So, in the spirit of the holiday season… let’s talk about the shopping! We are some of the crazy people who venture out on Black Friday! It is usually Emily and me, but some years Erin will join us and/or one of my nephews, friends, sisters, etc. No matter who is there this is usually our game plan… Eat Thanksgiving dinner, take short nap (if time allows), prepare in your comfiest and warmest clothes to go traipsing through the crowds, find Coffee I large amounts, conquer great sales, avoid all crazy fights, find more coffee, decide next amazing sale to conquer, DO NOT GO TO BEST BUY OR KOHL’S (no sale is worth getting trampled or standing in line for days!), find more coffee and finally find somewhere to have breakfast.

We like to shop! And we like finding good deals! So, black Friday is like our Holy Grail of shopping days (maybe it is not that extreme but you get the idea)! There are typical places that we hit every year, Victoria secret, for all their perfumes, lotions and body sprays! Everyone loves these and they are amazing! Plus, Emily and I have a fascination for their bags that they give on Black Friday. We go through the sales and decide what we want need, and then have a game plan of the best mall/area, etc to hit. The shopping is fun… but the experience… that is worth being tired for days after lol.

Some of the most hilarious things happen during these shopping trips. I contribute 100% of that to the delirious state of mind we possess at the time. I mean it is still funny as hell later, but maybe because our memory is holding the delusional state we were in?!?

One year I needed a new t.v. since ours decided to die shortly before Thanksgiving so I put it off and added it to my Black Friday shopping list and we were off. I mentioned to my in-laws that we would be getting this new t.v. and it just so happens the same thing had just happened to them, so I now had two t.v.’s on my list. We ended up going to two Targets… I don’t remember why or where are logic fell into this madness but Erin and Blake went to one Target and Emily and I went to another. We ended up with both and some other non-sense in our basket… only to discover that packing all our goodies into the backseat of our truck with our little cohorts was quite the task. We had more stops to make so putting everything in the back of the truck was not an option. This was quite comical. Good thing we liked each other.

That same year our breakfast outing was at Denny’s. I was so exhausted by the time we got there I could hardly keep my eyes open. We laughed non-stop, about everything until we were literally crying and I am sure we were the most obnoxious people in the restaurant. I made Erin drive home because I was so tired I didn’t think I could muster the energy to get in the truck let alone drive 45-minutes home! I had apparently parked in a space that would be difficult to get out of on a normal day but it was amplified due to the degree of delusional we had reached. She was cussing me the entire time that we were trying to navigate our way out of the predicament I had landed us in. All the while I was laughing in and out of my head bobbing sudden jerks I was doing after falling asleep. It was quite comical to me. I believe I was even trying to reason with Erin that we should just get a hotel room so we could all nap. She was happy once I had fallen asleep and left her alone for the ride home lol.

One of my truly favorite stories though happened when I was not quite as delirious as the previous story. I do believe Erin had possibly reached that stage though lol. Our shopping was wrapping up a lot quicker than normal, probably due to the fact there were 5 of us to grab, collect and conquer. It was Erin, Emily, Blake, his friend Jamie and me. We started at Wal-Mart (another place I hate to go on Black Friday, because let’s be serious… this place is miserable on any other day of the year, let alone the craziest, busiest shopping day of the year). Jamie had missed the comfortable AND WARM clothing required memo for this excursion. So, he ended up trying on girl’s pajama pants to warm him up. This had us all going early in the night. But let’s jump to breakfast… We were all sitting around the table debating on what we should order when Jamie chimes in to tell us he did not know what he should order because is lactose intolerant. Erin in all her glory decides to jump in and tell him he should stay away from eggs… My head flies around to my left and I say WHAT?!? Thinking she mis-heard him I tell her “Erin, he said he is lactose intolerant” and I kid you not she replies with “I know, so he shouldn’t eat eggs”. I am completely mystified at this point, so my slightly sarcastic reply was “Does Denny’s carry Dairy Eggs now? Are their chickens mooing?” At this point I believe Erin’s lack of sleep subsided enough that she realized what had just gone down. She tried reasoning her way through this but we all know what happens on our Black Friday excursions and we know our intelligence level cannot be judged on these days.

The shopping is fun… but the memories are what makes us do this year after year. We could easily jump online and order what we want but we would miss out on making more memories. At some point during our Thanksgiving dinner we talk about us going and start reminiscing on the shenanigans of Black Fridays gone by… It always makes us excited about this year’s outcome!

Be prepared! Make your list! Take someone who always makes you laugh! And go make some memories!

Stay Fabulous!

Kim K.