Black Friday Strategy

Thanksgiving is a day full of family, good food and traditions. When the kids were little the guys and Ron would go out for a friendly football game while the turkey cooked and all the meal preparations were made. This was great because they would come back hungry and happy having stories and wounds to share of the 'Big Game.'

Julie and I would rush to get everything prepared and the birds cooking and then sneak out for a dip in her hot tub with a glass of wine while the guys were off tackling each other. Our 2 families never ate together but often shared dessert with several different families in the evening.

A few years ago, my mom started coming over for Thanksgiving and BLACK FRIDAY. The first year we went with Natalie and just dipped our toes into this amazing shopping adventure. So we got up in the middle of the night and headed to Santa Fe. What an experience. It was definitely a frenzy as we watched people loading up their shopping carts with televisions and an assortment of other techno items. The scary thing was you could see people grabbing merchandise that they had not intended to purchase. It seemed everyone was just caught up in the flurry of savings.

So last year, Mom and I rented a hotel room in Albuquerque and laid out an intricate shopping plan for the Big Day. We went down on Thanksgiving evening and studied the ads and mapped out our routes of store openings and necessary holiday gifts to be bought. So the alarms sounded at 3 am  and we dressed and were off into the night. By 10 am we were back at the hotel for a much deserved nap and then woke and wrapped the afternoon away. When the evening of Black Friday rolled around we had all the gifts wrapped and were relaxing in the hotel hot tub feeling worn out but confident that we had a leg up on our holiday shopping.

Not only do we get our shopping and wrapping done early with great savings, but we avoid shipping costs as well. Mom returns to Arizona with a trunk full of gifts for my family there and I take her gifts for my family and set in the living room where the fragrant Christmas tree will soon be.

We loved the thrill of the plan so much last year that we are repeating it this year. Maybe this will become a new tradition. Mom is so extremely organized that we follow the plan to a T and get the maximum benefit from all the early morning sales.

This is 1 of my favorite times with my mom. Just the 2 of us against the retail mania that is Black Friday.

In Him,
Joyful