Friday, November 28, 2008

Thanksgiving Day

Our Thanksgiving Day started off watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. We wanted to see Andy Williams, who they kept promo-ing from the start of the parade, and who was the last act before Santa arrived. Greg snapped a photo of the TV screen.





As soon as Santa waved to the crowd and the parade was over, I started asking Greg to start the tape of The Grinch who Stole Christmas, which is one of my favorite holiday shows.



When his heart grows I'm just nearly beside myself. I love to sing along with the show, and recite the lines. "Little Cindy Lou Who, who was no more than two..." Well, you get the picture.

And, in general, it just makes me really happy because it's all about how Christmas is coming. Maybe part of the reason I love it so much is that I think people might believe I wouldn't enjoy Christmas without the trappings, but I know I would. I love sending cards and wrapping presents and decorating the tree, but I'd love the season even if I didn't do those things.

Not everyone loves Christmas as much as I do... Steve would be representing those folks today.



Of course, during those things, there was cat-play. She was quite taken with Greg's bare foot.



I helped a bit with dinner, although not much. Miss Joy did most of it. I did peel potatoes. Greg was taken with his mom's mixer. She got it when she got married, so it has been around his entire life, but somehow until today it had escaped his attention. Isn't it funny how those things happen?



Greg and his mom carved up the turkey.



Mia came over and the five of us had a fabulous dinner. Everything was delicious. It was a lovely way to spend the day.

After dinner Mia went to work and everyone else took a nap except me. Michaels was open tonight from 6-9. There was an art easel I wanted on sale, and there was a 20% off coupon for tonight, so I went out to get it. I was not the only one.



The line was stretched about a block along the side of the building when I arrived a few minutes before they were opening. I was amazed at how orderly everyone was. The line is by the building, to the right. All the people you see in front of the doors here and to the left are folks who, like me, arrived after the line was formed. Everyone - and I mean EVERYone waited for those who were already in line to go into the store before they went in.

I had no trouble getting what I wanted. There was me and one man picking up those. Everyone else was after Christmas trees, which were 50% off, as far as I could tell. There was also a crowd up front and the checker told me people were after cricut cartridges. I'm not even sure what that is, but I think it has to do with scrapbooking. I don't want to want something else so I'd just as soon not know.

Later we drove out to Best Buy and there were people camped out with tents and sleeping bags, to get the bargains. I'm not sure what they have that's all that exciting - nothing I'm even going out for tomorrow.

All I've been hearing for weeks is how retailers are going to be trying to get our business on Friday. They're not trying too hard to get mine because I could ignore everything pretty easily. There are a couple of small things I'm going to try and pick up but not much. It's not that I'm unwilling to spend the money, it's that they're not offering anything I'm interested in owning.

Generally on black Friday there are a number of things I want and I have to choose what to go for. Tomorrow I'm headed out to get something for Greg and will try for a couple of small things myself. But, no one is going to get much money out of me because they're not offering any amazing deals on anything I want. There's no reason for me to get up at the crack of dawn and fight the crowds to buy  something for the same price I can get it generally on sale.

And, I'm not exaggerating. Two of the supposed great Black Friday deals on external hard drives are the exact same price they were a week ago on sale. The same.brand, size, color, everything. That is not a black Friday deal. That's just an average sale. So, if black Friday is a flop, it's because retailers didn't offer us something worth going out for. If you really want the consumers' business, you have to at least give it the old college try. Like Michaels did tonight - opening when they were the only store available, other than Walgreens and Walmart. That's some good marketing.

I hope you've had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day and whatever bargains you hope to get tomorrow are all yours!