What a Friday!

Anyone who knows me knows that I love to shop on the Friday after Thanksgiving. I had never gone shopping on that day until my mom and I went a couple years before she died, but after we went that first time in 1998, we decided to make it tradition! Sadly for me, the tradition for the two of us didn't last long, as she passed away in 2000, but I have continued the tradition myself. Every year I go. There have been a few years in the past 8 that I have gone with some of my sisters-in-law and last year my brother Tim tagged along, but I usually just go it alone. I'm not the hard core Friday shopper who will fight for the item. That's silly - after all, it's JUST stuff! Sometimes, there's not even anything in the ads that I HAVE to HAVE! It's just fun for me to jump-start my holiday shopping and get in the Christmas spirit. This year, after talking about it a little, my friend Mary and I decided we would face Black Friday together and we had THE BEST TIME! For those of you who might read her blog (and if you don't, it's on my blog list), I won't go into all of the details of our day (she did a great job of that!), but I will say it's great to have a friend, in this case a new friend, who you feel understands you and "where you've been". We have a lot of things in common, one being that Mary and I share the reality that we both lost our moms to cancer not too many years ago. We both had close relationships with our moms and we are both raising four children. We feel the loss of not having our moms in our lives and theirs every single day. The cool thing is that we've found each other, and despite the fact that we still miss our moms more than you can ever put into words, it's such a blessing to have a friend who "gets it". Mary, if I couldn't be shopping with my mom yesterday, you were the next best thing!! :) Thanks for all the fun! (And picking out my purse - I LOVE IT! and I love yours too!)