Thankfulness : day 25

lines at Old Navy

Did you go shopping today?  Score any good deals?  We all know today is the biggest shopping day of the year.  I have never braved the early mornings (or late nights) of Black Friday.  Don’t get me wrong, I have shopped but it’s always been online.  Surprisingly enough, you can get all the great deals online (with free shipping) without all the headache.  We don’t go crazy in this household, partly because I don’t enjoy the feeling of money leaving my hands.

Tuesday evening I got an email advertising Old Navy’s $15 jeans.  I own 3 pairs of jeans, all from Old Navy.  I did not want to miss out on this deal and thought what a great time to stock up on jeans for the whole family.  They are the cornerstone of my wardrobe!  So I decided on Thanksgiving that I would head to Old Navy at midnight.  My first ever Black Friday shopping!  Sounds crazy to go out for jeans right?  Well, I have an Old Navy just around the corner from my house.  Depending on the lights, I could make it there in 60 seconds.  It was a neighborhood store that only the neighborhood folk would come to.  I wasn’t expecting all of Hempstead to show up, which they didn’t.  Overall, it was a pleasant experience.  Some of us joked around in line, I strolled the aisles in no rush and picked up a few basics for my wardrobe.

I’m not including this as part of my thankfulness posts because I’m thankful for my new jeans (though I am).  What I appreciate is the new experience.  As silly and inconsequential as hitting the stores on Black Friday is, it was something new for me, something different, something I hadn’t done before.  I am thankful not only for this new experience, but new experiences in general.  They can be fun, exciting, eye-opening and learning experiences.  I want to live a life and share a life with my family full of different and new experiences, from the deep, important ones to the silly, simplistic ones.  Life is to be lived to the fullest and it’s about the heart of the experience that matters, not how awesome of a deal I got on jeans!  =)

However, in case you were wondering if I really needed to head out on Black Friday for some new jeans, just take a look: