Black Friday

Black was the color of the sky when we pulled out that morning. Is that why they call it Black Friday? I've never really shopped the deals. I'll usually go out shopping sometime during the day just because, but all of the big ticket items are gone, and that's okay with me. This year, Cari saw something in the Wal-Mart ad that she had to have for one of her girls for Christmas, so she was determined to go. Since I had no choice (few people have control over me like my sisters), I found a few items that I couldn't live without. We went Thursday night to scope things out and were told that they would be handing out tickets for our items at 3am, and then we'd have to continue to wait in line until 5 when the sale officially began.

Our plan was to leave at 2:30, but neither one of us could sleep. I kept having dreams about all of the different ads, where my items were, whether I was going to get them or not - one minute they were there, the next they were gone, etc. Very irritating! Cari came in at 2 and said "Let's go" so we made our hot chocolate, grabbed our necessities: ads, christmas lists, blanket, cards, water, kitchen sink, etc. and were out the door. Here's the car clock when we pulled out. Note: It is 6 minutes fast. It may look a little blury to you. That's how it looked to us, too.

We made it to Wal-Mart at about 2:30 and set up camp. I'm pretty sure people were jealous of us. I mean, who wouldn't be? We were playing cards in the middle of a Wal-Mart aisle and having a deliriously good time while they were all standing by their baskets. A lady in front of us wanted us to hold her place in line while she ran to grab something else - to which we agreed - only if she would take our picture. Not the best picture, but it's memories, right? And yes, we're matching. We don't really know why we do the things that we do, but we still do them. And yes, we think we're cool. No comments, please....

The whole experience was pretty entertaining. It's amazing the loyalties that are formed, merely by standing in the same line for several hours. We scratched their backs (not literally - come on - we're strangers) and they scratched ours. We'd head back across the store if we discovered something of import to another while we were out stretching our legs and we even exchanged cell phone numbers in case something really important came up. Poor, innocent late shoppers who would wander up towards the front of the line to see what was going on would be ripped to shreds before they were half way there. There was absolutely NO cutting. They didn't end up handing out tickets until almost 5, but if we wouldn't have gotten there so early, we wouldn't have gotten one. We barely did as it was. Our items were pretty limited. When we were allowed to go in the Garden Center, a few at a time to pick our things up, one poor guy almost got tackled by others farther back in line because they thought he had snuck in and grabbed one without a ticket. DO NOT LOSE THE TICKET!!! We got what we went for and left pretty happy and satisfied - I saved almost $200. We stopped by a very few more stores, but everything we were interested in was gone by then - it was almost 7, you know, and we called it a day. It was fun, it was entertaining - but I don't think I could do it every year.

Later that day, the kids colored ornaments to celebrate the official beginning of the Christmas season. We try and do things with them every once in awhile so that we feel like good moms, but really they have no idea that we exist when they get together. I even start to miss my kids and we're in the same house the whole time. I'm glad they have such a fun time.

Steven and Tillman and Cody and Emily came over to hang out a bit more and it's always nice to be with family. We were planning on staying until late Saturday afternoon, but Isaac throwing up in the middle of the night changed our plans a little. Red Kool-aid was banned from all of the children after that. Sorry again for the gigantic pink stain in the middle of your hall - among other things... We got caught in traffic on our way home and our usual hour and a half trip turned into three hours. Thankfully, Isaac was okay. All I could think about was puke all over my van as I inched along. Not exactly the perfect ending to our weekend, but the weekend was great nonetheless. Now it's back to home. There really is no place like home.