Saturday, November 29, 2008

BLACK FRIDAY ~ save it to give it and HAVE FUN!

We had an extremely relaxing Thanksgiving Day! I had stayed up until 2 am the night before working on a Christmas gift project so Greg let me sleep until 10!!!!!!!!!!!!! I haven't done that since college! THANK YOU HONEY! We basically hung out at the house all day doing a whole lot of nothing! We had Thanksgiving dinner at 5 pm at my in-laws. . yummy, yummy! It was a great evening full of lots of laughter and game playing, which I love!

But, the day didn't end there. . .now, let me tell you that I don't think I've EVER done the Black Friday thing. Getting up at 4 am sounds like TORTURE to me! I am NOT a morning person. To top it all off, I only have 3 gifts to buy this year. With some projects I am working on, the fact that my whole family is doing charitable giving instead of gifts combined with the cool things I came home with from Uganda and I really don't need to stress about Christmas this year. But, I do like fun. shocker?! My sister, Stephani, was slated to work from midnight to 6 am AND it was her birthday (Happy Birthday Steph!! Love you!). So, my entire family decided to go to the mall at midnight! Of course, Greg was wrapped up in his bed with our children sleeping and my brother in law did the same. So, the family included my sister Brittani, my parents and my grandparents. We also convinced my friends, Abby and Christie to come along!

The mall was a madhouse! Seriously, 3,000+ people waiting outside. We stood in line for our free Macy's giftcards and got $10! Then, we pretty much wandered aimlessly, which was perfectly fine with us. While there were a ton of people, it didn't seem like people were crazy or greedy tonight. . .most just wanted to win something free! There were some great deals. . but nothing compared to the great deals combined with Abby's coupons!!! (PS: Abby has a great blog that is all about making your money go farthur with the most creative ideas!) We started with a great deal at Gymboree + 25% off from Abby so my parents bought all the kids represented a little something. We wandered happily as a large group, all the while running into people we knew. I swear, we ran into 5 groups of people we knew! It was like a big party. . .which is pretty much my favorite thing. In fact, they called it "Rockin' Shoppin' Eve" and had a DJ blasting really fun Christmas music throughout the mall.

At 2 am, my mom and grandparents headed home and about an hour later my dad followed. This left Brittani, Abby, Christie and I to troll the mall. We had SO much fun! We tried on clothes (b/c Britt and I have to have something to wear on Wheel!), made GREAT deals at Bath and Body Works and American Eagle (both thanks to Abby coupons on top of great sales!) and ended the night with a 4 am breakfast at Chick Fil A. I haven't stayed up all night since college! We decided that this is DEFINITELY a new traditiong. Next year, though, I'm just going to plan on not being home until 5 so that I'm not figuring out all night "if I went home now I'd get x amount of sleep".

All in all, the deals were good (and you know, every dollar saved is a dollar you can GIVE!) and the memories were even better! I don't care if I had purchased one thing (I ended up with 3 or 4 things I had been needing, 1 Christmas gift and 1 cute scarf I couldn't resist) I would have loved it anyways. Any excuse is good if it means staying up all night and hanging with girlfriends! Thanks girls!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you had fun. I got to do this too in Tennessee. Emily, Katy, Joshua, and I headed to the Opry Mills Mall at Midnight! We then went to Kohl's for their 4 AM opening. We had so much fun! I enjoyed my time with Josh and my neices. We found only a few really great deals, but the time together was the best!

Dianna Mason