Black Friday

It has been a long-standing tradition that my brother (when he used to live in NY), my grandmother (when she was alive), my mother, and my two aunts go shopping at the mall on Black Friday. We usually meet sometime in the morning (like 9am or so), shop, eat lunch together, and shop for a little while longer before heading out when the crowds get insanely large.

Well, today was my first experience with the very early morning Black Friday crowds. I saw some fantastic sales in the Target ad from yesterday and just had to get those items! (What in the world was I thinking?) So, it's 4am and my alarm clock is going off. I went to bed at 11:30pm. Am I really this insane?, I'm thinking to myself as I stumble out of bed to get dressed and head out the door. (In case you're wondering, Aidan and Daddy were home, sound asleep).

I arrived at Target shortly after they opened (5am). There were no carts left and you could barely move. There was pushing, shoving, and shouting. Thank God there weren't any stampedes! I actually paid for my purchases in the electronics department (after I grabbed the very last box of what I wanted, to the glaring eye of some other customers). I ended up waiting in line for a little over an hour. The lines for the checkouts in the front of the store literally snaked their way back to the electronics department and around the corner. There must have been at least five hundred people waiting in line. Unbelievable.

After I left Target, I figured I would check out Best Buy. They had two things that I wanted to get. Well, they were completely sold out of one thing and the other thing, well, they had it but I wasn't about to wait in a line that snaked it's way around the entire building! It so wasn't worth the $20 I would have saved, considering I can probably get the same item on eBay for right around the same price.

So, I left Best Buy and headed to Kohls. Again, they were completely sold out of the item I wanted (do we see a recurring theme here? LOL) And, once again, the lines snaked around the entire building. I'm sensing a pattern here -- pick ONE store to visit at 5am or whenever they open and don't bother with the other ones!

After leaving Kohls, I decided to make one last stop -- Toys R Us. They were busy, but there was absolutely NO lines for checking out! I was amazed. Of course, they were sold out of what I went in there for, but I did end up getting a couple of things for Aidan (Birthday and Christmas). So, I felt like I got a little bit accomplished.

By the time I got home, it was 9am and Alex and Aidan were eating breakfast. Aidan was laughing and smiling, it was the sweetest thing. And he had good reason to be smiling -- Daddy fed him sweet potatoes (with marshmallows) and pumpkin pie for breakfast! LOL Pretty soon Aidan is going to start asking for Daddy to feed him breakfast!

We did end up meeting Mom, Aunt Carol, and Aunt Dolly at the mall, (and Alex came, too!) but we didn't make it there until 11am. Needless to say, I didn't get much shopping done. I got one person done and that's it. I'm so used to getting at least half of my list covered, but no such luck today...

Oh, well, there's always tomorrow, right? Aidan and I have big plans with Aunt Terri at yet another mall!