Black Friday !!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  And folks, yes, we managed to keep up the tradition. Nah..... not the huge meal or turkey.  We did the big meal, but everyone got so hungry, so.... no pics :(  But now,  I'm talking about Black Friday Deals.  Every Shopping Scrooge's Dream !!  Its been 5 years since we've settled here in the US and every year, we had a support system that allowed us to dwell in the shopping mania.  This year, 2011 however was different, let me tell you how.

Year 1 - We were at a friends' place, so my husband and hers' hit the stores at 4am that Black Friday.  They shopped, ate breakfast, shopped some more and returned just before noon.  That year we brought home a camera, laptop and gifts. 

Year 2 - My parents were visiting and I was pregnant.  So, hubby dear said, " I won't shop, but I'll just drive around and check out what the rush is all about.  That year, some minor electronics made their way into our household.

Year 3 - That's when I was visiting India with both the kids.  Daddy Dear was all by himself and as luck would have it, his college mate decided to visit him.  The stag gang hit the stores that year and the resulting shopping ended up in India as gifts for relatives when he came to pick me up.

Year 4 - We were visiting friends in Little Rock, Arkansas. Oh! what a beautiful place....it was so much fun, with four families planning the shopping charade.  We stayed up partying all night, played games and as the clock struck 3.30, the men headed out. A Plan of Action was diligently worked out by the wives the previous evening. It was the closest I had come to strategically planning an attack.  We started with straining deals that appealed to us from the pile of newspapers and fliers. Stores were opening at different times too.  Some had midnight deals, some had first 100 customers deals and many such combinations.  After we identified ones that fit our list of things, we formulated the flow chart (if-then-else combinations) and defined their Modus Operandi.  By about 7 am, they valiantly walked in, displaying all the items we had earmarked and more! Squeals of Joy filled their living room that morning, not as much for the rock bottom prices we bagged but more for the sheer success of our strategy.  This gave me more vigor to hit the stores myself.  

The kids were fast asleep after a late night and nothing could stop my excitement in anticipation of some hands on retail therapy! And well....... I had my fair share, but lets just say it wasn't half as exciting as their expedition.  Reminding myself of the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility helped console me, albeit marginally :)   But it was that day, I figured that a persons' state between 'elated' and 'disillusioned' definitely features, 'terribly tired'.

Year 5 - Fast forward to this year.  As I've mentioned in earlier posts, we are in transition and are busy with home search.  So no vacation plans, no visits, basically an open ended Thanksgiving week.  And, it was just ourselves with the kids, which was a first.  Each day of the holiday week, we would both discuss what we might like to buy on Black Friday and ended up concluding we didn't really need anything.  More so, since we wanted to buy a house soon.  

But come Thanksgiving Thursday night and my husband began getting restless.  "I'll check out what's going on in Best Buy," came his opening line which, after a series of events left us with a whole lot of household stuff and some appliances.  

Watching him walk in with large bags at 3 in the morning, I wasn't going to be left behind.  So, as he slept next to the kids, I discovered the 'online shopping deals'.  Free shipping and discount coupons have thus contributed to a swelling wardrobe for the kids and us too.

 And enjoying the chilly November night, watching a movie with the kids, we wound up our family tradition with some delectable.....Hot Chocolate !

PS - Kindly observe the symbolic representation.  This post begins and ends with Food and Family time together.  While that's undoubtedly the essence of Thanksgiving, interspersing it with bouts of retail frenzy never hurt anyone!