Saturday, November 29, 2008

Black Friday shopping ... not for me!

My family is a little different from me -- well, part of them are anyway. I do NOT get up well before the crack of dawn to go stand in a line for hours at a store to get early Christmas shopping done! For some reason, I just cannot bring myself to do that. I'll just hit 'overstock.com' at home and have it delivered to my door (free delivery usually)!!

However -- I do have family members who do that! Such as Roxanne and Shonna who left our house at 3:00am ... yes, 3:00am ... to arrive at Toys R Us at 3:20am and waited until the store opened at 5:00am. Roxanne said she and Shonna had great fun -- go girls! I'll stay home and sleep, thank you very much!

Sandi is more like I am -- she and Tim went a little later in the day and actually got some things they wanted that had not been picked over too much.

Teri -- she lives about 1-1/2 hours from us -- told me that she, Marley and Rudy went shopping this year but I forgot to ask how early she got up. With an 18 month old, who knows?!!

My sister is the most predictable of all -- she leaves her house around 4:30am every year. This year, she just had her two oldest girls - Jene, 21, and Shara, 18, going with her. I think it was extra special for her as the girls are both away at college most of the time. More than even the shopping, they have a blast (and probably laugh a lot especially if Shara decides to do one of her 'embarrass Mom' antics, and have their favorite places to eat, like P.F. Chang's.

I stayed at home and let the girls do the shopping. Sandi called me with a couple good deals so I had her grab those for me.

I thought it was so sad that a person was trampled to death at a Walmart, no less. It seems that shopping days like this bring out weird things in people and they forget all about the Christmas season and that it represents "love" not "greed".

I am thankful for a family who wants to give to others rather than think about what the will receive from their list. And I never want to forget the ultimate gift -- a baby in a manger!! What an awesome example of the ultimate gift -- so that we might have life!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sis,
I agree with you so much about wanting to give and not expecting to receive. Of course, when we were young and times were tough, we didn't know what we would get, but we always knew Mom and Dad would find a way to get us a few things. Toooo many kids now days think that if they make out a 'wish list' lo and behold there it is! Times are so different and in alot of ways it is so sad that most kids don't realize what the real meaning of the season is all about! Christmas will mean enough to me if Dad is still with us to enjoy it! That is all I ask for Christmas! Thad