Black Friday

The warm-fuzzies of thankfulness were NOT lost on me when the official day of Thanksgiving ended. Nope, not all. Because at two in the morning I was already finding something new to be thankful for:
Oh yes, that same product that saved the comfort of my second pregnancy came to the rescue yet again this morning. I can't imagine why such a product would be necessary... I mean, it wouldn't be the gooey breakfast we had, or three course dinner, or perhaps the pumpkin pie would it? Actually, the real culprit was the large tub of half-buttered popcorn I took in at the theater. I can be such a pig when I let go of the reins even just a little.... And, yup, this morning I was paying for it.

Now you might be thinking that it was this indigestion that woke me up at such an insane hour, but nah- it was my cell phone alarm, alerting me that I had merely a half hour before we needed to hit the road to meet Mom at Kohls at 4am. Ironically, just before I snapped this picture, John returned "home" (at Michele's). Two ships passing in the night - so crazy. He and Travis had a blast at the outlets, scored some huge deals (most of which I'm not at liberty to know about), and intend to repeat the tradition every year. Good for them - it was a nice prologue to the fun we hoped to have.

So, John positioned us so you can see the Schillings' huge clock behind us - indicating we were about five minutes late from leaving on time....

I'm not sure if I've ever formulated into words, but this year it became murkingly-clear (due to my sleep deprived mind), that the whole fun of this experience comes primarily from the "punch-drunk" mindset of the three of us ladies. We giggle over everything, find joy in our insane effeciency, and laugh at the fact that we're ready for lunch at 9:15 in the morning. This year, we were seriously moving at a "lounge" pace by 10, practically complete in all of the errands we had wanted to run. I regret not snapping a picture of Mom today, but trust me, she was right there with us- often in the position of "wingman" by holding our place in line with the cart while we ran for more booty.

By 12:30, Mom parted ways with us, and to be honest I was asleep in the shotgun position of Michele's van by the time Mom had unloaded all of her stuff and moved it into her car. (We had left Mom's car at the mall and rode around together). Michele had suggested I nap in the car while she went back into Target in pursuit of some items she had ignored earlier (because the lines were moving so fast, we didn't have time to dawdle) - as well as garland for her staircase. She mentioned she might need to stop off at Michaels' (craftstore) as well - I made it clear I didn't care as long as I had my blanket and didn't need to go in with her. Sure enough, by the time she was done with both stores, I'd napped for about an hour and a half. I have to wonder how many people walked by the vehicle and laughed at me. That was new one for me on a Black Friday.

In contrast to some of the stories that hit national news today, our experience was a ton of fun. This was the most orderly year on record in terms of crowd control, and we ran into a lot more friendliness than grumpies from people. It was a really, really, really great day, but I am happy to be back at Michele's settled in for about 48 hours now of nothing on the docket (except one heckuva Civil War game tomorrow on tv at 4....). The jacuzzi tub in Michele's master bath was heavenly about an hour ago, and my pillow is beckoning...