For the first time in 3 years, I stayed home on Black Friday.

The decision came on due to, well, indecision. I browsed the Black Friday papers and I just couldn’t find any great deals I had to have. And well last night was a particularly cold night, which means Izzie slept next to my torso rather than my feet and kept inching closer and closer toward me until I was falling off the bed. I swear, that dog sleeps like a toddler sometimes.

So what am I doing this year? Shopping from the comfort of my own bed. It’s nice, but it’s not exciting.

There’s a strangely exhilarating rush of adrenaline when your alarm clock wakes you up only after 4 hours of sleep on Black Friday. You don’t even have to hit the snooze, that item you’ve been wanting, which now has the huge markdown on it, is enough motivation to get you out of bed. You’re lucky to even get a cup of coffee or a bowl of cereal in you before you’re dressed, keys in hand. And when you step out into the night (because the sun isn’t even up) the cold air is enough of a jolt to get you going.

But that’s just from my point of view

So anyway, this year I’m not partaking in the raising of the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. Jabari is in Houston and since he wanted to help me decorate the tree, I’ve decided to wait until December 1st. I’m so used to doing the decorations around this time that instead, I’m listening to holiday music and watching Elf on DVD to make up for the lack of Christmas decorations

By the way, notify the local news station: KRISTINE BOUGHT A  SEWING MACHINE. Yep, that’s right. I’m going to start sewing! Actually, I wanted to start incorporating some stitching into my scrapbook pages, but i figured what the heck? I’ll just kill 2 birds with one stone.

I’d been cruising Hancock Fabrics online, keeping an eye on machines that were going on sale. Initially I planned on getting the basic Janome Sew Mini. It was getting a lot of rave reviews from the ladies at SplitCoastStampers.com and it sounded like it would be perfect for the projects I wanted to do.

But then I saw the Janome 3128, regularly $129.99, on sale for $79.99. Now THAT one was really appealing. It sounded like I could do some of the layout stitching I intended to do with the Sew Mini, but I could probably also do more heavy duty projects.

What did I end up getting? The Janome 3128. I figured I would have a little more flexibility with it. Plus it wasn’t that much more expensive than the Sew Mini. I debated whether or not I wanted to go to the store to get it, but my bed was just too comfortable and outweighed the possibility of taking the machine home today, so I ordered it online I’m so excited though. I’ve been looking at some of the projects on Sew4home.com and it makes me want to start sewing my own linens and drapery.

So far this is my only Black Friday purchase. I don’t plan on buying anything else except for maybe a couple used sewing books from Amazon (or Half Price Books if I happen to pass one while I’m out this afternoon). I’m supposed to have a late lunch with my friends at Bubba’s on Hillcrest so hopefully the surrounding University Park traffic will die down by that time.

Other than that, today will be a no stress Black Friday