Post-Thanksgiving Wallet-Emptying

(Quick note before I get into the main post...Blogger finally forced my hand, after 5 1/2 years of posting and photo-uploading, and I had to upgrade my Photobucket hosting so I can continue to post pictures, change headers (notice I hadn't changed my header photo in 2 1/2 years?  Ever wonder why?), etc.  This coincided with my desire to simplify my layout a bit, and voila, hope you like it!  Btw, if any of you have any ideas about how to make my header photo take up a bit more space at the top of the blog, this has been a mystery that has eluded me for several years now, and I'd love to finally figure this out!)

I neglected to do a Thanksgiving post this year.  I can't actually remember if I've ever done one anyway, but I usually feel that giving thanks happens each and every day, and listing out all of the typical things I am so, so thankful for on Thanksgiving Day feels a little trite, as the list is comprised of things that everyone would expect to hear anyway.  Thankful for my family, our health, my daughter, my husband, the internet, this amazing online and IRL Ds community, etc., etc., etc...  See?  It looks and sounds the same as everyone else's lists.  Not like their lists are bad, because they're not.  I have truly enjoyed reading the things other people are thankful for, and am thankful for those posts and lists in turn.  I could get into all the minute, nit-picky little things I'm thankful for, like how Holly posted that her son (and she) is thankful for underwear.  But not everything's appropriate...LOL 

After stuffing myself silly with my mother's incredibly delicious Thanksgiving feast on Thursday night, I found myself, for the very first time, too full to eat dessert!  Uh, that has never happened.  I have always said that I have two stomachs:  one for dinner, one for dessert.  I think the two glasses of wine I drank clouded my portion-judgement on dinner, and I just. couldn't. eat. any. more.  We came home and tore through the newspaper inserts filled with amazing shopping deals for the wee hours of the morning, and I got to bed early.  Come 5am, I waited for the noise-muffling central heating to come on, tiptoed out of the bedroom, pulled on a pair of jeans and a hoodie over the t-shirt I'd slept in, and silently snuck out the front door, headed to Tysons Corner, the region's super-mall, an awe-inspiring monstrosity of gleaming chain-store goodness.

To give you a clue about how crazy Black Friday is at Tysons, there was a TV crew camped out front of the Starbucks in the mall to document the ridiculous lines streaming out their door and down in front of the neighboring stores.  By the way, there are two Starbucks stores in that mall...  I really needed coffee, but I am not a slave to Starbucks.  I walked a bit further down and got a delicious cup of the must-have 6am beverage from Cinnabon.

No line.

I'm a firm believer that you can't approach Black Friday lightly - you have to have a plan.  Map out your strategy with your list of specific items, and the randoms will come, falling into your lap when you least expect them.  I went to Tysons with one thing in mind, really.  I wanted to hit the sale at one store in particular, Naartjie.  I've written about them before, but they're a South American children's clothing retailer, and while I could have taken advantage of their sale and ordered online, going to the one store in the region and seeing the clothes in-person is so much better.  The photos online really don't do them justice.  This weekend they were boasting a 40% off sale prices discount, which, given how low their prices are already, is not to be missed.  I came away with two pair of pants, and a pair of leggings for $24.  And these are not ordinary pants or leggings, but beautifully-made, beautifully-detailed, super-cool pants...  I wouldn't have it any other way.

Something else on my list was to find a pair of winter Crocs for Sammi.  She loves her Crocs.  Pink fuzzy ones would be just the ticket.  I went to the local Hallmark in my town the other day, but the only color they had was black, and they were an exorbitant $39.99 (by the way, does anyone else find it somewhat disturbing, the random and strange offerings at Hallmark card stores these days?).  In the mall, at the Croc stand, they had the fuzzy ones (sadly only in black, brown and navy blue - I chose brown) for $19.99 and they were buy-one-get-one-free.  I selected a pair of non-winter pink ones in a size up from what she currently has, to get her through next year.  Score!

After a few other non-essential items from a few other stores, I headed home at 7:20.  But not without one final stop.  Target.  For Brave on DVD for a mere $10.00.  After having shelled out $30 for Cinderella a few weeks ago in order to not miss Disney's cruel, unnecessary and shameful (although more shameless to those-who-rake-in-the-dough) limited release, this was a big relief to me.  I got to Target at just before 8am, got a parking spot right up front, and was in and out in under 60 seconds, the prized possession bought and paid-for in my hot little hands, ready to turn over to Santa for his descent down our non-existent chimney and into our gas fireplace.

So while there were no big-ticket items on my Black Friday list this year, I feel like I had a successful trip out.  What were your shopping successes this weekend?