Adventures in shopping: Black Friday edition

So here was the plan: I'd meet my mother and sister, sister-in-law Tricia, and Jana at 9:30 pm, we'd drive the half hour to town, and start at Walmart, shopping the 10 pm doorbusters until the electronics came on sale at midnight. Sounds pretty simple right? At least we thought so, none of us ever having attempted a Walmart Black Friday opening before.

Turns out we were a bunch of loony tunes to be so naive because, OH THE INSANITY. We got our first hint that things might not go so smoothly when traffic was stopped a couple blocks away from Walmart's vast parking lot and people were parking on the main road and all the side streets and walking. The cars were so jammed we couldn't even turn around and it took us a full 20 minutes to get through the parking lot close enough for me to drop everyone off, which we finally decided to do after a good 5 minutes of debating whether to completely bail or not. We'd come this far we decided, why not risk life and limb and have a little adventure.

After I miraculously found a spot and waded in, I quickly discovered the masses had already grabbed most of the sale stuff and got in line to checkout, but all was not lost. As it turns out, the way to shop the Walmart sale is to wander aimlessly around the store and find abandoned items you were looking for that other people grabbed and then changed their mind on three aisles later. Seriously, I got all but two items on my list, including the $248 laptop that I was hoping for! I didn't even wait in line for it - I just decided (at 11:57 pm, 3 minutes before the electronics sale started) to go wait by the line of people who already had tickets saving their spot for the computer because they'd been there since probably 7 pm, just in case someone bailed. I was completely shocked to discover that several people must have because I watched them hand out all the laptop boxes to the people waiting and when the line was gone there were still ten left. And I was the only one standing there waiting to see if there were extras!

SCORE, ME! 

What does this mean? I am now the proud owner of my first ever laptop! An HP 15.6 inch screened beauty. Technically it's a Christmas present from Russ (because I sorta twisted his arm to let me get it by saying I wouldn't need anything else under the tree. Which we all know is a lie - of course I need a surprise under the tree!) but I don't think I'm going to be able to wait till the end of December to start playing with it.

We spent the next hour and a half manning our cart in the long and winding checkout line, taking turns going out in pairs to scavenge for more abandoned items left by other shoppers (I'm telling you, it's the way to go.) This led to making new best friends with the ladies in front of us, who brought us iced waters from the Subway up front and refilled them for us a few times too. (Loved those girls!)

After Walmart we took a little side trip to Krispy Kreme at 1:30 am because the hot light was on and we were a little caffeine deficient. 

Peppermint white mochas to revive our sleep-deprived selves.

a dozen fresh doughnuts helped too. 

And then we rocked Target (always way more organized and stocked than Walmart), Old Navy (no lines at all and very well stocked, bought myself two pairs of jeans because they were only $15.00), and Kohl's (also no lines... turns out 2-5 am is the prime time to shop!) before heading back home at 6 am. With a trunk full of presents bought at some pretty amazing prices. I rolled into bed at 7 am and didn't wake up until almost one o'clock in the afternoon. And the rest of the weekend was kind of a blur after that, but it was a fun and relaxing blur.

And now that the shock of the long night has worn off, I'm left with 95% of my Christmas shopping completed, and it's not even December yet. Do you know how often that has happened before?

NEVER. Not even close.

I'm feeling pretty jazzed about that :)