It's beginning to look alot like Christmas

My office was closed for the first time ever on the day after Thanksgiving. This has become the most requested day off of the year for the people that work with me. In years past I have walked in on people trying to bribe their supervisors to stretch the no more than two people off per team rule. More tears have been shed for not being allowed to have this day off than when the Pope died. Really. So, this year we decided to close the office. The stress of watching grown women cry at the prospect of not being able to hit the stores at 5:00 am finally got to me. In order to understand what the importance of this day means to so many that work with me, I decided to brave the crowds and shop that day myself. I begged, asked Pixie if she would like to come with me and she enthusiastically agreed (she's really working on the future mother in law points). We set our alarms for 3:00 am to be sure that we were on the road by 4:00 am. That's right-4:00 a.m.-as in- in the morning. Our first stop was going to be one of the big box electronics stores because everyone knows that the day to get the best deals on electronics is the day after Thanksgiving.(See how much I learned from my co-workers?). We pulled into the parking lot at 4:35 in. the. morning. to find the line already stretching two blocks down the street. I looked at Pixie and said-sorry sista-ain't nothin' worth THAT. We got back into our car and made our way to another store on our list. This one was already open at 4:45 in. the. morning. Things were looking good at this store-we were able to walk right into the store, make our selections-giggling to each other as we made our way up to the register about how this was the way to shop when we rounded the corner and hit a wall of people waiting to check out. Not just a wall but a WALL of people. I'm so not patient but Pixie really had snagged herself some good bargains so we decided that I would leave her to fend for herself  wait in line while I ran across the street to another store that was opening at 5:00 am. I struck the motherload there, stayed in contact with Pixie via cell phones and was able to make my purchases, load them into the car and drive back across the street in the time it took her to check out. We then headed to the mall. We actually did get some very, very good deals at the mall-so many in fact that we had to make multiple trips to the car. Alot of what was on my list of things to purchase were not drastically reduced but I decided that I might as well torture myself and get the bulk of my shopping done on this day since I was up and in the city anyway. When we got home we convinced U*Haul and X*Boy to put up the Christmas tree and I spent the rest of the day wrapping presents. I'm 90% done with my shopping which was a good thing. Would I ever do it again? No way. Never.