Making Christmas

I'm back from Thanksgiving break and did quite a bit of spending. But it was all during sales, so it was good spending. It began when perusing the Home Depot on a Wednesday morning. I'm looking at the fake Christmas trees and trying to pay attention to pries. Amanda and I have never bought a tree before for our post-college pad, and judging by the prices, we figured the smartest thing would be to get a real tree and just split the cost.

"You looking to get a tree?" asks the Home Depot employee.
"Just looking right now," I say.
"I got an amazing deal on a tree here," he says.
"Well, I probably won't buy anything right now, but OK, what's the deal?"

So he walks me over to a 7.5-foot pre-lit tree for about $200.
"Pretty nice?"

$200? What the hell kind of deal is that? But I give a polite, "Yeah."

And after about 15 seconds of silence he says, "Well it's $49! Look at your face change! Look at your face change!"

And yes, my face did change. To disbelief. "So does that sale kick in on Friday?" I ask.

"It's supposed to be for Friday," he explains, "But they already have it in the computer system so it'll ring up that price today. People are going crazy calling the store and putting them on hold. Which one do you want, the one with white or multi-color lights?"

The guy stared at me for about 30 seconds while I had a battle with the voices in my mind. You know the kind. It goes something like:

Wow that's a great deal but what about Amanda I should wait for her to come and pick it out with me or maybe I should think it over because where am I going to store it afterward and we wanted to get a real tree cause it was easier to split the cost and I did already spend a lot of money on Christmas decorations and you can't split the cost with Amanda on a fake tree and people are calling to pick it up so if you wait it could be gone and it sounds like a really good deal but if I wait longer will I find an even better deal and I didn't want a pre-lit one but these are really pretty and I didn't expect to find a 7-foot tree but white or multi lights I can't decide which would look better maybe I should ask my parents if I should buy this with white lights its simple but multi is more fun but white is classy....

"I'll take the one with the white lights."

Best decision I made yet on a Christmas purchase. Turns out it was the best deal on a fake tree in the Black Friday ads.

And speaking of Black Friday ads, I must say I was very disappointed in what was being offered. There was no big must have thing this year or really good sale. The deals seemed pretty mediocre to me, but nevertheless, I still woke up early to wait in line at Target.

Last year Target gave away a stuffed animal of the Target bulldog named Bullseye, along with other edible treats and one of them Earth-friendly reusable bags. The tag on the Bullseye said "Limited Edition Series One Black Friday 2007"... so that makes you think Series Two will be this year, right? Uh yeah... nope! No giveaways this year! It was one of the reasons I picked Target over another store. Gah! But at least the line wasn't too bad.

I ran in when the doors opened. It amazed me how many people grabbed carts. I weaved in and out of the crowds to grab what I needed. A cart may have been nice, but this was no time for carts! I went with my Mom and we had a game plan to get specific items. We started at 5 a.m., jumped to four stores, and we were done by 8 a.m.

Black Friday is a madhouse, but it's much easier if you have a game plan of only getting specific things. You can't browse. Browsing is for Saturdays or Friday night after you take a nap. But if you don't go, you feel like you are getting cheated since you have to buy the gifts anyways. At least that's my mindset. But it only works if you have specific gifts you know you are going to give, like tech gadgets or toys.

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Comments

[Ashley]

I almost screwed up your poll by voting for the cat with the machine gun. Just BECAUSE it's a cat. With a violent rage. Best picture ever.