"A real puppy and a pare of high hells."

A wish list appeared on my pillow shortly after Smudge died.  (It should be noted that the spelling of the post title is the spelling that appears on the wish list.) A real puppy (moreso a pound rescue) is something we've talked about for a while, so it is no surprise that she wanted that.  I did tell her something.

I told Santa no.

There was a second item on her list.  She wanted high heels.  She has wanted high heels for quite some time, but since the child suffers from atrociously narrow feet/heels and a high arch, I have never explored the possibility because, well, shoes hardly ever actually fit her well.  Tennis shoes often have a bit of a heel slide on her.  When she told me, "Mom, I dream of wearing high heels with my Christmas dress," I knew that I had to make that dream come true.  She wasn't asking for something unreasonable or outrageous.  My baby wanted her first pair of heels.

My sister and I went for our traditional Black Friday shopping extravaganza last evening.  I went with an index card in my pocket with the list of things I needed and items that I promised to pick up for other people.  I started out at 11:15 PM and went out to "the farm" as we referred to it all day to get her.  We gathered change, stopped by the Circle K for our half gallons of soda and we were off.  We arrived at Target, found the Brave movies I needed for my MIL and took a funny spin through the shoe department.  Not only did they have "high hells" but they had a strap to keep them on her feet AND! they had her size.  It was like the light shone down and angels themselves were singing the hallelujah chorus.  I grabbed some clearance lip goo (Chapstick) and the requested Q Tips and off and away we went.

We went next door to Kohl's where we spent an hour and 45 minutes in line.  The good news is that I was able to use my $5. Black Friday coupon, 15% off coupon and my Discover Card $15 off $75 coupon and I saved a bundle.  That was delightful!

We pressed on to Walmart which was a big bomb, but I managed to get another box of laundry detergent since I was running low, so it wasn't all for not.  LeAnne cashed in on cheapie jammies for her little man.

We cruised through Dunkin Donuts and being the dork I was, I didn't consider that someone else could possibly be out besides us and almost got plowed into at 3:30 AM by another Black Friday shopper.  She was kind and didn't honk.  Apparently I cut her off pretty bad.  My sister said that she would have every right to be ticked.  I needed food.  I blame the low blood sugar.

We jetted up to the next Target where I decided to bite the bullet and just buy the danged AGesque bed for K-'s American Girl doll.

We went to the mall after that.  The restroom at Sears looks like it belonged at a concert venue that had been ransacked and abused during a multi-day event.  The good news is that they still flushed and that is about the only positive news I could relay.  How can people be such pigs?

Old Navy was a big ole stinkin' pile.  Aeropostale was where my sister had to fill in some holes on her list.  She dragged me into Hot Topic and besides the fact that all of these stores were blaring music at 4 AM, it was bad music.  Really bad music.  Think Pink Floyd rolling through Muzak but with a funky beat.  It was so wrong.  The only sweet thing about Hot Topic was that I scored the Soft Kitty t-shirt that I wanted for a whole $10.  Other than that, the store is one that I will probably never step into again.

Bath and Body Works had nothing.  JCPenney had a gathering of people outside of the gate waiting to get in.  We didn't choose to stand in line to see what the fuss was all about.

We went on to our third Target, where I found the DS game my MIL wanted me to get for her.  I think that the only reason that it was still in stock is because they only had one person in electronics and no one to open the cases.

We went on to Joann Fabrics where there was another steaming pile.  That is really my fault as I didn't read my circular carefully enough to see that what I wanted to purchase was on sale tomorrow.  Snap!

I was able to score a gingerbread house kit at Michael's for about $5.00 and some lovely AG stuffings for K-'s stocking.  They were on the clearance section and I had an additional coupon.

I introduced my sister to the fine, fine land of World Market where I was able to score some additional stocking lovelies for my people.

Since Kohl's somehow lost control of a ring that I bought for my niece, but didn't charge me for it, I went ahead and headed back out to take advantage of their continued sale.  What I bought her still had the early morning extra percentage off sign up and though it didn't ring that, the jewelry counter folks were kind enough to give me that and my additional 15% off.  I scored $15. to spend starting Monday, so I'll probably use that on something for Hubs.

All in all, I call this Black Friday a success, though we did find that it took several trips to stores in different areas to find what we needed.  I spent $248 ($30 of that was for things for my MIL) and I saved $292.  My sister spent $310 and saved $397.  That is why we go out.  We only buy the deals or the can't finds.  We do not camp out for them and I'm not going to get in a knock down drag out fight over something.  I left my house at 11:15 PM, after having only scored 45 minutes of sleep and returned home at 10:30 AM, exhausted and nearly falling asleep while driving.  I would have slept longer than an hour and a half, but my mom called.  Oh well.  Tomorrow is decorating day.  Hubs has been on the ladder hanging lights on the house and re-lighting deer.  We have snow coming down and it is actually accumulating a bit.

Christmas is on its way!

Have a great weekend!