13 1/2 hours of Black Friday shopping makes my wallet hurt.
A little over 20 years ago my wife was asked by some of her family to join them for some Black Friday shopping. They told her about all the sales and deals that stores have on that day. She reluctantly went. They only went for a few hours and they didn't go early when all the stores opened. She come home that afternoon with bags in her hands, a sparkle in her eyes and excitement in her heart. She was hooked on Black Friday Shopping. The next year she went again and came home with more bags in hands, a bigger sparkle in her eyes and more excitement in her heart. I realized that it was now in her blood. I knew she would be a regular and she has been.
Her third year something changed though. Going later in the day wasn't going to be good enough. Only going for a couple of hours wasn't going to be good enough. I will never forget coming home one day to find her sitting at the kitchen table surrounded by sales papers. She turned around to show me a toaster oven that was going to be on sale at Walmart when it opened. She had to have it. We needed one and it was going to be on sale on Black Friday at Walmart when it opened so we were going to be there. I remember thinking one thing, "Wait, we? What do you mean by we?" She of course meant me and her.
She recruited my oldest niece and off to Walmart we went to stand in line for a toaster oven that we now needed more than we needed air to breath. As we stood in line awaiting the opening of the doors I could tell my wife was having a great time. When the time came and the door opened she began to bark orders. She sent my niece who was small enough to climb through people's legs ahead to get the toaster oven. She was headed to get some other things. My job was to get a buggy. We were rookies, we didn't know that buggies slowed you down and were hard to get through the store. Soon we all met up with our items. Well, I didn't. I had to abandoned the buggy in a buggy traffic jam. We lugged our goods to the car and we were off to the next store. That begin our yearly tradition. Soon we added our other niece and on occasion our nephew.
Now over 20 years later Black Friday is still a tradition with our family. Our nieces have married
and moved on but we added my sister and for the first time this year we added my brother-n-law. We don't always get to the stores when they open but we get there. We shop some on Thanksgiving and a lot on Black Friday. I missed eight years while working at Target but my wife has only missed two years, the year my daughter was born on the Monday before Black Friday and last year when we were in Chicago with the band. Her hands still come home with bags, her eyes still sparkle and her heart is still filled with excitement.
Now over the years a lot of guys have asked me how I do it. They tell me how there is no way they could or more accurately no way they would go with their wives shopping all day long on Black
Friday. I get the same questions about watching the Bachelor and Christmas movies with my wife. I don't do it because I enjoy those things. Watching the Bachelor ranks just under getting ice picks rammed under my fingernails and just over going a week with out bacon on my list of things I want to do. Going shopping on Black Friday is just a few spots above those things. Watching Christmas movies is much further down the list. So why and how do I do those things?
I look at Black Friday shopping, watching the Bachelor and watching Christmas movies the same way I look at going to dance competitions, recitals and conventions. It isn't something I do because I enjoy those things but it is something I do because it is important to someone I love. So when I look at it as watching hours of girls crying about how they put themselves out there and how they don't guess the guy felt the same way about them as they felt about him it makes me want to poke my eyes out with flaming sticks. But when I look at it as spending time with the one I love then it is doable. When I look at Black Friday shopping like it is walking hundreds of miles lugging hundreds of pounds of bags with handles that twist around my hands cutting off all circulation in my hands then it doesn't sound like a very enjoyable time. So I look at it as spending time with the my beautiful wife doing something she enjoys. That makes it doable. But it doesn't make if just doable, it makes it enjoyable because I am with my wife.
It isn't like she doesn't do the same thing for me. Since even before we got married she has followed me to softball fields all over three counties. She has went to games that were past her bed time during the week and spent Saturdays watching tournaments instead of hitting the mall or pool. She has bandaged up my knees more times than I can count. She has even took me to the ER 3 times from injuries I received while playing softball. She has spent thousands of hours watching sports with me even wrestling. Most important to me, she has embraced the role of being a preacher's wife and continues to develop into a wonderful one.
That's what we do for each other. We have found many things we enjoy doing together like sitting by the fire pit, going out to eat, sitting at the Island watching the water show, and many more. We also know that even though there are many things we enjoy doing together there are somethings that only one of us enjoy. So I have found things that only she enjoys that I can be a part of with her. I
made them important to me because they are important to her. She has done the same for me. We don't do everything but we do as many as we can. Why? Because we love each other and when we said, "I do" we became one flesh as the Bible instructs us to do. How can one flesh be one when it is always separated? I am thankful for the wife God gave me. He blessed me with a wife that is better than I deserve and I thank God for her everyday. So if I love her shouldn't I spend time with her? Shouldn't I let her do things she enjoy instead of expecting her to do just the things I enjoy doing? So to my wife, I want to say, I love you very much and I am so glad you are the one God gave me to be my wife. To all other couples I want to say spending time with each other is the greatest gift you can give one another. And when that time is doing something the other knows you don't enjoy doing, it means a lot more. It shows you are only there because of you love for them. Just like the only reason Jesus was on the cross was because of His love for us. You didn't think it was because He enjoyed it did you?
Parting Thought: I asked a newlywed how his marriage was going. he said, "I knew I married Miss Right I just didn't know her first name was always."
Her third year something changed though. Going later in the day wasn't going to be good enough. Only going for a couple of hours wasn't going to be good enough. I will never forget coming home one day to find her sitting at the kitchen table surrounded by sales papers. She turned around to show me a toaster oven that was going to be on sale at Walmart when it opened. She had to have it. We needed one and it was going to be on sale on Black Friday at Walmart when it opened so we were going to be there. I remember thinking one thing, "Wait, we? What do you mean by we?" She of course meant me and her.
She recruited my oldest niece and off to Walmart we went to stand in line for a toaster oven that we now needed more than we needed air to breath. As we stood in line awaiting the opening of the doors I could tell my wife was having a great time. When the time came and the door opened she began to bark orders. She sent my niece who was small enough to climb through people's legs ahead to get the toaster oven. She was headed to get some other things. My job was to get a buggy. We were rookies, we didn't know that buggies slowed you down and were hard to get through the store. Soon we all met up with our items. Well, I didn't. I had to abandoned the buggy in a buggy traffic jam. We lugged our goods to the car and we were off to the next store. That begin our yearly tradition. Soon we added our other niece and on occasion our nephew.
Now over 20 years later Black Friday is still a tradition with our family. Our nieces have married
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| Black Friday Shopping with my brother-n-law |
Now over the years a lot of guys have asked me how I do it. They tell me how there is no way they could or more accurately no way they would go with their wives shopping all day long on Black
I look at Black Friday shopping, watching the Bachelor and watching Christmas movies the same way I look at going to dance competitions, recitals and conventions. It isn't something I do because I enjoy those things but it is something I do because it is important to someone I love. So when I look at it as watching hours of girls crying about how they put themselves out there and how they don't guess the guy felt the same way about them as they felt about him it makes me want to poke my eyes out with flaming sticks. But when I look at it as spending time with the one I love then it is doable. When I look at Black Friday shopping like it is walking hundreds of miles lugging hundreds of pounds of bags with handles that twist around my hands cutting off all circulation in my hands then it doesn't sound like a very enjoyable time. So I look at it as spending time with the my beautiful wife doing something she enjoys. That makes it doable. But it doesn't make if just doable, it makes it enjoyable because I am with my wife.
It isn't like she doesn't do the same thing for me. Since even before we got married she has followed me to softball fields all over three counties. She has went to games that were past her bed time during the week and spent Saturdays watching tournaments instead of hitting the mall or pool. She has bandaged up my knees more times than I can count. She has even took me to the ER 3 times from injuries I received while playing softball. She has spent thousands of hours watching sports with me even wrestling. Most important to me, she has embraced the role of being a preacher's wife and continues to develop into a wonderful one.
That's what we do for each other. We have found many things we enjoy doing together like sitting by the fire pit, going out to eat, sitting at the Island watching the water show, and many more. We also know that even though there are many things we enjoy doing together there are somethings that only one of us enjoy. So I have found things that only she enjoys that I can be a part of with her. I
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| My Beautiful Black Friday Shopper |
Parting Thought: I asked a newlywed how his marriage was going. he said, "I knew I married Miss Right I just didn't know her first name was always."
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