Black Friday 2010

(Cue horror music...dun, dun, dun)

Okay, it wasn't TOO bad, but it wasn't exactly a relaxing shopping experience either. ;)  I was one of those (crazy) people who tried to go to Toys r Us at 10pm last night.  I live in Amarillo, Texas which could be considered a small/mid-sized city (approx. 200,000).  I can't imagine what large cities must be like.  The stuff of nightmares?

It was chaos.  All good sense went out the window and flew away.  I didn't even bother getting out of my car and instead drove straight to Wally World.  (I did end up back at Toys r Us, but we'll get to that in a minute)  Since the Walmart sale didn't start until 12:01am, I just loaded up my basket with the things on my list and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  By some stroke of good fortune, a lane opened up while I was standing in the longest line ever, and I ended up second in line.  I was out of Walmart by 12:06am.  Hallelujah!!

I decided to try Toys r Us again at this point.  It had calmed down some but was still very packed.  I found most of what was left on my list but a couple of things were sold out.  The checkout line was an entity all of its own.  It started at the back of the store and weaved through each and every center aisle.  I asked myself several times, "What in the WORLD am I doing here"!?!  I rarely go to Black Friday but this year something possessed me to go. 

I have to admit that I broke one of my rules for Black Friday shopping.  I went alone.  All of my family had already left to go back home after Thanksgiving dinner and the hubs stayed home with the kids (thank goodness ;) ).  However, I stood by my rule of being nice and kind regardless of how ugly other people get.  I made friends with the people directly around me in line.  Since we were there for so long, we learned a lot about each other.  I let people store stuff in my basket until checkout.  It makes it so much easier when people are nice!

I also did some online shopping at Kohl's.com and the Rusted Chain.  This took care of the adults on my list.
So even though my feet are sore and I feel like I'm about 200 years old, my Christmas shopping is done!  And I saved a pretty penny by joining the (cRaZy) masses at Black Friday.