Black Friday Shopping...An Adventure

Normally I do not relish getting up before the crack of dawn to go shopping. But Black Friday is different. Last year my sister introduced to me to the concept. It can be a good time to do a girl's day out. I really wasn't going to go again this year but my mom really wanted to and talked me in to it. The first thing we did is pour over all the ads after our Thanksgiving Day meal to see what was available and map out our route. My friend joined us this year also. So, up at 3:20 to be at Walmart at 4:45. Really was not that crazy - me, mom, and friend got what we needed and was out by 5:30. Headed to a town thirty minutes from us that held more shopping possibilities and hit Target, Best Buy, Family Christian Book Store, Books a Million and Belks. I got The Action Bible for Grace (not for Christmas) just to read because she loves graphic novels and comics so much. By this time it was only like 8:30. We really wanted to eat breakfast at IHOP, I could really hear the french toast calling me, but so did everyone else. Not a parking spot to be had. Decided on Chickfila instead and had a great chicken biscuit. Next back to the hometown, on the trip home, me and mom decided we still needed to get some items for Travis (very hard to shop for). Dropped of friend in Walmart parking lot to get her car and my sister calls wondering where we were and what we would do next. We told her we were going to another city about 40 minutes away to do some more shopping and she said she would meet us in the Walmart parking lot. While waiting for her to show I had to go potty and was walking down the parking lot to get to the store on go to the bathroom and ran in to my sister's best friend. Asked her if she wanted to tag along, she did. So now we had four of us headed to the Tanger Outlet center to shop. Lots of people at the Outlet Center but great shopping was to be had. Got what I needed for Travis. Also found something completely unexpected. There was a great kitchen store that I will for sure revisit, and purchased a doughnut maker. The kids are really looking forward to that. After all the shopping hunger had set in again. This time we got to go to Ruby Tuesday for their great salad bar and Cheddar fries. Got home about 3:00 in the afternoon and was actually able to stay up until about 9:30 in the evening, then crashed. It was good to sleep, actually very tired by that point. Every year after it is over I say I won't do it again, but I think I will. We had a great girl's day out.