Happy Holidays

I was one of the fools to go out on Black Friday - and not just in the afternoon, but bright and early at the crack o' 4:30am. I woke up and started thinking about shopping, so I figured I'd get up and get it over with. It was sort of cool to be at the mall that early- and a little disturbing that there were so many people there. I got in, got my stuff and got out. Old Navy was my next stop, and although I thought they opened at 5, the store was trashed in a way that suggested it had been open for several hours prior. Either that or Santa's helpers were off duty for Thanksgiving. Again -success. Target was stop #3, and I was astonished to pull into the parking lot behind a caravan of cars, only to witness the doors fly open at 10 to 6, and a crowd of hundreds surge through the doors on both ends of the store. These wolverines attacked the POS of DVD's first, grabbing bad movies by the handful. Then they moved into electronics and stacked digital photo frames by the tens and multiple TV/DVD combos ($199 each) into the carts they wielded like battering rams. Seriously - I read something that estimated the average family spends $587 on 23 gifts for the Holidays. Well, that's not what I witnessed at Target. I probably checked out with the lowest ticket of the day ($20, thank you very much), but those around me were spending hundreds. As my sweet husband pointed out, the West Des Moines Target shopper probably does not represent the average holiday budget, but still, with the bags of stuff these people were lugging around, they probably spent my Christmas budget 3 or 4 times over - easy. After that I still had the strength to hit Toys r Us, which was a total bust. People were wrapped around the inside of the store waiting to check out, with carts of stuff. I found nothing there - the prices were high and the selection average. Not a bad experience, and I was still home by 8:30am.

Good News - no gestational diabetes!