'Tis Better to Give

A couple of weekends ago my mom took Tyler and me out shopping. Now I know that I've talked with many of you about her shopping bug and how, at times, it can be rather insatiable. It was just as insatiable as ever this time, but I don't know that we've had this much fun in a long time.

Mom armed each of us with $30 and the early bird morning ad for Toys 'R Us and off we went! I LOVE shopping for toys. And it was so much fun to pick out things for Toys For Tots. Thanks to the amazing sales, we left with TONS of stuff to give. My personal favorite was a set of twin baby dolls that came with a double stroller to push them around ... and it was only $12 thanks to the sale! Okay, maybe it was the stuffed plush set of doll doctor equipment. Or maybe it was the super cute teddy bear. Or the buy one get one free puppies. No, the two headed dragon. Or the Raggedy Ann. Or the matchbox cars. Or the football. Or something else super cool that I'm forgetting about ... Or maybe I'm a traditionalist and it was the magic baby bottles.



Then we had some Kohl's cash from Black Friday. So we headed over there to get more toys. I believe we left there with another stuffed animal, a super cool Play-Dough set, a Polly Pocket like doll, and I'm sure something else that I'm forgetting.

Totally fun way to spend a Saturday!

Hummable Humbug

As I was reading the paper this morning and flipped over the Life section to skim what has quickly become one of my favorite pages - The Flip Side. I came across an article that made me LAUGH! So I thought I'd share. This is from today's Columbus Dispatch and was written by Nick Chordas:

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Some folks worry that political correctness has gone too far where Christmas is concerned. The Flip Side, grammatically challenged since 2004, doesn't think it has gone far enough. Hence, we've identified six highly offensive carols that you might want to think twice about singing this holiday season. You're welcome, by the way.

All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth
Most Offensive Lyric: "It seems so long since I could say / 'Sister Susie Sitting on a thistle!' / Gosh, oh, gee, how happy I'd be / If I could only whistle (th, th)."
Harmed Party: dentally challenged kids. Imagine the hurt when an already-self-conscious second-grader hears the song mercilessly poking fun at his or her temporary speech impediment. For shame, Donald Yetter Gardner, who wrote the unrepentant tune in 1944.

Winter Wonderland
Most Offensive Lyric: "In the meadow we can build a snowman / Then pretend that he is Parson Brown / He'll say, 'Are you married?' / We'll say, 'No, man / But you can do the job / When you're in town.'"
Harmed Party: marriage traditionalists. Can you imagine? An anthropomorphic stack of packed ice presiding over the sacred bond of marriage? What next? A real person grants divorces?

Christmas is Coming
Most Offensive Lyric: "Christmas is coming / The geese are getting fat / Please put a penny / In the old man's hat."
Harmed Party: overweight fowl and the elderly. We don't think that we should have to explain why "fat" would be considered an insulting adjective by our full-figured, feathered friends. Also, the implication that panhandlers must be of advanced years smacks of ageism.

Up on the Housetop
Most Offensive Lyric: "Next comes the stocking of little Will / Oh, just see what a glorious fill / Here is a hammer and lots of tacks / Also a ball and whip that cracks / Ho-ho-ho! Who wouldn't go?"
Harmed Party: child-safety enthusiasts. Nowhere does the song mention warning labels for little Will's holiday haul, which apparently includes a mallet, small nails (lots of them) and a lion tamer's lash. Disgraceful.

Merry Christmas, Darling
Most Offensive Lyric: "Merry Christmas, darling / We're apart, that's true / But I can dream / And in my dreams / I'm Christmas-ing with you."
Harmed Party: English teachers. Christmas is a lot of things to a lot of people - but it is never a verb. Keep your "Christmas-ing" to yourself, Carpenters. Some of us have proficiency tests to worry about.

The Twelve Days of Christmas
Most Offensive Lyric: "On the third day of Christmas / My true love sent to me: / Three French hens / Two turtle doves / And a partridge in a pear tree."
Harmed Party: patriotic Americans. French hens, huh? Seriously? They're called freedom hens. And, yes, we still think that joke is funny.

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I'm thinking that my favorite is Merry Christmas, Darling. But it may very well be The Twelve Days of Christmas. Yours?

Also ...

... a note to my fellow doorbusters.

I acknowledge that it was an early morning. I was up too. Earlier than some, probably not than most ... the point I have is this ...

Even though it was early, I took a few precious moments to ready myself for the day. No. I didn't shower. One bathroom and 4 people does not afford all that much time for luxuries on early mornings with very tight deadlines. In my opinion, 5:40 was plenty early to be up that morning. However, I did take time to wash my face, brush my teeth and hair, and put on both makeup AND deodorant. I did so not only for myself, but also as a common courtesy to those with whom I would be in contact through out the day.

Please, if you were one of the many people with whom I had contact during that day but did not take time to do something as simple as apply deodorant before leaving your home that morning, consider doing so should you head out to doorbust Black Friday 2009. Thank you.

That is all.

Dorkbusting

When I was growing up, Black Friday shopping wasn't anything that was done in my family. Two years ago, Tyler found a really good deal on an mp3 player that he wanted to get me for Christmas. So out we went. However, we didn't go out till about 2. And I have to tell you, by that time of day all (read: most) of the crazy people were gone. This year, perusing bfads.com, Tyler discovered a sale that required our presence as doorbusters - at Half-Price Books. (Man am I a dork ... :P) The sale? The first 100 people through the doors would receive a free tote bag and a $5 coupon. Of those 100, someone would win a $100 gift card to Half-Price. Now ... I was sold at the $5 coupon. There are plenty of books at Half-Price that I could get for $5. So that was a FREE book! And seeing as I'm a dork ... free books are a great draw for me. I might also add that this sale was falling at a rather fortuitous time for me, as I just recently finished the book that I was reading. Doors were to open at 7 am.

So, we got up at 6. We (Tyler, his mom, my mom, and myself) left around 6:30. We got to Half-Price about 10 minutes later and there was already quite the line. Guesstimating, we figured there were about 50 people there already. I must admit, I was surprised by this. I didn't figure that there would be that many people in line to doorbust at Half-Price Books. I'm glad that we arrived when we did though, because the grew behind us rather quickly. They opened the doors about 10 minutes early and began to hand out tote bags and coupons. I headed straight back to the religious fiction in hopes of finding another totally mindless fluff read. Tyler checked graphic novels first then went to sci-fi, business, and finally came back to where I was. My mom headed for the clearance section (shock) and immediately began filling her bag with several books for her classroom (shock again). And I believe that Tyler's mom headed to the current publications looking for a specific book for someone for Christmas. She found a few things. Tyler found a couple of books. Mom filled her bag. And I was having some difficulty. There as a series that I was kind of interested in, but didn't want to spend the money on books 2 and 3 in the series and was afraid to risk them not being there at a later date. So I just set everything aside and figured I could use my coupon during a later trip to the store. Tyler's mom was no where to be found at this point in time so, we headed over to the music section towards the front of the store to look for a cd he's been wanting. (Please note, that at this point in time, we've been at Half-Price Books for about 40 minutes and there are probably close to 200 people in the small store with us. And I'm thinking, "Seriously? This many people got up early for Half-Price Books?" Regardless of my thoughts, I'm glad that we listened to Tyler and headed out early to wait in line. And here comes why ...) Tyler and I are busy digging through cds when his mom comes up behind us and says, "Hey you two! Get whatever you want today - I won!" Seriously. She won the $100 gift card. How fun! So I went back and picked up my series (and a couple of other books). Tyler grabbed a few books he'd set down and a couple of dvds. Basically, we went nuts. And we still have my coupon and about $50 left on the gift card. Oh yeah! Do you have any idea how much money $50 is at Half-Price Books? I'd bet that we get another 10-15 books out of it. Oh yeah! That's what I'm talking about! And that's why I'm a dork ... God love my husband that he not only puts up with my bookworm-ness, but supports my habit. :)

So after a very successful hour and a pinch at Half-Price Books, we all headed out to breakfast at Panera. Mmmm ... Panera ... From there we hit Barnes and Noble (Yes. We did need to go to another book store.) and Dick's Sporting Goods before Tyler's mom headed for home. (She had like a 4 hour drive back to WV, and we didn't want to keep her too long.) The three of us proceeded to Kohl's. It's about 10:30 by now and while the store is still VERY full, it is also well stocked and staffed and we were only in line for 30 minutes or so. Some larger purchases were made at Kohl's and required a trip home to empty the car (and for food. It was getting close to lunch time by the time we got through the line.) So we had lunch and mom took a nap and we headed out again around 1.

This time, we went up to Tuttle Mall. Stops at Game Stop (both inside the mall and in the plaza across from the mall. Seriously, Buy 2 Get 1 FREE, that warrants stopping in to look.), Sears (had a coupon), New York and Company (coupon and Buy 1 Get 1 75% off), Macy's (coupon), Lane Bryant (Buy 1 Get 1 FREE, whole store, mix and match. Seriously.), Go! The Game Store, and Great American Cookie (mom needed a snack, so we all three split a brownie and pop).

Down to Grove City. Dinner at O'Charley's. Stops at Game Stop, Target, Best Buy, and somewhere else. But I can't remember where. Headed home around 10. So we left at 6 am, got home at 10 pm, and took 1 hour off for lunch at noon. Needless to say that after 15 hours of shopping, we were tired and our feet hurt. Throughout the day we (and I'm counting all 4 of us here) picked up:
new 10 pc pots and pans
Belgian waffle maker
at least 25 books
6 dvds
2 pairs of new tennis shoes
new holiday decor
a few new tops
a couple of pairs of pants
a few under things
new jewelry (including ring, pins, earrings, and bracelets)
hillbilly golf
new belt for my skinny husband who keeps needing new belts :)
... and I'm sure that I'm forgetting something ...

The craziest part of it all ... we went out again on Saturday ...

Never let it be said that we didn't contribute to righting the economy on Black Friday this year ...