Day After Thanksgiving Shopping Tradition

Building family traditions is important to most families. We all have tradtions that have been passed on to us from our parents such as when we put up our Christmas tree, making Christmas cookies, exchanging gifts and get togethers. When I first moved back to Minnesota back in 1993 with my daughter Jennifer, we did that crazy thing that started our own family tradition. We went Christmas shopping the day after Thanksgiving. That first year though, we didn't get a real early start and found many of the good bargains gone. So the next year we were up before the chickens and heading off to the local Walmart, Kmart and Target to catch those deals. After that, my daughter coined the 'early shopping' as our new family tradition. Last year we introduced my step-daughter, Shantel to the family tradition as we got up at 4:00 am to be at Walmart before 5:00 am. We had a good time and found lots of good bargains. So you guessed it, we were once again up at 4:00 am this year on the day after Thanksgiving and at Walmart before 5:00 am and Target before 6:00 am to get the bargains. Then we headed off to St. Cloud and to Shopko and Kohls before stopping at Bonanza for lunch. (Actually we were ready for lunch at 10:00 but waited until around noon.) Then we headed back down 94 to the Outlet Mall for a few more good bargains. The picture is of the antlers I bought so we could spot each other easily in the stores, and although the girls didn't want to wear them, it helped me in locating them in Kohl's. You know I just had to get a picture of them. Aren't we cute!