We shopped.

Sister-dear and I shopped and shopped and shopped. We were at Kohl's before they opened at 4 AM. You see, my sister had never experienced Black Friday, so it was my job to show her the ropes. She was a trooper. I wasn't so much in need of shopping, but she had some major list filling to do.

Things I was thrilled about:
1. Everyone was courteous, well-behaved and watching out for each other.
2. Kohl's was pleasant, well stocked, well staffed and a lady walked around with a basket of candies. The watermelon Now and Later was just what I needed to perk myself up at 5 AM.
3. It was easy to find things at Kohl's and their sales were lovely. Sister-dear shared a 15% discount with me and added to the $12.22 credit, I only owed $3.68 for my purchases. I should add that I found the Disney Princess Polly Pocketesque set that K- really wanted on sale 1/2 off. With the additional discount, I think that I paid $6.50 for it. She'll be thrilled!
4. Breakfast at Panera was lovely. My friend had sent me a gift card for my birthday and we used it to re-fuel. The bacon, egg and cheese sandwich was lovely. The hot chocolate hit the spot. Yes, I did take the whipped cream option.
5. Lowe's had the sweeper that I needed in stock. A staff member heard me talk about it and lead me right to them. On the way, I found a beautiful Poinsettia for 99 cents and hiked out with both in hand. I was a happy woman.
6. I found beautiful flannel to make Sister-dear's baby-on-the-bake gifts. She even approved of my pattern choice, which was lovely!
7. The gentleman at Ace Hardware that took me straight to my selection. (Being cryptic in case Hubs is looking in.) Grant you, he was trying to sell me everything on the rack, but he was very kind.
8. Long story short, we got to order a new couch! Our current couch is a rental property cast-off that Hubs and I retrieved from about an hour and a half north while in the days of our engagement. The thing is nasty ugly, but wonderfully comfortable. I've always had a couch cover on it and this last one has bit the dust quite sometime back. La-Z-Boy had a sale today, they had the couch in stock that I loved (Mackenzie) and it will be here on Friday. Now grant you, the sales guy really, really, really wanted to sell us a couch with the reclining feature. For us, if we want to recline, we'll buy a chair for that. Believe me, he tried to sell us one of those, too. But, after I finally got him to realize that we didn't want anything other than a basic couch with no dust skirt (or whatever that thing is called) and no big fluff, and that I believed my dream couch was Mackenzie, he said, "Someone's done their homework!" Absolutely! I love the internet for pre-shopping.
9. We've begun decorating for Christmas. Hubs has done a lovely job of putting the tree up and lighting it for me. He also put the lights up outside. I'm the tree decorator. It takes me hours and hours. I pour over the ornaments, line them all up, get all misty-eyed over their sentimental value and proceed to decorate. Unfortunately, I got hooked (no pun intended, really) on the marathon of Deadliest Catch on Discovery and moved a bit slower. This has irritated hubs and I announced that I had to be done for the evening. I will proceed tomorrow. Besides, K- fell asleep at 7 PM and I was decorating by myself. Grant you, she was a bit underfoot, but she was so excited. Now, she is up wanting to take my nativity set to bed with her. Um, that one I had to say no on, though I appreciate her wanting to snuggle up with a porcelain Christ.
10. The Giving Tree sponsored by Fox 8 Cleveland to benefit the foster children of Cuyahoga County. Such generosity was shown today and how wonderful that these children will get Christmas gifts that they might otherwise have not.
11. Did I mention that all the stores that we frequented were mostly within 1 mile of each other? Joann's was the exception, but that wasn't that far off the beaten path. It made shopping so much easier that cross-town hopping.

Things I wasn't thrilled about:
1. The fact that the Black Friday website had the wrong Diamond Castle Princess doll advertised and I thought I was going to be getting the $20.00 singing doll and not the $5.00 Muse. I was not a-mused. (Get it?!)
2. The stock was not easy to find in Walmart at all. $4.00 track suits? Um, there was no display anywhere of them. The stock was dumped on pallets in the middle of aisles and no where near the matching aisle. They even had a huge, heavy display mis-set and it was shifting and leaning. Finding anything in Walmart was a near wreck. Sister-dear and I functioned by cell phone in the store. The shoppers weren't the problem. The store was. I might add that the bathroom was sub-standard. I know that they had bigger fish to fry, though.
3. The line at the cutting counter at Joann Fabrics was very long. The people behind me complained incessantly about "how long does it take to cut a straight line?" Finally, someone piped up and asked if they wanted to stand behind that counter for a while.
4. The lady at the cutting counter that kept going back for more bolts of fabric to be cut. She was at the counter. There was a huge line behind her. She should have finished her selections before she got there.
5. The lady directly behind me shared her cart with me, but only to dog on everything that I chose. "Well, don't they have a more baby themed flannel for you to use?" For the record, they did, but my sister and I aren't necessarily main-stream people. We try to climb outside of the box from time to time.

We consider our Black Friday a success. Sister-dear has already planned on doing it again next year. To tell you that she saved hundreds is probably an understatement. Her total expenditure? Oh, she probably spent $268.00 and her budget was $300.00.

So, did any of you brave Black Friday? Did you get deals? What's your day after Thanksgiving Day story?