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I think we've got our slogan for next year's t-shirts!

It means nothing of the sort.

Have you taught the puppy to sit? Roll over? Pee outside? Ad linking and online checking?

 

She's got the sit part down:

 

 

but she's not good at anything Black Friday-related yet. Hopefully she'll be trained by next year.

OK, exclusively for you club members (and anyone else who reads this thread ), here's this year's BF shirt design. If you've been following this thread the design of this shirt won't be much of a surprise.

Front:
 

 
Back:
 


Many of you wanted to bring back the classic tagline on the back, so we did that along with a simple "15 years" design on the front.

 

Also, exclusively for club members, you'll also receive a pair of these matching zipper pouches:

 

 

Use them to store money, cards, tech accessories - whatever you can think of. You'll each get two of these and they won't be available anywhere else.

 

I'll open up orders if you want additional shirts on Monday.

In my honest opinion, the "adult" children are grown, so the fact that they get any gifts @ all should be appreciated!!!!  Especially the one that has children of their own, because in my house they would get more than the parents.  Now, don't get me wrong because I still buy my grown children gifts, but I concentrate more on my 15 y/o because he is still a child and most of the things he wants he can't buy on his own.  I already made it very clear to my 22 & 21 y/o that they are grown w/ jobs so they can buy themselves just about anything they want, but I will still get them some gifts.  Now if my funds allow then yes I will splurge on them and get my oldest the Wii U that he has been wanting (mind you he has a Xbox One on lay-away @ Walmart) and I may get my daughter a new 32" tv for her bedroom (for the apartment that she claims she will have by the new year).  But to EXPECT more @ their ages is a bit selfish and spoiled if you ask me... I am sorry if I sound harsh, but you asked for honest.  These grown kids have taken the meaning out of Christmas, it's about giving a gift to show love, it's not about how many gifts or how much each gift cost!!!!  Who's keeping a running tally?!?!.  Sorry, but this really upset me and I would have a few conversations with the older children (and you shouldn't have to) because @ their ages they should be more understanding. 

 

Ok, I am done ranting...lol...and to answer your question, no you are not being unreasonable!!!!  I usually ask everyone what they want and try to fulfill their lists... I only did that with my youngest this year!!!!

"Is it just me or do the ads suck this year?"

 

When we bring back the t-shirts next year, that's going on the back

One year, my son really wanted an Optimus Prime Transformer toy. We couldn't afford the retail price, but were excited to see it on sale at Toys R Us. It was a madhouse and by the time I got to the correct aisle, there was only one left of the shelf. I quickly started heading towards it when a woman came from behind me and shoved me in to the shelving. I fell down, and she rushed towards the toy. I was so upset, but a young guy had seen what had happened and just before she grabbed the toy, he pulled it off the shelf and held it out of her reach. He walked over to me and asked,"Is this what you were after?" I said yes and he handed it to me, gave her a very mischievous smile, and walked off. She was so mad, but I don't know what made me happier, that my son would get his toy or knowing that, in the midst of chaos, that man cared enough to help out a stranger.

My turn!  (I think I may be the last one)   My Secret Santa gift arrived today!  Yay!  Thank you!  It was perfect!  But not in the way you might guess!  And the timing actually worked out perfectly!  (I always have preached that miracles are as simple as "God placing the right people (or things) in the right place at the right time".    If you have the eyes of faith (doesn't matter which faith) you will see miracles right and left.

 

Any way..here's the story.  My poor 83 year old dad, slipped and fell outside the old people's home when he and my mother were returning from a doctor appointment.   Off to the hospital they went.  Being the dutiful daughter and DPOA I left my hospital (work) and went to theirs.   Dad was shaken up and upset and chattering a mile a minute.  Of course we had to go through all the CT scans, Xrays, blood work etc. and he was placed in observation.  RN took one look and him and how he was acting  (he has vascular dementia from his stroke 4 years ago.) and  immediately said  'You are staying the night aren't you?"  Of course.  Well.  Poor dad was up all afternoon/evening with tests et al.  AND up all night for tests and just simple checks to make sure he was still alert and could squeeze hands etc.  83 year old men do not take well to being up 24 hours straight.  So by 6am Dad is becoming more and more confused and very grumpy and fussy.  This soon turned into an all out  dementia temper tantrum  which lasted 5 hours.  We could not calm him down or redirect him.  He was both physically and emotionally exhausted.  I finally told the nurse,  "I hate to do this, but can you give him something?  We need to hit his reset button somehow."   So poor dad got a wee bit of happy juice and was sound asleep quickly.   He was rouse-able a few hours later and we were able to finish his tests and be discharged.  (Yay!  Nothing broken, no bleeding.)  Got him home Wednesday night and spent the night at the old people's home as Dad was still very groggy and disoriented.

 

Fast forward to Thursday afternoon, Dad is now awake and back to his old self after 13-14 hours of sleep.   I had to leave mom and dad for a few hours because I had to lead the candlelight service at my hospital.  When I returned home, my secret santa package had arrived!  But I did not know it was my secret santa because it did not say "secret santa".  I thought it was an Ebay purchase.  I fed the cats and grabbed my package and headed back to the old people's home.   I found a very contrite and embarrassed Dad who was trying to apologize right and left.  Mom told him how he had been behaving.  (He could not remember any of it.)  I reassured Dad that I was not upset,  that I knew it was his dementia and that everything was OK.  But he was still upset.  Then I opened my secret santa gift.... it was a snowman night light  (a very glittery sparkly one.)  And my dad has  always had a thing for night lights.  (He is afraid of tripping and falling,)  His face immediately lit up and he asked "Is that for me??" and he began laughing when I plugged it in.  (Totally forgetting how upset he was.)

 

Needless to say,  it is now in his bedroom and his guardian angel night light was moved to his bathroom hallway.  (And a plain night light was "retired".)   He is SO happy  (and thus I am happy) with it.  Every time I have assisted him with overnight bathroom runs tonight,  he points and it and chuckles as I take him back to his bed.  It is an absolutely perfect gift and more importantly, it came at just the time.  Thank you so very much!

 

 

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Now as, promised.....Mom's Secret Santa gifts from Chief Elf!

 

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Two pretty leonx bird bowls for Mom's chocolate.  (As you can see, she has already enjoyed almost all of her chocolate.)

 

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Sorry, thought the picture was clearer... Mom also got a beautiful pin.

 

Mom has sent a thank you note to Chef Elf.   She really enjoyed her Secret Santa surprise!

 

And thank you to my Secret Santa!  Because you brought a big smile to dad's face when he needed it!

Y'all.....y'all.....y'all....y'alllllllllllll..................You win.  I give in.  I give into the Christmas spirit and the hopefulness I seem to have misplaced for far too long and to the belief that good people exist.

 

I bet you can guess what I am about to say.....there was another package waiting for me when I got home from what was a horrible day that included a huge blow up with my father over some serious non-packergurl-responsible nonsense but I digress.....

 

After crying yet again, I decide to open all the packages.  There have been 5 packages in all:

 

1) The first package (see picture #1) had some awesome old school taffy that I can guarantee will be gone before the week is over along with some mini Twix (yummy!) and Russell Stovers as well as a gorgeous watch that I LOVE and gingerbread anti-bacterial hand stuff.  I love this all, thank you!!!.

 

2) The second package was the previously posted package (see post #180 in this thread) that had a box of peppermint tea, Reese's Pieces and Twix - my 2 favs!, and a Starbucks card. This the perfect comfort package, tea and chocolate! Thank you!!

 

3) Package 3 was from the Chief Elf and had an adorable angel ornament with the word "Believe" on it that is now proudly front and center on my tree (see post #223).  It's perfect!  Thank you Chief Elf!

 

4) Package 4 (see picture 2 marked #4) is the package that arrived on Friday and is mentioned in post #224.  This package had 2 inflatable Packers tailgating buffet tables!!!  OH THE IRONY!!!  I was so pumped from the pep rally that I had a party for the game yesterday and I received one of these at my office white elephant exchange last week and I love it and I used it at my party yesterday and I was seriously telling everyone that I needed more of them because one wasn't enough and there sat two more RIGHT UNDER MY TREE!!!! BAHAHAHAHA   Thank you, thank you, thank you!  I can't wait til next Sunday, it's going to be a Packers buffet heaven in my house!

 

5) The package that arrived today (see picture 3 marked #5) is the one that broke the dam and spurred the opening of the packages under the tree BUT by the time I got to this one, I felt like I was cheating myself of Christmas morning excitement so when I discovered the gifts were wrapped, I stopped myself.  There are 4 tea packages I can't wait to try and there are 5 wrapped packages in all, 3 are Christmas and the 2 with the puppy paper say Happy Birthday.  You don't even know what it means to have birthday gifts NOT wrapped in Christmas paper!!  I wanted to rip into them but I decided to save them so I will update this next week.  THANK YOU!!

 

There are also 2 other people who sent me Christmas cards with Starbucks cards in them to whom I want to say thank you.  I also want to say thank you for all of the Christmas cards too.  My mantle is very appreciative

 

I've tried to send a card to everyone who has sent me something but if I missed you, please, please, please, please let me know so I can fix that

 

You all have made me feel very special and loved.  I feel like I've been blitz attacked into a better mood and a better outlook and it has worked.  It's not even about the "things" but the fact that all of you, people who don't even know me, care enough to try and perk me up.  It has definitely shined a light on all the not so good people I let hang around - family included - who are life sucking energy drainers that don't deserve the access to me. You all have reminded me that there are positive people still out there and you have shown me that I deserve better, quality people in my life.  I cannot say thank you enough.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  I love ALL of you and if you EVER need ANYTHING, say the word and it's done.  Gottadeal has definitely shown me THIS is what family is about and that family is more than just DNA.  Thank you a thousand and one times over.  Merry Christmas.

 

My family surprised me with this quilt on Thanksgiving. It was my sister's idea (Doresia on here), and I guess they all got together to plan the layout and remove the stitches from the tshirts, then my daughter sewed it. I had no idea and was pretty excited about it .

Happy December, all! Had the company Christmas party Saturday night, so got all dressed up & had a great time.

Proud to say I am SEVEN dress sizes down from where I was last year. Still have a ways to go, but making good progress. [emoji16][emoji106]

Best Black Friday memory. . .when Black Friday was actually FRIDAY

Happy February! My daughter just won a silver medal this morning in the Empire State Winter Games, held in Lake Placid, NY. The weather is brutal, with the wind chill currently around -40 degrees. The race was originally supposed to be tomorrow morning, but was moved to today, because tomorrow's wind chill will be worse. She is currently an athlete on the USA Luge Jr. National Development Team.  IMG_20230203_141136_198.jpg   141.39KB   12 downloads

Update on the BF survival kits we'll be giving away this year in lieu (kind of) of t-shirts. They'll all be full of GD merch items (details to come) and as of now, approximately 1 out of every 5 will contain either a gift card ranging in value from $5 to $100 (as of now we have Amazon, Walmart & Target included) or a certificate for one of the ultra limited edition BF t-shirts. I'm going to try to get more gift cards, shirts and possibly other "premium" items over the next few months so those odds should be a little better by the time we actually start giving them away.

 

So winning one will be your first thrill and then opening it up to see if you were one of the lucky ones to win something extra will be another.

46 of 49 have posted so far this month

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Here’s my most recent side-by-sides. Left is mid-January (at the beginning), right was about a week ago.
[Bathroom selfies at work are easiest for me to do... lol]


Sent from my iPhone using GottaDEAL

Listen folks, take it upon yourself to make BF more enjoyable.  I might be getting old and sentimental, but I plan to do just that this year.  In fact, 2016 has been a back to basics adventure for me and I am LOVING it!

 

1. Dumped Netflix and Prime.  Relying on an antenna for television.  
2. Turning off the computer after supper.  Getting to bed a little earlier.
3. Shopping locally -- Kohls, Staples, Walmart, Home Depot, Best Buy
4. No more warehouse stores -- thank you Aldis for freeing me of bulk purchases

I AM going out to shop on Black Friday and the Farmer's Almanac is predicting snow!  I'm taking my youngest (he doesn't know this) and we are going to stand in line to get one thing to remember.  Then we are going to have breakfast and shop.

 

I am going to shop at least four times between BF and Christmas Eve.  I may not buy anything, but I want to take in the atmosphere, frenzy.

 

I am assembling a collection of Christmas songs and audio books to listen to as I drive around.

 

Merry Christmas!

this scan is HORRIBLE to look at. I sincerely hope the rest of your ads this year are easier to look at....

 

and i hope if a better looking one shows up you completely replace it. It would be easy to miss a good sale or item due to not even seeing it. First page refrigerator and washer....

 

These ads are given to mods to post. They dont chose to post them with the watermarks. Im very thankful for this(free)  site that even takes the time to post ads for us. if you have clearer ads for us to look at feel free to submit them. Given the fact all the hard work that goes into this site im happy to view what ever ads are posted.

Found this in my mailbox today didn’t think we had one this year

Christmas was never better than when our kids were young.  I never slept Christmas Eve -- assembling this, wrapping that, and drinking...Christmas cheer.  My kids are grown, my wife has passed, and things are a lot different.  I have a lot of the things I used to stand in line for.  I don't need much at all.  I rarely stand in line.  Despite all of this, I am 'into it' more this year than I have been in a decade.  I can't explain it, but I will be in the stores even if I don't have a shopping list.

 

I content myself to vicariously share in the joy of young families.  Christmas cheer is not achieved at the cash register.  If you are not enjoying BF as a consumer, shut off your computer and walk around the stores.  Enjoy the decorations.  Watch the kids with Santa.  Remember how it was.

 

Clicking stuff on a computer is not the same as shopping at a B&M.  Get out and enjoy the holidays with other people.

Hey everyone, and welcome to the unofficial start of the 2019 Black Friday season here on the site. We're still likely more than a month away from the first ads leaking but as always we're getting a head start on opening up the forums and we encourage you to start posting right away (posts you make now will count towards the soon-to-be-announced annual Black Friday forum contest).

 

We're going try something new with how the forums are organized this year, and that is, well... less organization. The main change you'll notice is that we're not going to create the individual store sub-forums this year. They just weren't getting enough threads in them to necessitate dedicated sub-forums. So any topic about a specific store can just be posted in this main BF forum this year. We'll still have dedicated threads for each store's posted ad in the "Posted Black Friday Ads" forum.

 

We're also not going to create the "official" product threads this year for things like TVs, video games, laptops, etc. Some of those threads got so big and had multiple "mini threads" of conversation going on at once so it might be better to just create individual threads about different topics relating to those products. It should also help if you need questions answered or recommendations about certain products because more people will see your exact request/topic when it is it's own thread with a descriptive title and isn't buried in a master thread that many people don't bother checking that often.

 

As I said this is a trial and we'll see how it goes. If nobody likes it we can always go back to how things were for 2020 but this should give you fewer individual sub-forums to check each time you visit the forum and should hopefully spark more discussion overall on the board by giving you more freedom as to what can be posted in this main BF forum which tends to get the most views each day.

 

As always we welcome your comments and suggestions about these changes and anything else. Feel free to reply or PM me directly