Thirty Days of Thankful - Day 23 - Black Friday

Note: Today is day 23 in my series "30 Days of Thankful."

I worked in retail during high school, college, and a few years after. Like many people who work in retail, having to work ridiculous hours and deal with unreasonable people really put a damper on the holiday season. I never understood why anyone would camp out overnight on Thanksgiving to save a few dollars on big ticket items. But then again, I've never really been into buying expensive things for the holidays. I really hate how commercialism seems to rule these days. I'd much rather have someone make or buy me a small, heartfelt gift than try to impress me by spending a lot of money.

But I have to say, that like many other things that have changed in my life as of late, I'm pretty excited about Black Friday shopping today. When I moved a few months back, I had office furniture, a bedroom set, 4 kitchen chairs, a tv, and little else. (friends, if you go "halves" on something with a significant other or buy a lot of furniture for someone else's house, be sure to discuss who gets to keep what if you break up) The house I'm renting is dollhouse sized, so I haven't had the opportunity to buy too much furniture, but...the house I'm buying has plenty of space for all kinds of things.

I have befriended furniture salespeople all over northeast Ohio, and I plan on stopping by quite a few stores today to cash in on holiday deals. I can get up at 5am to save 20% on a dining room set. Or drive to Akron to save hundreds on a sectional. I'm getting into the thrill of the chase of holiday deals. I've been eyeballing a flat screen tv to hang over my new fireplace. I don't want to have to fight over one with yahoos standing in a line at a store, so I plan on using my web searching skills to find the best deal before Christmas.

Before you worry about me completely going off the deep end and suddenly becoming materialistic, I have a good reason for wanting to buy all of these things. I am so thankful for all of the kindness my friends have shown me over the past few months that I can't wait to have the kind of house where I can entertain and have people over for board game parties or dinner parties. A place with extra space so my friends from out of town can drive in and spend the weekend without me having to sleep on the floor. A house with enough room for me to take a friend if in they were to go through a breakup like I did. I want to live in a home. Right now I'm renting a house. I want my own home to be a place designed for making memories. And I think the first step to doing that is providing a place to sit for my guests. So wish me luck as I hit the stores today!