Black Friday

Well others can complain about how horrible it is to shop the day after Thanksgiving, but I personally had a great day!  Of course I think perception and expectation have a lot to do with it! No, we didn't get to Kohl's at 4 a.m. or Walmart at 5 a.m.  And we weren't willing to trample someone for a couple of dollars off (in all seriousness, I hope we are all praying for this poor man's family).  My mom, aunt and I took off from Windsor Mo. at 6:30 a.m.  We stopped at Walmart in Warrensburg, getting there around 7 a.m.  Sure it was busy, but not horrible.  And we got what we were there to get without much trouble.  Then we headed to Kansas City.  We went to some less-busy stores first .. Hobby Lobby, Gordman's, Old Town Pottery.  Then we headed to more busy stores like TJ Maxx, Target, Toys R Us and Kohl's.  We never really ran into any horrible crowds or lines, with the exception of Toys R Us.  But, they had it so streamlined that we were seriously only in line for about 10 minutes even though the line was to the back of the store.  (The economy is obviously shaky!!)  In all we shopped about 10 hours. But we had a nice lunch and a great time together!  I completely finished my Christmas shopping, with the exception of one thing here for Dawson that I didn't want to have to transport back to Oklahoma. But I'm almost done!  More than anything I just enjoyed the day with my family.  My sister and niece met up with us later in the day.  And, we just had fun.  

Now I need to put up my Christmas tree and decorations and address my Christmas cards. I actually kindof dread that every year.  I love the way it looks when I'm done, but I don't enjoy the work that goes into it.  I am thankful that last year we hauled our tree upstairs, fully decorated, to the storage room.  Now all I have to do this year is pull it down, re-apply some fallen ornaments and fluff it.  Then I'm done!  Yea!  I'm a scrooge, I know.  I guess I really just don't see the point in all of the hoopla over decorations.