Black Friday Shopping Extravaganza

This year we went to Rockwood for Thanksgiving. Shopping on Black Friday is a regular event for me and mom and this year was no different, well it was somewhat different.......We go shopping whether we have anything major on our list or not. This year Casey had several things on her list for the boys so she was on board. This was the year in which many stores opened early Thursday night or at midnight. So we got our (somewhat) game plan together and hit the stores. We started at Toys R Us at 7pm on Thursday night. We were probably 30th in line and the doors didn't open until 9pm. It was cold but not unbearable so that helped. We each memorized the list and were ready to shop once those doors opened. Well, that store was probably the quickest of them all. We were in and out very quickly. We were so hungry since we really hadn't eaten since lunch. So about 10:30pm we headed to IHOP. There we refueled and headed to Kohl's, which opened at midnight. We've learned in years past to get in line immediately and then we'll take turns shopping. By the time we reach the cash register we'll be ready and it won't seem like we've been standing in line so long. So we did just that. It's hard to remember but I think after that we went to Target. We weren't really looking for anything but we were there just to kill the time until Belk opened at 3am. Here is where Casey bailed on us - she just couldn't hang. :)  So we did find some things we "needed" so the line at Target was probably the longest line we stood in all day..er, night. We then made it to Belk and needed to hit Penney's when they opened at 4am. There weren't any doorbusters we needed at Penney's so we decided to take a nap in the parking lot. We then carried on our shopping spree to other stores and finally made it back to Rockwood around 11am Friday morning. Dad and Mark were installing a new front door for mom and dad. Thank goodness, that allowed me to nap until Mark was ready to hit the road back home. It took me all weekend to recoup. We had a great time, as always, but we HATE going at (or before) midnight. It was so hard. Neither one of us do well with no sleep. So, it's decided, if there is nothing we "need" we are waiting until 4-5am to get started, as we've done in previous years. I'm afraid one day soon Black Friday will be a thing of the past. That my friends will be a sad day.