Turkey, pies, and shopping.

Okay, so I think I have almost recovered from all the Thanksgiving festivities. We spent Thanksgiving day at Chuck's mom and dads house. Had some really good food  (have you ever tasted a pumpkin cheesecake? My mother-in-law had one at her house and let me just say it was superb) and visited with Chuck's parents, his brother's family and his aunt and uncle.

Kaelyn at Grandma's house

Tyler

My nephew Aidan

My nephew Sean

About a week ago I had this conversation with Kaelyn:

Kaelyn: Mom, are you going shopping on "Black Friday"? (This came after seeing a commercial on TV)

Me: I hadn't planned on going.

Kaelyn: Have you ever been shopping on black Friday?

Me: Yes, but it has been years ago.

Kaelyn: Oh, what's it like shopping on black Friday?

Me: Very crowded, you have to get up early to get to the stores to get a good deal.
Kaelyn: Could we go?
Me: WHAT??
Kaelyn: Could we go? Will you take me shopping on black Friday?
Me: Do you really want to do that? You know you will have to get up really early to be there when the stores open.
Kaelyn: (With a big smile on her face) YES!!!!!

So it was decided that we would go shopping on "Black Friday". On Thanksgiving morning my sweet husband went to the store to get us a newspaper so that Kaelyn and I could look over the sales sheets and have a game plan. When we got back to our house Thanksgiving night, Kaelyn and I had another conversation that went something like this:

Kaelyn: What time are we leaving in the morning?
Me: (Wanting her to have some input in this shopping trip) Well the stores open at 4:00 a.m., what do you think?
Kaelyn: I think we should get up at 2:00 get ready and leave the house at 3:00 and be at the store at 4:00.
Me: Are you sure you want to do this?
Kaelyn: Yes Mom. So are we going to leave at 3:00 in the morning.
Me: Sure, why not.

So we I was up at 2:00, got Kaelyn up at 2:30 finished getting ready, got my sales sheets and Christmas notebook (will explain in a future post) and my money (cash only for us, once it's gone it's gone, no credit cards in this family) and we were out the door at 3:00. Right on schedule. Kaelyn talked for the entire drive to the store, which only took us 45 minutes. We were in the parking lot of Kohl's at 3:45, there was already a line of people outside the door. We bundled up in our jackets and stood out in the cold waiting for the 4:00 opening of the store. Oh my gosh, what was I thinking of, agreeing to take my 10 year old daughter out so early in the morning on the busiest shopping day of the year. When the doors opened, everyone started walking into the store, then it happened. Kaelyn saw a woman grab her daughter by the arm and say over here, this door isn't as crowded and slung her daughter in the door. Kaelyn couldn't believe her eyes, she asked me if I saw it and I told her no, I was to busy watching another woman take off running like a wild woman into the store. She was the only one running, everyone else around me was walking. So we got into the store and found the items that were on our list, we checked out and were in the car heading to another store at 4:12. By 4:21 we were over at the mall hitting the stores that opened there at 4:00. We left the mall at 5:45 and went to the Cracker Barrel to eat some breakfast, arrived there just before they opened at 6:00. After breakfast we shopped for a little while longer then we were heading home at 10:00. Kaelyn was so tired, she went to sleep when we got home and slept until 4:30 p.m. (I took a little nap too, didn't sleep as long as she did though) and then she was back in the bed at about 9:00.

Will I go shopping again on the day after Thanksgiving? Yes, I loved having that experience with my daughter. She said she would do it again to.