My First Black Friday Shopping

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Nothing gets my heart rate and blood pressure up than the holiday season. All the planning and cleaning and cooking is enough to make me daydream of warm sandy beaches on a hammock with a nice cool drink and a great view. It starts off for me with Halloween...of course my kids LOVE the holiday with all the candy they accumilate in the span of only a few hours. I, on the other hand, need to unpack the decorations, bake or buy for the children's school fall parties, and buy enough candy to give cute little revelers enough to boast about to their friends. And before the night is through, I now have to deal with the fallout effect of all that sugar and kids with no sugar limit. And then comes Thanksgiving... It's not one of my favorite holidays but the food is always amazing. The planning for a party or just for a small family dinner is still daunting. I need to plan for what foods to make, how much to buy and at what time do I need to get up so we can all still eat sometime this year. By 2 pm I just want to nap and forget about the over-sized bird living in my oven. So finally, after much promises of an easier Thanksgiving next year, we all put ourselves into a blissfull food coma. The food turns out amazing and would I probably do something different the next time? Probably not. Christmas has always been my one favorite holiday due to the fact I have a free licence to shop and decorate to my heart's content (within reason, people, I don't have a money tree in my backyard). Does it begin right after Thanksgiving? Nope! It started even before I bought that blasted turkey for our big dinner. The plans of making smarter purchases for the kids and a simple dinner goes out the window. I am like a kid in a candy store with my mother's credit card! With my husband's go ahead shrug and the usual eyerolling when I tell him I need to be up early (like 4pm early), I head off to my first Black Friday hooplah. No children, no husband, and no one else to slow me down. Now mind you, I've heard of horrors about black-eye Friday and I was all ready to put on my aggresive "don't cross me" face and the war paint that comes along with it. I was expecting people to be duking it out by the linens and Grannies stealing your hard won goods from your cart as you watched...and I gotta say I was disappointed by the site that greeted me at the doors. There were no scuffles...just people lined up to acquire the one thing they all got up for at such an untimely hour. My heart dipped a little at the lack of excitement within these people. Don't they read the same news that I do?! I'm not saying I was looking for an outright brawl, but a little competition would have been pretty entertaining. So far my Black-eyed Friday was not happening as I had envisioned in my head after hearing all those horror stories. I made my way to the mob-like cluster of people all waiting for the same item I came for and suddenly my adrenaline kicked up. Maybe here was where the action happens. As soon as the store employees told the crowd about proper behaivior and concideration, the crowd began to surge forward around me and a panic was in the air. Instead of waiting for the employees to hand out the boxes to them, people were just reaching in over others and claiming their own boxes. Toes may have been stepped on, and an elbow may have connected with a rib or back but no punches flew. After standing right next to the employee quietly waiting, he turned around and asked me which selection I wanted. In a span of 10 minutes I was off to secure my purchase in the car and head back for more shopping madness. It was a few hours of people watching and gift buying that I thoroughly enjoyed. Although there were no fights where I came across, I'm sure there were a few moms and dads planning to settle the matter in the store parking lot. I have to say that for my first Black-eye Friday, it wasn't as violent but it was just as exciting and fun for a shopaholic like myself. Will I be partaking in the madness again next year? Heck yeah! So in closing, I just wanted to share with you my holiday stress with the hope that I am not alone. If you have a story to share along the same line, by all means...everyone could always use a little chuckle now and again.