Getting Ready
I absolutely LOVE Thanksgiving. I love getting together with all the family, I love, love, love turkey dinner with all of the trimmings, and I love sitting around playing games together when we are too stuffed to move. One of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving is our planning session.
My sister and I run around early Thanksgiving morning to gather all of the newspapers so that we make sure we don't miss any of the ads. We then seclude ourselves in a room surrounded by said ads and go through each one page by page. 
Using the ads and our previously drawn up spreadsheet listing each person on our Christmas list we make up our game plan. We decide which bargains we must get to first, those we are willing to wait in line for, and those that we can live without if things get to crazy. This process usually requires about two hours.
Then, it is off to bed - very early for we know what an exhausting day is in store! Many years we get to Ogden several hours before the sun is up! Waiting in a long line like this is common place! 
Once we get into the store we each have pre-assigned items to find and then we meet at the lines for the registers. If we plan well, we usually can hit 2-3 stores within the first half hour that we are there. Occasionally we see that there is an excessively long line when we first get inside a store. If that is the case, one of us will immediately get in line while the other runs for the items needed. During the wee hours of the morning there is no time for browsing - it is just grab and go.
After round one (the first 3-4 stores) we take a break for breakfast. While we are eating, we get out our receipts and mark off all items on our Christmas List Spreadsheet. Then it is off for round two.
By now we have hit most of the door crasher sales - the things that will probably be in short supply. Round two allows for time to do a little browsing, time to look at things that we weren't really sure if we wanted or not. This round is a lot more relaxing but takes considerably more time. During round two we head to the mall and buy tickets for a movie. We shop and then eat lunch, then head back for the movie.
My sister and I have had the Black Friday tradition for many years. We actually do every bit of our shopping on that day - and then relax for the rest of the Christmas season.
My sister and I run around early Thanksgiving morning to gather all of the newspapers so that we make sure we don't miss any of the ads. We then seclude ourselves in a room surrounded by said ads and go through each one page by page. Using the ads and our previously drawn up spreadsheet listing each person on our Christmas list we make up our game plan. We decide which bargains we must get to first, those we are willing to wait in line for, and those that we can live without if things get to crazy. This process usually requires about two hours.Then, it is off to bed - very early for we know what an exhausting day is in store! Many years we get to Ogden several hours before the sun is up! Waiting in a long line like this is common place! Once we get into the store we each have pre-assigned items to find and then we meet at the lines for the registers. If we plan well, we usually can hit 2-3 stores within the first half hour that we are there. Occasionally we see that there is an excessively long line when we first get inside a store. If that is the case, one of us will immediately get in line while the other runs for the items needed. During the wee hours of the morning there is no time for browsing - it is just grab and go. After round one (the first 3-4 stores) we take a break for breakfast. While we are eating, we get out our receipts and mark off all items on our Christmas List Spreadsheet. Then it is off for round two. By now we have hit most of the door crasher sales - the things that will probably be in short supply. Round two allows for time to do a little browsing, time to look at things that we weren't really sure if we wanted or not. This round is a lot more relaxing but takes considerably more time. During round two we head to the mall and buy tickets for a movie. We shop and then eat lunch, then head back for the movie. After the movie we finish up with any items that we are missing. Once that is accomplished, we head for home and Round Three.
Round Three consists of hiding somewhere, putting on a Christmas movie, and wrapping each and every gift! It is exhausting, but so very satisfying to accomplish so much at one time.
My sister and I have had the Black Friday tradition for many years. We actually do every bit of our shopping on that day - and then relax for the rest of the Christmas season.
Comments
Oh, and I had so much fun Saturday night! Thanks for putting it together!