Before the day got going yesterday, Thanksgiving mind you, Reagan and I looked through the ads. I sorta hoped she would have lost interest by then... no such luck.
Reagan cut out pictures of what we wanted to look for at each store and we made a plan. Our first item was such a good one!! A Kitchen Aid for half price, talk about hitting the mother load. Wal Mart was out first stop... at 12:01 a.m. Are we nuts? Reagan took a power nap and then we headed out at 11:30 p.m. We drove past Toys R Us where people were still in line to get in... crazy! Next to that was Target with people in a tent at the door, with other wing nuts camped out waiting in line. Off to Wally World we went. Because it is a 24-hour store we had no lines.
Straight inside was the loot! Pallets piled high with the hot items - a.k.a door busters. I spotted the Kitchen Aid and made a beeline where we parked it for 20 minutes. They were all wrapped in dark plastic with notes saying, Open at 12:01 a.m. We got chatting with 2 other crazy shoppers - a girl Reagan's age and another mom. We hatched our plan to help each other out. We also decided that once they started opening things Reagan would jet over to another close by spot to grab a mini chopper for $2.97. About 10 to midnight the whirlwind started!! Someone started tearing open the plastic, so Reagan ran off. I was worried the giant man looming close by would take one of our posses 3 Kitchen Aids, so I started tearing at the plastic like a lunatic. I could hardly believe myself! But hey - a $300 appliance I've been wanting for half the price? GAME ON!!
I had mine, the other 2 had theirs, awesome! Bye, nice chatting, have fun. Then the giant man was holding his loot. He was so proud, holding it high above his head with a huge smile - almost as proud as me with my Kitchen Aid. So as Reagan is coming back I yell, "What's that?" A vacuum. "Grab one!" Hey, if it was as great as the giant man made it look, surely I'd want one. So for $23 Kris Kissel owns a Bissell. Once Reagan and I got out of that spot we were in shock! WE DID IT!! We came, we conquered, we didn't get trampled.
We decided that since we were up we might as well swing past Toys R Us again. The skate ramps Tennison wanted weren't there, so home we went. I was so wound up from my first Black Friday I couldn't fall asleep until after 1 a.m. When the alarm went off at 5:30 for round 2 I felt like my inner college girl was screaming for sleep. I got up, brushed my teeth, slapped on my glasses and off we went. We got to Target "late" so all the 4 a.m. door busters were gone. After some small purchases we went to Sprouts for our free Black Friday Survival Kit! Then to Dick's Sporting Goods (Scott is going to be so happy), JC Penney & Kohl's.
Four and a half hours later, cotton mouthed and tired like I haven't been since '98 when Reagan was born, we hit Gib's Bagels and Starbucks. We brought it home and told our tale to the gang. After some food and caffeine we have stayed awake and feel darn proud of our first Black Friday. I even used the Bissell... works awesome, the giant man is a smart dude!!
Even though we're tired this was totally worth it. When your 12 year old daughter wants to spend time with you like this, you jump at the opportunity. When she texts her friends at 5:30 a.m. proud to be doing something like this, you know you did right! What am I thankful for the day after Thanksgiving? Memories with my daughter... and the fact I could hang with her like the college girl I used to be!!
~ Making plans for Black Friday 2011 ~
You guys rock! I predict that this is the first of many Black Fridays to come. And I'm so thankful my eldest daughter is still a clueless-to-BF 8-year-old. :)
ReplyDeletei was out there also - except we live an hour away from the nearest target so we left before 3am and were home by 10 am. I love it - haven't missed black friday in years!! I commented to my friend that sometime soon we could bring our girls on our early morning adventure!
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