The Black Friday “Team”

Black Friday is one of my favorite days of the year apart from Christmas. I love the hustle and bustle of the holiday season and Black Friday is such a fun day to be out in it all! (If you’re into that sort of thing, that is!)

Over the years, stores have changed their operating hours and most are open on Thanksgiving Day now. We’ve done the overnight shopping thing where we started at 10 p.m. or midnight on Thanksgiving Day and shopped into the next day. This year, most stores opened their doors on Thanksgiving afternoon and to be honest, we just didn’t have it in us. Spending time with family was the #1 important thing on all of our lists, so we decided instead to wake up super early on the official Black Friday day and begin our shopping excursions from there.

There was one exception to this, however. If you remember from years past, I’ve been collecting JCPenney Mickey snow globes since the tradition started back in 2001. This year, JCPenney began handing their snow globes out at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, so I drove into town and stood in line for a few minutes, waiting on the doors to open.

My mom met us after she got off work.

When the doors opened, instead of being handed snow globes, we were given coupons. We asked several people where the snow globes were located (in the past, they’ve been handed out at the door) and we were told that we had to first make a purchase in order to receive the globe. No worries – I had a few kids to buy for so I did just that and was in and out of JCPenney in under 20 minutes! Mission accomplished!

Black Friday morning was when the real fun began!

We’ve been talking about making shirts for years! This year, we finally decided to make it happen!

Most of these ladies spent the night at my house and we began our day around 4:30 a.m. First stop was at Starbucks for breakfast and coffee!

I had my coffee and I was ready to shop!

When I say that the stores were “dead” at 5 a.m. ON Black Friday, I mean it.

This was taken at Walgreens. I was asked to watch my friend’s purse and I had to laugh at the lack of people in the store. Kohl’s was the same way – we were able to get in right in line to checkout with no wait.

Great deals AND no waiting in line? I love it! (Around 10 a.m., we noticed the crowds picking back up again, which made us glad that we started early!)

Guys, I LOVE this thing! If you’re a runner, you need this. It massages your calves and feet and feels AMAZING.

We had fun shopping and goofing off at the mall, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Best Buy, but we were in Target when “it” happened.

I momentarily separated from my friends and when I met back up with them, I asked if they noticed the news camera near the women’s clothing. They said yes and they saw the reporter filming a few clothing items. I thought it was strange to see them out because – again, literally – the stores were dead. All of the “crazy” things and crowds happened the night before.

After stopping to say hello to a another friend, we saw the reporter pass by – we made eye contact and said hello. She also said hello and started to continue on her way, then she did a double take. “Hi ladies! I’m with the local news station…anyone want to be on TV?”

Before we could even take a breath to respond, Melissa’s hand was in the air! It was hilarious!

She then asked if more of us would be willing to speak, because she wanted to use our “story” for the 6 p.m. news. Of course we said yes, and just like that, we were on our way to our 30 seconds of fame!

We didn’t have a buggy at first, so we piled all of our merchandise on the floor.

After speaking with each of us, she followed me to find a buggy.

This was so strange. I felt like I was on reality TV! Hah!

We filmed a few speaking segments with Monica and a few shopping shots, then we said our goodbyes!

We finished shopping around 4 p.m., (AND got a lot of good deals), then returned to my house for coffee while waiting on the 6 p.m. news.

Texting family and friends to watch!

To make things even better, were were one of the “top stories” of the evening. Sounds like there wasn’t much else going on around town to me…haha!

Did I mention that Black Friday was also Jason’s birthday? Well, we were finally all together for our official Thanksgiving meal as a family and we took a little time to celebrate Jason’s birthday as well!

(He bought this for himself on Black Friday….but don’t tell anyone!)

If you're interested in seeing our news clip, check it out here.

What a fun and memorable Black Friday, we had! I don’t know if another could ever top this one!!

Are you a Black Friday shopper? What do you think of the crowds?

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Don’t forget about the FitMas Week #1 giveaway happening right now! Giveaway ends on Sunday night at midnight – enter now for your chance to win!

The 5K That…Wasn’t. (FitMas Giveaway #1)

Happy December! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! It’s officially the Christmas season, my favorite time of the year!  I’m excited to announce a special Christmas treat for you guys! In the weeks leading up to Christmas, I am going to host a few giveaways – one every week through the week of Christmas (that’s four giveaways total).

Today’s giveaway will follow this post, so stay tuned to find out what it’s all about – it’s a good one, you won’t want to miss it!

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Several weeks ago, I travelled to College Station, Texas with my sister-in-law and a few friends to participate in Santa’s Wonderland 5K and Fun Run.

We knew the weather forecast for the evening was TERRIBLE (rainy, wind, strong thunderstorms), AND we knew the possibility of the race being postponed to Sunday evening per the race directors emails prior to race day.

We were driving 3+ hours out of town for this event and weren’t staying overnight – plus, running the race on Sunday night would have put us home incredibly late, then up for work the following day – no way.



Instead, we decided to adopt my “When Life Hands You Rain, Play In It” philosophy, and that’s exactly what we did!

The monsoon rain began as we neared College Station. The weather was so crazy, Kayla’s GPS thought we were driving through the Texas A&M Golf Course!



We were about 2 hours out from College Station when the official word was made about the race being postponed to Sunday evening. We were bummed but instead of letting the rain get us down, we made the decision to continue driving and make the best of the situation, no matter what.



We finally made it!

My first impression on entering Santa’s Wonderland was literally “WOW!”…and that was just the gift shop!

For starters, EVERYONE was super nice….like Disney World nice. I couldn’t get over how overly kind and accommodating (almost) all of the workers were.



After picking up our shirts and race packets, we changed into our race “outfits” (we had shirts especially made for this race) and that’s when all the fun began!

Our first task was to take a picture with Santa!



Notice that we are all “Kayla’s Children”!



I love the way our picture turned out!



We also said a quick “hello” to Rudolph :)



The workers inside Santa’s Wonderland loved our outfits and were all so sympathetic about the weather/the fact that the race was postponed.



After taking every combination of photos available inside the gift shop, we decided to try our luck on the hay ride. When we first arrived to pick up our packets, we were told that 5K participants could receive 1/2 off the price of the hayride per the Race Texas workers. We didn’t pre-purchase tickets and looking back, I’m so glad we didn’t.

You see, the entire point of this race was to run through Santa’s Wonderland Christmas light display. Me + millions of Christmas lights (think Osborne Lights level here) = a very happy Karen and my entire reason for driving 3+ hours for a 5K. Since the race was postponed, our chances of running through the lights was taken away. They also weren’t allowing anyone to drive through the display area in their personal vehicles because of the crazy rain/weather. Basically, a hayride was our only option to see the lights.



Whomp Whomp. Crazy rain. It literally felt like the Wine & Dine Half ALL over again!

As we attempted to purchase 1/2 price hayride tickets, we were told no – apparently we were given false information about runners receiving discounted tickets for the hayride. When questioned who else we could speak with, we were told “I’m it”.
Not taking no for an answer, one of the girls in our group sought out a manager on her own. Again, let me reiterate…(almost) everyone at Santa’s Wonderland was AMAZING and incredibly helpful and really helped us have a great time despite the circumstances.

We found a manager and explained our situation. Basically, this is how I felt – We drove for 3+ hours to run a 5K that we paid $60 to run. No, the rain was not Santa’s Wonderland’s fault. However, we were not able to make Sunday night’s event and deferment to next year’s event wasn’t being offered. So basically, we drove 3+ hours and paid $60 to receive a t-shirt and have the opportunity to enter few gift shops where we could spend more money on Christmas trinkets and gifts if we wanted to do so. Oh, and if we wanted to see the lights that we already paid to see, we could pay an additional fee to ride a hayride and see them.

Needless to say, the manager was super understanding and told us to stay put so he could work on solving our problem right away.



While everyone else stayed put, I ventured off in search of a cup of coffee! I loved this deal – for a set fee, I purchased a mug and received free refills of coffee all night long! Score!




Yummy treats!



Before long, we were granted four hayride tickets at no cost! We couldn’t believe it and were so grateful for the manager’s help!




One of my favorite part of the lights display was the fact that festive music was piped in throughout the whole route!



Although it rained on us the entire time, we managed to enjoy ourselves and laughed through most of the 25 minute hayride!



I could honestly say I’d never ridden a hay ride through a large Christmas lights display in the pouring rain before! It’s been added to and crossed off my bucket list all at the same time!




The lights were beautiful – I would definitely go again to see them on a non-rainy day!



Wouldn’t you know – as soon as we were finished with the hayride, it stopped raining (of course).



THIS guy is awesome! He’s the one who helped us out with the hayride situation and we stopped to thank him as soon as the hayride was over!



We enjoyed a bit of the nighttime musical entertainment and bonfire before saying goodnight.



Thanks so much, Race Texas and Santa’s Wonderland for helping us have a great time that night, despite the circumstances! I’ll definitely visit again and hope to run Santa’s Wonderland 5K (for real this time) one day soon!



Now for the fun part – week #1’s giveaway!

Like the shirts we wore for this event? Interested in a shirt of your own? Well, here’s your chance!

One lucky winner will receive:

• “He sees you when you’re running, he knows when you lift weights” – 1 dry fit shirt
• Size Medium (8-10) – although I found that it fits small (Only a size medium is available)
  

Enter through Rafflecopter below. This giveaway will run for one week’s time and will end next Sunday evening.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Merry Christmas and good luck!

Have you ever had a race cancelled or postponed due to rain?