Black Friday Experience

So all of you who know me know that Tom and I will wake up semi early on black Friday every year and start our Christmas shopping.  We both consider it one of our favorite "date" days.  Mainly for the fact that we get to be just the two of us for several hours.  We get to enjoy each others company and relax to a nice meal out sometime during our store bouncing adventure.  We usually will hit our first store about 6 or 7am and we usually get everything we set out to get.  Well this year we took it to an all new level.  This is the story of my first ever black Friday opening.
This year we decided to get a xbox with kinex as the family gift.  The only reason why we picked that item is because Walmart was offering it for black Friday at $200 with a wireless controller, a game, and a $50 Walmart gift card.  So it was like getting the whole thing for $150.  Which is a great deal!  Usually the console and kinex are $300.
Well Walmart started their sale at 10pm Thanksgiving night.  We arrived in line at Walmart at 8:30pm.  We learned that they had 270 units at the store.  When we got ours there were 50 left.  So we made it right in time.  We got our ticket meaning we got one as long as we stayed in line to collect it at that time.  Easy right!
I also wanted to see if I could nab a scooter for Jaycie's birthday and some Tupperware they had on sale for myself.  Walmart had those smaller items like that on pallets in the middle of the isles, shrink wrapped with a sign saying what time they can be opened.  It was a sight!  People had started to form circles around the pallets with their hands on the items that they wanted.  This is still an hour before the sale starts.  We saw the video game pallet it was at least 5 rows of people deep sitting on the floor with hands on games they wanted and more people over the top of them reaching with all their might to get those games.  I wandered the store for my other items.  Once I located the pallets I went back to Tom.  I was not waiting guarding the pallet like others.  About 15 minutes before the sale started I waddled myself back over to the scooters and staked out my place around the pallet. 
Next thing I know the whistle blew and all hell broke loose!  It was like the ball scene in Jingle all the way!  Total mayhem!  The shrink wrap was off the pallet in less then a second and scooters were all over the floor!  You felt like you had about 1 minute to get what you wanted out of the pile before the sea of people started to push you away from your destination.  Luckily I got the color of scooter I wanted and was off for the Tupperware. 
The Tupperware was on a pallet toward the entrance of the store and the cash registers.  Here was the point of no return.  People were finished already and heading by the handfuls towards the cash registers.  Now this was maybe 5 minutes after the sale started.  You literally had no choice but to ride the wave of people in the direction they were going.  I got over to the Tupperware and that was a mad house too.  A young man was the first of his group to get to the pallet and started tossing the Tupperware up over his head into the air for others to catch.  All I could do was laugh!  I got the set I wanted and floated on toward the front of the store.  Slowly making my was to the side so I could duck down a side isle to get to our meeting spot.  The only place in the store where you could move was the center.  No one was there!
Needless to say I beat Tom with the lines so I met him back at the game spot.  We collected our item and made our way to check out.  We got in line at 10:30pm an hour later we finally got out of the store!  But we made it!  We got everything we came for!!  Sad thing was that we picked the only check out line that had a group of ladies in matching t-shirts that said "I love to shop" and had every ad with them and price matched every single movie that they picked up!  Which I must say was at least 30 minutes of our check out time!
Once to the car we decided that we might as well keep going.  Kohls was starting their sale at midnight and was right across the street so we headed there.  Yeah right!  The line to get in was wrapped around the building and still a half hour till opening.  So we thought we would try our luck at Toys R Us.
Once we got there Tom headed straight for the check out line while I did the shopping.  We went there for the Santa gift the kids wanted.  We got 2 out of the last 3 they had.  YAY!!!  The line for check out was 2 hrs. long this time.  We went through every isle from the back of the store back to the front entrance of the store to the check out.  The only thing that made it worse was the two old ladies that were behind us complaining the whole time on how terrible it was.  We already knew it was bad.  We don't need to hear it from you!
After that we went back to Kohls thinking that the crowds had died down by now.  The one we went to didn't have the main item I wanted there.  But they did have plenty of the other items I wanted except some picture frames that I was hoping to get for the house.  So  Tom did the same thing and got straight in line and I shopped.  Another hour and a half to get checked out again.  So far the whole night was trying to get out of the stores! 
We finished up at 3:30am.  The only other store I wanted was Joanns so I could get my birthday present.  They didn't open till 6am.  We thought we would get some food and wait but low and behold the only places to eat that were open was Dennys.  And there was even a line around it to get in to eat!.  We then decided to go home and wait.  I decided to get go on their website once we were home and discovered I could order it online for the same price.  So I did!
So at 4:30am we turned in for bed.  Got up at 10:30am and went out for breakfast and decided to try Kohls again for the items I missed.  We got to Kohls at 12:30 and I got what I missed the first time around! 
So needless to say our experience was one to be remembered and we got everything we wanted to get!
I must say that everyone should experience a store opening like that at least once in their life because it is hilarious!

Thanksgiving and a wedding...oh my!

I must say that time flies by way to quickly.  We have made it through Thanksgiving and another birthday for myself has come and gone.  We are already 2 weeks before Christmas!  Time is passing way to fast!
For Thanksgiving this year we were at my mother's house.  It was very nice.  We even go the rest of my siblings there this year.  The stars must have aligned just right.  Sad part was I didn't get to see my Laine or Kaylee.  But I guess I need to get use to that.
Shortly there after a big event in the Simmons/Yates family finally arrived...On December 3rd Cristi Yates became Cristi Bailey!  It was a beautiful day and the reception was absolutely beautiful!  Congrats to them both as they start their lives together!
Chesney and Jaycie were so excited for the wedding.  Not only did they get to wear their pretty new dresses, they got to dance and party.  I think Chesney danced more with the bride then the groom did!  One of the best things of all for Chesney was that she got to wear her new "high" heel shoes with her dress.  So grown up!  It was beautiful!