Black Friday Shopping Boycott?

You know, I used to love Christmas shopping on the day after Thanksgiving.  Greta and I always went shopping when we lived in Mt. Vernon, then at Southern Park in Youngstown.  Gary even went along in Ohio a few times. Gary, Karen, and I enjoyed several marathon shopping trips in Indianapolis when the girls were younger and could spend a night with the grandparents.

But Black Friday took the day after Thanksgiving shopping to an entirely new level - one that I don't enjoy at all and one that I definitely avoid.

That is why today's events were so surprising.

We started with plans to clean up the house at The Farm after the Thanksgiving gathering. Mike, Angie, and Nick planned to leave early this morning, so we could sweep the floors and straighten up anything else that was needed.  Then we would come home and work on some Christmas decorating inside and outside the house.

Well, that worked, at least the first part of it.  We moved some furniture in the living room since Mike took the blue recliner he had purchased for Agnes in April and there was an empty spot.  I swept the floors in the front room, bathroom, living room, kitchen, and the porch.  All of the wet towels were put in a basket to bring home.  The fall tablecloth was removed from the kitchen table and the placemats and lazy Susan replaced.  Clean dishes were put away, and the dirty ones from dumping little dribbles and dabs of leftovers from the fridge were washed.  Ornaments were replaced into boxes and moved to the kitchen table so that the extra table could be folded and put in the Escape to bring home.  We gathered the odds and ends of things that were ours - the Tripoly chips and tray, the casserole dishes, the strawberry jelly, the little tub containing Thanksgiving candles that I used for table decorations.  I checked the timers on the two lamps to be sure they were re-set for the evenings.  Then we locked the doors and left.

Home?  No.  Monticello.  To Walmart for replacement lights.  To Rural King for a gift for Landon.  Lunch at Sublettes.

Thus began the shopping extravaganza.  No cart at Walmart since we went in for 2 sets of lights.  We walked out with 6 sets, a couple of packs of small white lights for the window candles, and a new green light for the front porch.  No crane truck for Landon at Rural King, but we did find a farm set for Owen and a machinery set for Cooper, plus a large bag of cat food and a tank for army men (Landon's new passion!). Short lines everywhere, not too many people, and helpful clerks.

Next we decided to try the Rural King in Logansport.  No crane for Landon, but we did find some .  shirts for all of the kids (on sale), a sweatshirt for Blaine (on sale), and a blanket for Greta (on sale).  Gary did find a livestock truck with a bull in it for Landon as a substitute gift.  Once again no lines at the checkout but lots of people shopping.

While we were in Logan, we might as well stop at Home Depot and check out a new lighted tree for the front yard since ours didn't work that well anymore.  No tree. But we did find something cool for Blaine that he had mentioned he wanted and decided to get one for Matt too (for his birthday). 

Of course JC Penney is next to Home Depot and there were lots of cars there, probably more cars than I had EVER seeen at JCP in Logansport.  So we stopped there.  I wanted to find a longer sweater or lightweight top for the pink/rose printed leggings I bought.  I have a pink LuLaRoe top but it makes me look fat so I wanted something different.  No luck.  But Gary found two shirts on sale and I found a pair of solid black leggings.  We also ran into cousin Betty and chatted with her for a while.

By that time we were hungry again, so on the way out of town we pulled into West Side Diner for fish.  It was good to chat with Mr. Terry for a while.  There was a little bit of excitement when a man dining with his family choked on something, his wife was hitting him on the back then yelled "Can someone help me!?!?!"  A man in the booth behind them jumped up and started the Heimlich on him and dislodged whatever was stuck.  Two other men came to help, along with Mr. Terry.  In the process the man knocked over a glass of water on the table and that had to be cleaned up too.  He was fine after, but it was a little tense for a while.

Finally we returned home after a drive through Pulaski to check out the lights.

No, we don't do that Black Friday shopping, except for today!  Most of the crowds must have been out early and had returned home, or they all went to bigger towns to find their bargains.

Even though we didn't find everything we went after, we did cross several things off the lists for Christmas gifts so the trip was successful.

And I did find the crane online and ordered it for Landon.  Score!!!