Start the Countdown . . . 5 DAYS TO GO!

One of my favorite holidays isn't a holiday at all (for most people): Black Friday.

No, I'm not crazy. I thought Adam was when he first went after we were married. Then he convinced me to go, and I got hooked. Let me set the scene for you.

We're in my mother-in-law's sitting room, furniture moved back, newspapers and sprawling family spread wall-to-wall Thanksgiving afternoon, everyone calling out items to add to the list. After finding everything we need, we figure out who is going to what store, who will be watching which children, and go home to set our alarms. There is usually a bit of subterfuge going on, since so many of the items are gifts for the shoppers, so it takes quite a bit of organizing to get it all figured out without giving away any potential gifts.

Adam usually wakes up (or stays up) until midnight to get the items online that will be the most difficult to get (it often requires multiple browsers open, with shopping carts already full and ready to click "checkout"), but the rest of us sleep in until about 4 am. Then we call the sleepyheads who miss their alarms and drive around to pick them up and drop each other off at our respective stores.

Finally, we arrive at stores to wait in line and shiver under our warm coats, gloves and chat amiably with the strangers in line all around us. We swap Black Friday lists and war stories, plan our routes to the prospective items and where we'll meet once we find them and then--WAIT! THE DOORS ARE OPEN! Time to run!

About 15 minutes later the items are paid for and we set off for our second-string items and/or choose a store in which to browse the leftovers. By about 7:00 am, the shopping is done and we meet the remainder of the family shoppers for breakfast to gloat or bemoan over the items we found or not, and laugh about all the crazy people who were racing to fill their carts with 12 Barbies, 10 food processors, and 20 RC cars.

So, have I convinced you? If so, here's a great site to get you started: Black Friday Ads. And either way, Black Friday is coming in

5 more days!

See you there! (And please don't laugh at me if I'm still in my pajamas. I promise not to laugh at you. Or even what's in your cart. Unless you have more than 10 of something.)