Christmas and the Day After

Whew…it’s over. The gifts have been unwrapped and carted home; the gift bags have been thrown in the trash; the wrapping paper has been put away for next year. Another Christmas has come and gone. This year’s “event” at my sister-in-law’s was as chaotic as ever. There was wrapping paper and tissue paper flying everywhere, dancing animated Santa’s and snowmen singing silly songs, camera flashes lighting the air, “A Christmas Story” on the television the entire time. And, for Christmas dinner, we had smoked turkey sandwiches rather than the traditional turkey dinner because no one was in the mood to actually cook anything. Ah yes…Christmas with the in-laws.

And then there was the “Day After.” Against our better judgment, my sister and I decided to do the “Day After Christmas” sale at what seems to be one of the only department stores left standing after all the mergers. Now…neither of us is thrilled with this particular Department Store (we never seem to find things on non-sale days) but who could resist the 15% coupon plus the “$10 off a $25 purchase before noon” incentive. So…yesterday there we were at 7:15AM in the store with several coupons in hand. Over the next four hours, we surprisingly managed to rack up sales totaling $88.67 but, most importantly, our cash register receipts indicated our total savings was $233.24 and we actually liked the items we purchased.

Next, we returned to my sister’s house to brag to her family about our successes. My 12-year-old niece was most impressed with our new wardrobe additions and, the next thing I knew, we were back in the van with my niece traveling quite a distance to two more of this Department Store's stores. My niece this time came out the winner finding some items which looked so good on her and, most importantly, were sale items. So…in the end, the three women in the family (minus our mom) had a most successful “Day After” shopping spree. Oh…and did I mention my feet are killing me?!?!?