Our little RV family has a Flamingo Tree instead.
It's really just a regular 2 foot Xmas tree, adorned with flamingo patio lights. Tropical, yet festive.
My Fella and I don't spend a lot of cash at Christmas time, but we do buy each other a few small (practical) things. Over the past couple weeks, I've bought/wrapped most of My Fella's gifts so the Flamingo Tree is starting to look kinda lopsided.
His stuff is wrapped in blue paper and my presents are wearing green.
My guy is frustrated cause I'm really hard to shop for.
We're exactly one month away from Christmas and his list has six 'wants' while mine only has two. It's not that I'm all sweet and selfless; I just hate clutter and don't have much use for material things. But today I added something new to my list - a good quality MP3 player.
Every day I head out for a 5 to 7 km hike to burn enough calories so I can drink beer and eat peanuts :) Up til now I've been using My Fella's old MP3 player, which is on its last legs. So today we braved the Black Friday crowds, scouting out good deals on electronics.
Before heading out, we decided that if folks were lined up out the door or the parking lots were jam packed, we'd turn around and come straight home. But I can tell you firsthand, southern Alabama shoppers don't seem to embrace the Black Friday craze like the rest of the USA.
Not sure if it's a result of America's economic problems, the devastating Gulf coast hurricanes or last years BP oil spill (which is still causing financial hardship for folks around here) but at 11am on Black Friday, the local Best Buy was busy, but not packed.
Saturday afternoon busy as opposed to line-ups outside the front door busy.
And the legendary Black Friday sales weren't really much of a deal - at Best Buy or any of the stores we wandered into. But we did find a good quality MP3 player on sale for $30, down from $50.
So now I have 3 presents under the Flamingo Tree.
And I'm happy to say that my first (and probably last) Black Friday shopping experience was pretty tame compared to these crazy consumers.
It's nice to shop without crowds, things are probably very tough economy wise there. At least the stores are not jammed with people buying with their credit cards.
When we go shopping here we are usually in the stores at opening time, like 8 am, 9 am, etc, it's much more peaceful and easy.
Posted by: Don | November 26, 2011 at 05:47 PM
Mr P - we do the exact same thing; try hit the Walmart at 8 or 9am on Sunday morning when it's dead.
Seeing how quiet the stores were around this part of the USA I thought it would be a bad Black Friday weekend for retailers, but an online article from Bloomberg Business Week this morning said "Black Friday weekend sales increased 6.6% this year, to the largest amount EVER."
Clearly some folks are still shopping.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-11-27/black-friday-sales-advance-6-6-to-record-shoppertrak-says.html
Posted by: kelsi | November 27, 2011 at 07:34 AM
Baby needs a new pair of flip flops - little more required in Puerto Escondido!
Posted by: John Calypso | November 28, 2011 at 11:26 AM
Senor C - maybe THAT'S why your neighbours are banging on your door asking you to turn down the music... cause all you're wearing are flip flops :)
Posted by: kelsi | November 29, 2011 at 05:13 AM