Tradition

While I'm home in America for this year I'm trying to take advantage of what I've been missing for the past four years. One tradition that the women in my family have is shopping on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. My grandmother (my mom's mom) has nine sisters. For the last 30 years, the women in her family have gone shopping. To be able to go, the rule is you have to be able to take care of yourself. For years my brother and I hung out with my dad the day after Thanksgiving, we often went to a parade. Then around age 13 or 16 I was finally able to go. The women of the family used to meet for breakfast, lunch and even dinner. Each matriarch shopped with her daughters, daughters-in-laws, and granddaughters, then everyone meets for meals.


We meet my grandmother, my aunt and cousin for breakfast. This year we met at McDonald's at 5:30 am. The day before on Thanksgiving we go through all the sales ads, exchange Christmas lists and make an action plan. This year was pretty low key, we didn't have any major items that we wanted. Several years ago I waited in line for two hour at Best Buy to save $200 on a laptop computer. This year several stores opened at 3 am. Electronics was the big item people were buying this year. The line was crazy at Target, it wrapped around the store, but they were very organized and we only waited in line 15 minutes, and got some great deals.


There are less of us that actually go shopping now, but it is still something that I really enjoy. It's crazy to get up so early and fight with the traffic, but there is a thrill of getting a great deal and fighting through the crowds to get that special item.