Was it just me or did Black Friday lack some of its luster this year? We weren’t shopping for any big ticket items. I didn’t see any great deals that got me out of bed early (or into bed late).

As I did last year, when the kids woke me up I headed out to a few stores. I think it was 7:15 or so when I left the house. My first stop? You got it–Target. The past three years I’ve found great deals on sweatshirts and pajamas for the kids. This year? Nothing! I don’t know if they didn’t have deals or if I just missed them all since they opened at 9 on Thanksgiving night. I ended up with a pair of pajamas for Baby Girl and a Christmas gift for my man. I stopped at Lowe’s and got two poinsettias for $.99 each, which ended up being the best deal of my Black Friday experience. As ashamed as I am to admit it, we bought a Black Friday deal online Thursday night and picked it up Friday. We bought an artificial tree. Trust me; I never thought this would happen! But trees are more expensive down here and we end up traveling most Christmases. We figured we could put up an artificial tree for the years we aren’t home for Christmas. Truthfully, our $50 tree looks really good.

My man also tried to snatch a lightning deal on Amazon. He pressed “buy” two seconds after the deal started and they were already sold out. Bummer.

So, Black Friday left me disappointed this year. The new hours also disappointed. It just seems wrong to shop at 9 on Thanksgiving night. What happened to having one day to be with family, to be thankful for the things you have, to take one day off? One other thing I noticed: Black Friday starts on Thursday and Cyber Monday starts on Saturday. The only event that seems to stay to it’s day is Small Business Saturday. I don’t like it. Let’s leave Thanksgiving alone.

What do you think? Do you just love the deal? Or should we leave the deals for after Thanksgiving day?