November 27, 2009 at 8:25 am
It used to be that Black Friday sales started at 7:00 am the day after Thanksgiving. Then stores started opening at 6:00 am. Then it was 5:00 am for a few years, and then some started opening at 4:00 am in the last year or two.
This year, some stores at the Columbia Center Mall opened at 3:00 am. But no one beat Toys-R-Us, which opened the minute that Thanksgiving was over.
How’d you like to be one of the employees there? You probably had to show up for work 4-5 hours early to start setting up for the crowd. So much for Thanksgiving evening with the family.
What’s next? Stores opening at 11 pm Thanksgiving night? 9 pm?
Meanwhile, I noticed a lot of online retailers didn’t even bother waiting for Black Friday. They were pimping big “Thanksgiving Day-only” sales online, maybe hoping to get shoppers to spend a lot of money in a turkey-induced haze.
Thanksgiving — the holiday itself — is becoming an afterthought. Black Friday is killing it, and quick.
But we did our best to celebrate it this year. Our good friend Tassoula came to visit and enjoy a great Cari-cooked meal with us. Dee-licious!
Hope you had a great Thanksgiving, too!
December 25, 2008 at 2:12 pm
… to shop for yourself!
Actually, it wasn’t supposed to be that way, but I ended up buying myself a kinda-sorta Christmas present on Christmas Eve at Circuit City:
It’s like this: Sean’s computer monitor died a few days ago. So he’s been without a computer. My laptop died on Tuesday, and after spending a couple hours on the phone with Apple Tech Support, the decision was that I needed to get a new hard drive.
So, on Christmas Eve I went to Circuit City to get myself a new hard drive. Sean asked me to look for a monitor for him, and if I found one that he could afford (he has some money saved up), to buy it and then he’d pay me back.
Well, the hard drive was easy to find. But there were no monitors left in his price range. There was, however, this gorgeous, Samsung, 22-inch LCD monitor for $209. So I decided to get it … and if Sean wanted it, he could pay for half and the rest would count as a Christmas gift from mom and dad. Or, option 2 was that I would keep this monitor and give Sean my Sony 19-inch monitor.
He chose option 2. So, while I went out with the plan to shop for him, I ended up getting myself a sweet, new Christmas present!
Merry Christmas to you! I hope Santa brought you lots of goodies, and please also remember the reason for the season. Count your blessings. 
December 3, 2008 at 7:36 pm
I’ve always thought that nutcrackers are creepy, but this year’s holiday stamps just drive the point home beyond any shadow of a doubt….
November 24, 2008 at 12:25 am
Took this photo a couple weeks back. This is the Christmas catalog haul that arrived at Casa McGee on a single day: nine catalogs! And every one of them was tossed in the trash immediately. Talk about overkill.
I think next year I’ll save every holiday catalog we get in the mail and see how big of a box we can fill. Guaranteed it’ll be too heavy to lift….
November 14, 2007 at 8:40 pm
This is part of what came in the mail today. Yes, eight Christmas catalogs in one day. One day!
(I’m also posting to test photo sizes on the new blog. Shhhh….)
October 16, 2006 at 11:15 pm
The subject of Christmas and gifts came up in our house yesterday. Some of the Sunday paper advertisements were spread out and Sean pointed out some game he thought was cool. I told him, as I always do at this time of year, to put it on his Christmas / birthday wish list.
Tara heard that and promptly told me about her list:
“Daddy, for Christmas I want every toy I don’t already have.”
Ha!!!
December 24, 2004 at 9:15 pm
Let it be known and remembered that Tara, soon to turn 3 years old, is very excited about tonight’s visit from that jolly old man in the red suit. You know who I’m talking about. Tara calls him:
Clanta Saw
