults watched football. Emma wanted Mollie to stay overnight, so Brenna and I left at around 2200. We had another good talk on the way home. Before she went to bed, she worked more on her essays.]