Yes, I'm one of those people (sort of)

Ten years ago I laughed at "those people" who went crazy for shopping on "Black Friday." My aunt asked me to go with her one year and I told her NO WAY! I think that was the year that she got my mom to go out with her at 5am to Kohl's for one thing or another. From there it was a slippery slope and before we knew it, my mom and I turned into "those people!"

Don't get me wrong. I don't go crazy. I don't tackle people for #2 mini choppers. I don't cry (unless I get tackled over $2 mini choppers). However, my mom, my aunt, and I have made it a fun tradition to scope out the deals and stay up all night going to the various sales. It's fun looking through all of the ads, making our lists, and then going to our designated areas to pick up certain items. [It pains me to say that, but it's true!]

This year Wal-Mart decided to do something awful (IMHO) and start their sale at 10pm. I didn't even know that until I got to my mom's house and my aunt was saying we had to hurry up and get ready. NO WAY was I going. But then mom guilted me. Aunt S. really wanted some items at the WM sale, and she has a very limited budget, and she's always helped us get our items all these years. Yeah...my mom can work me. I very warily agreed to go, but ONLY because I loved my Aunt S!

We got to WM at about 8pm, just to scope out locations of items and get things that were on our shopping lists but not part of the big sale. Before long we were all in our areas, staking out our claim on the various good deals. At 9:44 we got word that they would allow folks to go at 9:45. 9:45 sharp and the chaos began! It's definitely "grab and go!" We all got our items and met at our pre-designated meeting spot within about 10 minutes. We added a few more things to the baskets on our way to the check out lines. If you've been to these sales, you know the check out can be CRAZY! I have seen Kohl's check out wrapped around the store TWICE! But somehow we ended up in a line with only 2 other people in front of us. We were out of the store at 10:20pm. A shopping miracle! LOL!

We really didn't need/want any other items at other stores bad enough to get up at 4 or 5am, so we actually got to go to sleep on Thanksgiving night for the first time in years. After a leisurely morning we went back out to do our regular Christmas shopping at about 11am on Friday.

The cutest thing was my niece Mac. She is 14 and this was the first year she ever went Black Friday shopping. She also lives out of town. She was so cute! She was doing the laughing and crying at the same time thing after she grabbed her item at Wal-Mart. She ran to my mom and gave her a huge hug saying, "This is the funnest scariest thing ever!" LOL! We went to Gordmans and K-mart--both places she had never been before. She was a trooper and a great help the whole day long.

We shopped about 9 hours on Friday while the guys stayed home and watched my little kids. [Good hubby. Good hubby!] On Saturday just my mom and I went back out to Dollar General for 15 grandkids worth of stocking stuffers. Then, done!

Even though I still have mix feelings about doing any shopping on Thanksgiving day, I must admit it was so nice to be home before midnight and then be able to sleep a regular night's sleep. It was a fun time with my women-folk relatives, and I'm about 95% done with all of our shopping. Score!

Love,

Anita