Black Friday

For the fourth year in a row, I have skipped the shopping frenzy known as "Black Friday". While growing up, it was considered a sport by my family. My mother would have us scour the sales papers and we would come up with a "plan of attack". Our clothes would be laid out the night before. The woman was a machine. She would have us up promptly at 4 am with breakfast already on the table. To some this may be considered a smaller form of child abuse. To us, it was fun. It was the one time that we were ALLOWED to run around the store and grab what we were assigned to pick it up. What kid wouldn't want that? It was a weird form of family bonding. My mother had our undivided attention while we stood in line. She would subtly pick our brains as to what each of us wanted for Christmas. The woman was good.

Flash forward several years. I now live in Los Angeles which is considered a major shopping mecca. I tried "Black Friday" shopping with my cousin. I have never seen pushing shoving and maneuvering quite like that. These people were professionals! The thrill was gone. It was then that I realized that I was completely out of my league. As a realist, I decided that standing in line for $5 DVDs was not worth it for me. I have respectfully chosen not to participate.

As a result, I have become an online shopper. Last year I bought 50% of my gifts online. This year, I intend to buy 75% of my gifts online. To add to the challenge, I am attempting to buy mostly handmade gifts. Handmade gifts no longer mean ugly sweaters made by your Aunt. With sites like Etsy, unique and well-made handmade gifts are much more accessible. I plan to post my finds. We'll see how this goes...