Yes, I'm one of the crazies

Yes, I'm one of the crazies that participates in Black Friday which is why there was no Farmer Friday yesterday.  It is a tradition that my mom and I started several years ago.  I really can't tell you why we did it the first time, but now we love it.  Well, I should say I enjoy it and my mom is a trooper, but I do think there is a part of her that enjoys it.

This year there seemed to be a lot of chatter on the news and amongst my friends and family as to why would people choose to deal with the chaos of Black Friday.  This really made me think about why I do it.

Besides the amazing deals that I have been able to take advantage of over the years, it truly is the only time of the year that I can go shopping and not feel guilty about leaving my kids to go shopping as they are asleep with The Farmer "watching" them.  (I say "watching" because let's face it... he is asleep too and truthfully unaware of the fact that I am gone.)  I also don't have to worry about the time because everyone else is at home, asleep, and not missing me.  Believe it or not, it is actually a peaceful time for me to shop.  It also is a great time for me to spend one-on-one time with my mom as my youngest sister does the Black Friday thing with her husband (and we usuallly run into each other and help each other out), my other sister avoids it, and Black Friday is not my brother's thing; although, he did participate this year which is a whole other story. 

So thanks to Walmart's split sale this year, my mom and I left the house at 11pm on Thanksgiving night so we could take advantage of the Midnight Door Busters at Walmart.  Although, I was extremely exhausted since I had been up since 5:30am, it was worth it as I got everything on my list and we were out of Walmart within 2 hours. We were ecstatic to be out of Walmart in a relatively short amount of time, but now we had to wait until 3am for the next sale to start.  We knew if we went home for a little nap, we would never wake up so we decided to head to Steak n' Shake for a little snack. (This proved to be a good decision as my youngest sister went the nap route and overslept.  She was headed back to the sales when my mom and I were headed home at 6am.) 

Yes, we finally got back home shortly after 6am after hitting Kohl's and Target and starting at Walmart at 12am.  Even though I was ready to crash, I woke The Farmer up at 7am so we could head to Tractor Supply Company as he wanted a welding helmet (that he had to see before he bought it) and I knew if I didn't keep going I would crash.

After a few cat naps during the day and some online shopping at Amazon.com, I finally crashed last night and was able to sleep until 7am which is really good for this mother of 3. 

Being a glutton for punishment, my other sister and I decided to hit the outlet mall at 8am for a few stops.  Although, we missed out on some special offers by not going on Black Friday, we were still able to take advantage of some great deals and there was absolutely no crowd at all which was worth a lot to us.   

All in all, it was a successful shopping weekend and a great time to bond with my mom and two sisters and even though I didn't actually get to see her, I spent a lot of time "talking" with Ice Tea thanks to our Blackberries as she is my true partner in crime when it comes to Black Friday shopping and life in general.  Despite the fact that we are miles apart, we help each other out throughout the day to make sure we both get what we need or should I say want. And that is priceless even if I was up for almost 40 hours straight.