I have to say that after working retail for several years I never thought I would have the desire to actually shop the day after Thanksgiving. Long lines outside in the cold, people pushing and shoving once the doors open, running down the aisles of the store like crazy people and standing in long lines again. It really doesn't sound all that appealing. But I had a purpose this year. The rocker glider chair that I have really wanted was 60% off the day after Thanksgiving at Shopko. I don't know if it was the hormones or what but I was determined to get this chair and get a good deal on it. Luckily, I have a great mom and great sisters who decided to go along with my craziness. It actually turned out that Julie and Katie were wanting to go shopping that day, too. You can only imagine how relieved all of our husbands were that we had someone to go with so they got to sleep in and avoid shopping!
We were in Howe for Thanksgiving, so we got up at 2 a.m. to be in line by 4 a.m. in Idaho Falls. I know, even as I type this that sounds ridiculously crazy! Once we got there, two of us lined up by one set of doors and three at the other. We had a game plan to conquer and divide. Katie and I were to head for furniture and electronics, while Kelsi, Julie and Mom were to head for the games and toys. It wasn't as cold as we had expected, and a church group came and handed out hot chocolate to everyone, which we really appreciated. We stood in line and chatted with a lot of very friendly people. At first, someone asked me what we were going for and I kind of gave her a vague answer. As if just because I told her I wanted a rocker glider chair she was going to steal them all before I could get there or something! I did eventually tell her after we had talked for a while longer.
When the doors opened, it was a little like being in a mosh pit. No one was mean, but everyone was pushing forward so you just had to go with the crowd. But none of us got trampled or knocked down, and we ended up getting EVERYTHING that any of us wanted and made it through the check-out in less than an hour. We all had our arms full of stuff, but Mom and Kelsi definitely win the prize for getting the most. They had more than 20 board games between them and when they each took half to carry, they couldn't see over their stack to walk. We did encounter a little setback when we attempted to load everything into Mom's van and then later when we were loading Julie's stuff into her van, but we were able to eventually get everything to fit in with some effort.
Anyway, our little adventure turned out to be a success! I think Katie, Julie and I are all done with our Christmas shopping now and we had a lot of fun! And I'm definitely on board for next year since I will have a kid to shop for and to spoil so I can't wait!
