'Tis The Season

Thanksgiving is now officially over, as is the crazy shopping day known as Black Friday. Since I have shopped on Black Friday in years gone by, I am allowed to criticize, right? It is the people who do it faithfully for years whose sanity I question. Although, I think the people you have with you make or break it. I had a blast last year with my sister Linda and her friend. I also ran into lots of folks I hadn't seen in years. I got a few bargains...but mostly I got alot of cheap crap that was marked down to a ridiculous cheap price. A few of my best bargains:

• Phillippe Richards complete cookware set for $19.99. I noticed JC Penney had this one going again. I actually had to pay full price which was $59.99. The $40.00 rebate involved me mailing my receipt in within a few days of purchase and then my rebate card came in the mail around the first part of March. What a steal! It was cheap cookware than serves me well considering how hard I am on my cookware.
• Hoodies for my girls from Wal-mart. Crap. total crap. They pilled the first time I washed them. One of them was black...aiy aiy aiy. They were instantly declared 'playclothes'.
• PJ's from Walmart. Crap E. McCrap. Way too boxy to fit real bodies and very lousy material.
• A running outfit that no one in the family could wear from...yep...Wal-mart. I can only guess what the quality was on this as it was a bargain never worn.
• A digital camera from JC Penney for Lilly. We were never able to make it work. We tried and tried but it never did anything remotely resembling what it was supposed to do. AND...since it was well into January before we had the time to get around to fiddling with it, it was past the time frame for returning it.

So the lesson learned was to really think about what items my children and Christmas list folk would enjoy getting. I did not want to make out my list from Black Friday flyers because I honestly believe either the merchandise is sub-par or they only have one of whatever spectacular thing there is. I have done very well this year just shopping the pre-Thanksgiving sales and *SHUDDER*-regular priced items. I ordered a few things online and I am happy to say that I am finished with my shopping. Erik and I made one more run last Monday and we finished. I wouldn't trade finished at Thanksgiving for a whole set of Black Friday deals.

How about you? Black Friday fan or foe?