Heh. I was at WalMart at 5:30 am this morning to get that awesome deal on the Kodak digital camera for only $198! It's an awesome camera.. BIG TIME! :D

i also didn't leave the house on friday. i didn't even purchase anything on line. black friday is evil. the holidays are no longer about being with friends and family. it's all about how much you can buy. and that's sad.

It's very sad, my parents are both in their 70's and unable to get around much this year and I can tell they're stressed out because they can't go all over the place and buy Xmas gifts. I've told them I'd just as soon just get together and visit and eat without all the wrapping paper, etc.

And the reason Christmas got to be so material in our family was because my dad worked at a big retail store when I was growing up and so we always exchanged tons of gifts and every year had to be better than last year, and so on. Of course, when I moved put and worked on my own I could never afford to "keep up" properly without going into credit card debt for the next year. I think Christmas should be more like Thanksgiving and Halloween, if you want to decorate, fine, and have a big meal, that's great, but it shouldn't be a competition.

But all of the stress, guilt and debt are something that has been brainwashed into us by the retail world (and Hallmark). I know this because I've seen retail from about every angle you can see it and they will do almost anything to get you to spend your money on stuff you don't actually need. It just drives me nuts that there are so many people (in the US alone) that don't have health insurance (I don't), proper housing and food and the first thing Dubya tells us to do after 9/11 is "go shopping".