Thanksgiving and Black Friday Recap

I know a lot of people don't like Black Friday. I personally am not a fan of how the deals started at 8 pm. Yes, I was done, home, and in bed by 5 am, but it took away from the Thanksgiving of every worker in every store. I tried to remember to thank everyone I spoke to that was working at every store we went to… I mean, they had to stay up all night because the crazies (me included) wanted to go shopping…

Any case… Thanksgiving was great. We went to Matt's parents' house and had a delicious dinner with them, his brother, sister-in-law, and nephews. His mother is a wonderful cook and we had a deliciously moist (eww… gross word) turkey, mashed potatoes, homemade noodles, green beans with bacon and French fried onions, hot rolls, some sort of cherry salad, both whole cranberry sauce and cranberry sauce in the shape of a can (for Matt, LOL), and a pumpkin pie… Delicious!!! Then we sat around and looked through the Black Friday ads.

Around 4:30, we left and went home. As we were driving past my aunt's house, I noticed my parents' car there. I text my mom to see if she was there and she was. She invited me over, but I told her I didn't sleep well the night before and I was going to try to take a nap before we left to go Black Friday shopping. She said she'd text or call on her way home. I said okay. I slept a bit for about an hour. A little before 7, she text and said she was on her way home. I told her I was going to pick up a coffee and asked if she wanted one. She said yes. Sadly, McDonald's was closed. Yes, I realize it was Thanksgiving night and I'm super-glad they were closed… I did want a coffee and I figured they'd be open, but I was fine when I saw they were closed… I got to my parents' shortly before 7:30.

Mom and I did a final look through of all of the ads. She wanted to go to Walmart at 8, but not for any of the big deals. She just wanted to get some of the children's games that were a little under $4 each for Hailey. We left her house and she decided she was so exhausted that I got to drive. I never drive. Ugh. We normally go to this really small town's Walmart on Black Friday because it's not crazy-packed and the people actually have some courtesy… Mom decided we'd just try out a different Walmart close to her house. OMG! Madhouse! People were rude and pushing and blocking the aisles. Some lady rammed the back of my ankle with her cart and it hurt really bad… she didn't even apologize! We were there for about an hour… We didn't get much. All I bought that time around was some pajamas for my niece.

After Walmart, we had like three hours before Kohl's opened. We wanted to go to Kohl's so I could get Matt's Christmas present. We went to K-Mart to pass time. I got my brother's girlfriend's girls a present each and then bought some pajamas for myself. When we were done there, we headed to Kohl's. We got there at 10 pm, and they didn't open the doors until 12 am. It was raining, but there was already a line forming. Mom decided we should just go stand outside the doors so we would definitely get Matt's gift. So we did. We stood outside… in the rain… for TWO HOURS! But we both found Matt's gift and we both grabbed one. They didn't have many in stock and so we text my aunt who was there too to see if she wanted one. She did. Score! LOL So we gave her one.

By the time we got checked out at Kohl's it was like 1:30 am. We decided to go back to Walmart to see if it calmed down. My mom loves the DVDs that are like $2. She uses them so stocking stuffers. We went there and it was definitely calmed down as the 8 and 10 pm shoppers were gone and the next deals didn't start until 5 am. We shopped around and I ended up spending about $60 there. Then we met my aunt, my aunt's sisters, and two of my cousins at Denny's for breakfast. It was like 3 am and they had a new waitress and she was so slow!!! But my omelet was delicious and after not eating for 14 hours, I was starving. Haha. After Denny's we headed home. When we got to my mom's house, we threw the stuff she bought in the trunk of her car and then I went home. I brought in all of my treasures (as my mom calls them), changed and went to bed. I had a hard time winding down. I think I fell asleep around 5 am.

I woke up at 9:30. I could not fall back asleep. My mind was racing for some reason. I got up and took a shower. Then I ran to the mall in my town to go to Carson's to see if they had any more of their $20 boot door busters. They did! I got Matt's sister-in-law's gift and then went to Bath and Body Works for his mom's gift. After that I headed back to Kmart to return the PJs I bought. I got two pairs and they were only supposed to be $10 each, but they charged me almost $15 each… and I wanted that money back. I have a ton of pajamas and didn't need two more pairs! I took those back and then came back to my town and went to Walmart. I bought the stuff I'd need to wrap presents with and came home. It was about 2:30-3 pm when I got home.

Around 3:30, I started wrapping my Christmas gifts. I was tired of there being a big ugly box in my living room. I wrapped for 3.5 hours, but I got everything I had bought wrapped! Also, everyone is done except for my dad and my sister's boyfriend. Excellent! After I finished wrapping, I was in the Christmas spirit so I filled out my Christmas cards. If you'd like one, just comment on this entry or send me an email at crystal@crysrochelle.com with your address and I'll get one ready for you! I love sending cards! Even if I've sent you a card before, please leave me your address because I accidentally deleted my address book (I used an excel file) somehow… Matt wanted to watch a movie so at 8ish, he started a movie on Netflix called Shooter. It started out good, but I was so exhausted, I fell asleep on the couch by 8:30. At 9:30, I got up and moved to my bed.

I didn't wake up until 8:15 this morning. I guess I needed about 12 hours of sleep. LOL I got up and started the crock pot with some Chicken Tortilla Soup in it… Then I watched some shows from my DVR and then some shows on Hulu. My Christmas tree and Furby were delivered today. Score! Matt got up around 2:30. We still had our window air conditioner units in and the one in the living room needed taken out because that's where the tree was going to go. We took them out and then I started setting up the tree. I was so pissed! It was a brand new tree and when I plugged it in a whole row of lights weren't working… I also couldn't find the bad bulb. I searched forever. I gave up and ate some dinner. Then I was hot so I lay in bed. I ended up taking a two hour nap… I'm sure I needed it after sleeping for 12 hours. LOL When I got up, I went to the tree and in two minutes I found the bad bulb and changed it. The lights worked! I was so excited. Matt went out to our shed in the cold and dark to get my decorations out. I decorated the tree and put out what few Christmas decorations I had and then cleaned up my mess. I took a shower and here I am…

I think I'm going to return my Furby. With tax, I spent just under $60 on it. I spent more than I usually do on Matt's gift and I'm going to be completely strapped for cash if I don't return it… So, I think it's going back tomorrow. Bummed. I didn't take it out of the box because of this. Ugh.

Okay, I think I'm going to go read before bed and this entry has turned into a book anyway. Adieu!