AuntieJul

My husband and I will finalize our plans of attack, including the opening times of stores and driving efficiency. Any "down time" (though I can hardly imagine any) will be spent at one of many Dunkin Donuts, refueling on caffeine. Then, it's rush rush rush between Walmart, JC Penney's, Kmart, Boscov's, Lowe's, Home Depot, Dick's... Whereever we need to go that year! Home by 12, call Mom and make her jealous with all the good deals I got, toast up some open-faced turkey sandwiches and stuffing/dressing, take a nap, and prepare for Saturday's deals!!! (Like Kmart's).

This year I'm making crochet scarves for all the women in the family. I have a lot of yarn that I need to use up, and I thought it would be an easy way for me to clear out old yarn I've had for years and make something useful for others. The pattern that I'm using this year is the "Two for the Road" on the LionBrand yarn website, made for Vanna's Choice yarn. I'm learning new stitches (I consider myself an intermediate crocheter, I've been crocheting for 5 or 6 years), and the pattern is basic enough that my plain old yarn looks great and dressed up. I have a lot of baby yarn leftover from baby blankets, so for all the babies that are 2 years old or less, I'm making baby hats. If I have time, I'll make matching scarves for the moms. Another thing I used to do was make a little ornament / gift box decoration that was a crocheted log basket. It was maybe the size of a fist, and it was really very cute, took only an hour to make (single crochet), and you'd use cinnamon sticks from a craft store as the "logs." I made them for an ornament party exchange one year, and if I have time I'll make some this year. A lot of great pattern ideas can be found on CrochetPatternCentral.com.

100% other people. Although it KILLS me not to get great deals for myself (which is typically my MO when shopping for me - I pride myself in getting the best deals ever). My husband spends every day between, oh about now, and Christmas reminding me ever so patiently that the holiday is about other people, not about us. UGH. He's so good. December 26th it can start being about me again.

I haven't even decided what to get people yet... I usually make a spreadsheet and start plotting out the best deals for things I want to get... I'm definitely going through spreadsheet withdrawal at this point.

My Black Friday Migraine - For years I would go out shopping on Black Friday, and whether I had left the house at 3:30am or 9:00am I would always have a major MASSIVE headache by midday and would have the spend the rest of the day lying on the couch. I always assumed it was from having to wake up early, rush out the door in freezing temperatures, the stress and excitement from the day - I even thought it was from low blood sugar or too much caffeine! My Black Friday headache was so bad three years ago that I had lost my vision for a few minutes before I retreated to the couch in tears from the pain. I worried that the price I was paying for the excitement of deal hunting was taking too large of a toll on my sanity. That was until one day in March, when my mother-in-law invited us over for a turkey dinner on a Sunday afternoon. Wouldn't you know it, but the next day around mid-morning, noontime I had developed a Black-Friday-like Headache, complete with seeing spots and pain so bad I became nauseous. I went to the doctor and discovered that I was getting full-blown migraine headaches from the turkey - and since I don't eat turkey a lot, when I did eat it the effects were that much worse. So now every Thanksgiving it's one thin slice of turkey for me and a happy Black Friday shopper all weekend long!!! (Thank goodness I don't get migraines from chocolate - then we'd be in trouble!)