BLACK FRIDAY--yeahhh!!

I think I'm going to do black friday shopping every year. I never went as a teenager (despite my LOVE for shopping) because we always went to get our Christmas tree early Friday morning. Obviously, we didn't go at like 5am when the stores open but if I would have done Black Friday I would have been so grumpy during Christmas tree hunting! So last year was my first year and I LOVED it. Even though the crowds are ridiculous and you have to get up SO early, it's totally worth it! All the excitement of SHOPPING and getting great deals and not feeling guilty about getting tons of stuff because hey!, they're all presents! So Kelli and I got up at 4am (oh, should I mention we went to bed at 1am after doing her job Thanksgiving night at the dorms?) and we hit Sears first. I bought a Christmas tree for Tom and me. It's soooo nice! 7.5 feet, so FULL, and it was half off! Woohoo! We got a real tree last year but since a. it's against the apartment policy to have real trees and b. we will be gone for two weeks and the tree will be dead and nasty and c. our vacuum sucks and picking up all those needles by hand last year was a PAIN IN THE YOU-KNOW-WHERE, we decided to go for fake this year and for the years to come in the apartment. After that when a. it won't be against our house policy to have a real tree, b. we will be home for the holidays, and c. we'll have a nicer vacuum (hopefully) we'll go back to real trees and use the fake one in another room. Or maybe use the fake one as our main one and let the kids pick out the real tree and let them hang their handmade ornaments on that one! ANYWAY back to Sears...a great deal but HOLY HECK was it a nightmare for Kelli and I to drag that tree down the escalater and smush it into the car. It took us like half an hour to figure out how to make it fit in that little toyota. We finally did it then headed off to Target! Kelli wanted to buy the Proposal SOOO bad (it was $9!) but even though we got there right at opening, everyone else beat her to it and there were none left! I was able to pick up some great toys for nanny kids and such for great deals and I also bought Annie (the movie) for $4! I love that movie! After Target, we went to Old Navy (where we bought a few things HALF OFF), Walmart (where I bought a card table and four chairs for $24!!! YAHHH!--the last one!!) and Kelli got the proposal (for 15 but still a deal!), then to the mall where we bought a few more things. The car was PACKED with stuff when we were done (so much that I couldn't see out the back window and Kelli had to lead me out of parking spots from outside the car). I would say SUCCESS for this year's Black Friday! Can't wait to do it again next year!! I LOVE SHOPPING!!!