My Black Friday

The Black Friday sales were weird this year...starting on Thursday night? Please. That's just desperate. It did clear the stores out for Friday morning, though!

Kaylin helped me comb the ads before our big turkey feast at Mike's parents' house last night. Mike took a picture with my phone and I can just see it resurfacing in 20 years. Me and my girl scoping the deals! She was armed with a Sharpie and I made my list.

Mike and I hit the stores together this year. (thanks to the grandparents for keeping the kids) We started at Target, which was as busy as any other random day. The items on my list, however, were all gone hours before we arrived.

So what did Mike do? He threw a t.v. in our cart. 

After Target, Mike needed a celebratory coffee and some munchkins. We headed over to Kohl's and pulled into a parking space to snack before going in to the chaos. The car that we were facing had a couple, about our age. He had a mouthful of something and she had a coffee and a fork in her hand. We made eye contact and each held up our food like, "Cheers!" It was obvious that we were all refueling before continuing our shopping. Cracked me up.

Kohl's only had a couple of shirts that Ryan circled in their ad, but we snagged a few more deals while wandering around. From there, we hit Walmart where Mike realized that his beloved t.v. was a 720p instead 1080p. Whatever the heck that means!  So we returned the t.v. to Target. I wonder if buyers remorse set in...?

From there, we hit Sears to buy our new washer and dryer that I am SO EXCITED ABOUT!!!  I've been saving for about a year for a front loader, only to find out that they're not all they're cracked up to be. So we bought a top loader that works without an agitator. It will be here Tuesday. No more holes in my clothes from my stupid Craigslist, second-hand washer. YAY! 

Have I mentioned that I'm SO excited?!?!

We pulled away from Sears and Mike was sick to his stomach.  The poor man simply doesn't do well when we spend insane amounts of money.

I came home and spent two hours wrapping gifts. I fully intended to scale way back on presents for the kids (now that they know about Santa) but it just didn't work. I've been collecting crafty things, stocking stuffers and clearance items for months. Then, today, I found some other must-haves. And now we're back to a gazillion gifts.

The good news is that they're all wrapped and ready to put under the tree, which will be up and decorated tomorrow. Fa lala lala!!!  Bring on the Christmas season!

While I wrapped, Ryan and Kaylin built their own Polar Express in the front yard. They begged to watch the movie from their creation on my laptop. Our neighbor brought out cocoa and cookies and I stayed inside so I didn't ruin their fun by freaking out about my laptop sitting on top of an upside-down wire ball bin.  

I just love Black Friday. We still have a whole weekend ahead of us!