Back from Black Friday!

I know everyone is waiting to here the scoop about Black Friday, so here it is!

Thanksgiving Day - prepared for Black Friday, got all of my ads in line and had a list with all of the items I needed for each store. My partner in crime helped me to come up with a game plan for the night and I napped as much as I could all day long.

10:00 pm - Took a shower and packed the car with blankets, drinks, sales ads, lists, etc. Left my purse home and only brought a credit card and drivers license. I didn't want to be a target for criminals, so no cash...and the credit card has great coverage if it is stolen. I also had my cell phone. I folded down all of the seats in the back of the van so that we would have plenty of room for our stuff. I also made a copy of my list for Taffy incase she saw something on my list while she was in the store.

11:30 pm - Picked up Taffy, aka my partner in crime. She had overslept, so I spent a few minutes playing with her dog while she threw clothes on and ran out the door to head for Toys-R-Us.

11:50 am - We drive up to Toys-R-Us and our mouths drop in utter shock! There must have been 3,000 people in line. I have never seen this kind of thing in Lafayette. We park and stand at the front of the line with the TV station to watch the madness. There is no way I am getting in that line. It backed all the way up to the old Super K Mart. How long was that? Maybe 1/4 mile.

12:00 pm - Toys-R-Us opens their doors and is letting the line in 30 PEOPLE AT A TIME!!! I think that there is no way we are getting in. I was ready to move on. We leave and go to the next place on our list, Target. There are already 2 people waiting in line...a few kids trying to get their hands on the flat screen TV's. We decide to get in line. By that time we are #8 and #9 in line.We sat, covered with blankets and tried to figure out what we could get at Target that we clearly wouldn't get at Toys-R-Us. It wasn't really happening. We decided that maybe it was better to go home and shop online than to freeze for 5 HOURS!

1:00 am - We decide to go have breakfast and rethink our game plan. Passed by Toys-R-Us on the way out and the line had only moved by maybe 100 feet. UGH! We went to Waffle House and ate our fill!!! Then we were really tired. We decided to drive around again and see how things were moving.

2:15 am -So, we passed by Toys-R-Us again and the line was drastically shorter. Taffy thought we should wait a while before we tried again, so we drove around to see what was happening at each store. Kohl's was basically dead, other than about 5 people sleeping in their cars in the parking lot. But, Target had grown a line that wrapped around the building. We also noticed that a line was starting to emerge at Old Navy! I made the call to go back to Toys-R-Us and wait in line!

2:30 am - We are in line at Target. We are standing in front of the old Home Furniture store and the line is moving fairly quickly.

3:00 am - WE MADE IT IN TO TOYS-R-US!!! WOO HOO! We are finally moving! Once we started to get the things we were looking for we were on fire and on a roll. We got almost everything we went in for despite the huge crowd that had come through!

3:40 am - In line to check out at electronics. They are only letting 3 people into the electronics section at a time, so it was moving pretty slowly. I had to go through electronics to get the deals in there for my kid's wish lists. When I got in, they still had enough of everything I was looking for!! KUDOS to Toy's-R-Us for having plenty of supplies for their deals!

4:10 am - Leaving Toys-R-Us! We did it. On to Kohl's, which was the next store open!

4:30 am - Made it to Kohl's. Thank goodness the crowd had already gone into the store, no lines. Went in, got our stuff and waited in line to check out.

5:20 am - made it out of Kohl's! Pit stop at Starbucks to refuel. The nausea from tiredness is starting to kick in. Walked in instead of going through the drive thru (it was much faster). Headed to target.

5:30 am - TARGET!!! The line was already gone and in the store. I have to say, I have NEVER seen so many people at one time in one store! It was CRAZY!!!! There were no baskets AT ALL!! There was no method to the madness. Taffy and I split up just grabbing what we could! Finally we met up in the girls clothing section. We began to make a pile of stuff there. I manned the pile, while she ran off to find what she needed and vice versa. Finally she was able to snag a basket from one of her friends that she saw at the check-out counter!! Eureka! We got in line to check out, but the lines were almost to the BACK OF THE STORE!!! I ran to snack place to get some food because the nausea was so strong. I had a coupon for a free soda that I got from Target.com, so I got that plus some hash browns for only $.87! I got back to the line and Taffy told me that there was NO WAIT at the photo check out. I didn't want to chance getting out of line, so I ran over there to find out. Sure enough, only 3 PEOPLE IN LINE! So I called Taffy on her cell and she jetted across the store to get in line! WOO HOO! We made it!

7:30 am - Decided to hit World Market, but I forgot my coupons at home! We ran back to my house (only 5 minutes away) and snuck in quietly to grab them. Didn't wake up anyone in the house! Score! Ran back to World Market.

7:45 am - We made it into World Market! It wasn't very crazy, and the deals were better than I expected. PLUS, they had breakfast, hot chocolate, and coffee! Thank You World Market! That was wonderful after such a long night! We had $10 off of $50 coupons, so we got the best deals we could find. I filled up my whole basket for $50 (paid a little over $40) and checked out.

8:30 - Time to go home. I dropped Taffy off. I was on my way home and couldn't resist yet one more deal, so I stopped at Walgreen's to get the buy one get one free 4' Christmas trees for $19.99. I also got a couple of the items that were free with register rewards.

9:00 am - Home at last! I put up my 2 Christmas trees by the front door and hid my gifts. Went in side and relieved my husband so that he could go do his Black Friday shopping!

What a night! I almost gave up. Thank goodness for my partner in crime, for she kept me motivated when I was ready to give in and go to bed. We made out like bandits! Almost everything we bought was 50 - 90% off! For the few things I still need for Christmas...it will have to wait for Cyber Monday!!! WOO HOO!

Happy Holidays!!!!