Bring on Black Friday!

Well, for the (third?) year, I will be attending the Black Friday sales locally. Fortunately, in our small-town region, we don't get a lot of BFpsychos who will pull out your hair or shoot you if you get the last $1 Barbie. Add this to the fact that this year I'm not even getting any "hot" electronics, and I think I shall survive the madness. Of course, I'm still getting up at 3:30am so I can get a good spot in line. You never know how many other people will be out there to get the $40 mountain bike at WalMart (that and the $20 NetGear router at Staples are my main goals). My parents are still deciding whether they want to go for the $200 stainless-steel gas grill.

Naturally, because I will be a zombie by about 9am from a combination of getting up too early and the stress of shopping, I will have no chance of a nap at all tomorrow. Following the completion of my Black Friday shopping, we have a full line-up of Christmas kickoff activities. We have Santa getting off the Coast Guard boat. We will then actually meet with Santa to discuss this year's gift list. I will unsuccessfully attempt to coax Kira into sitting on Santa's lap for a picture. Mark will slouch in the background. We will then load the kids and my sister onto the horse-drawn wagon ride 'round town. Will probably make an ill-considered stop in the local toy store to "just look around." Then a trip to a local nursery that does a totally kick-ass holiday display, different each year. At some point we will stuff food into the children. At dark-ish, we will join many other townsfolk for the lighting of the....um....Christmas "tree" made of lobster traps. Yes, it's a 32-foot tall lobster trap tree. I am not kidding. The "star" is a neon lobster. On the plus side, they serve free hot cocoa and giant sugar cookies. And the last couple of years, I have gotten to watch my daughter (and my mother) waltz 'round the town square to the tinny sound of piped-in Christmas carols. It is wonderful.

Anyway. All that, and then Friday night is "our shows" for me & Mark: Ghost Whisperer, Close to Home, and our favorite, Numb3rs. So come Saturday morning, I fully intend to SLEEP IN.

So anyway. Wish me luck on my shopping venture, and making it through the day's fun. And it really IS fun. I'll check in probably Saturday with results and, if you're lucky, PICTURES!

Some pictures from last year: