Black Friday Success!

I woke up every half hour last night, wondering if it was time to hit the sales. At one point I had a dream that I missed Black Friday all together and surprisingly enough, I wasn't too crushed about it. Right around that time I woke up, looked at my clock (4:10am) and I jumped out of bed... this was 5 minutes before my alarm went off. Yes, I was just a little excited. I made it to Toys R Us by 4:30am and waited outside in the rain until the store opened at 5am. I was about the 30th person in the store and I quickly grabbed a cart and headed down the main aisle. I brought my master list and knew exactly what I wanted. On Black Friday there is no messing around. It's not a day to just go and browse. I was lucky enough to find everything on my list (2 items were almost gone) and then I only had to wait about 5 minutes to check out. Painless and so fun. I was in and out of there in 20 minutes. Then I headed to another store and bought something for Jake (spent $25 and saved $35). Then I headed to Shopko. I had a toy in mind and as I was searching I saw there were none left. I went down another aisle and found a similar toy on sale but it was for the bigger one and cost $20 more. It was the last one so I took it and then heard a woman say behind me "She just took the last one." (She was referring to me and I felt a tiny bit guilty.) The line to the cash register wove in and out of aisles and took 25 minutes... not great, but not the worst I've waited in (Toys R Us one year I waited over an hour!) When I got to the cash register I saw on the counter the toy I originally wanted to get but was sold out. I asked the cashier if someone was going to buy that and she said "No. The lady changed her mind and gave them back." YES! I switched out the bigger one and got the cheaper one. (Again, I felt even more guilty now for that lady who wanted it and I took the last one. Oops.) After Shopko I rushed to the car and headed out to Wal-Mart. I figured the few things I wanted there would be gone since it was already a little after 6am. I pulled in at 6:30am and ran straight to the toys and to my surprise, there was plenty left of everything! It was awesome. I only waited about 5 minutes in line to check-out... again, awesome! Then I headed out to Old Navy and bought a few things. After that I hit two more stores (can't say what they are or Jake will know where I shopped) and bought everything I needed to get. Black Friday was a success! I was home just before 10am and bought all the items on my list. I figured out I saved an average of about 50% off everything I bought today. Not too shabby. The best part is Christmas shopping is 99% done. I just need to get 3 more presents, figure out my neighbor gifts, and stockings and then we are set. It's a great feeling and I love that we were able to save some money in the process. Another fun part of Black Friday is meeting other crazy shoppers, like myself. I met Laurel from West Valley at Shopko and Ryan and Shari at Toys R Us (they have 2 boys and were looking for Nintendo DS games). Fun times. It's 1:30pm now and I think my adrenaline rush is gone and I'm realizing I'm actually a little tired. I think I'll sleep pretty well tonight. ;)