Black Friday?

After all the excitement of yesterday, we had a very late start this morning. I had intended to make breakfast this morning; after all, I had put the rice on before I went to bed last night. I guess I woke up a little too late; Kuya and two of the three kids already had their cereal, so T. and I ended up having leftovers from last night while discussing what we might be doing for the day.

Kuya had a surprise up his sleeve... it is, after all, Ate S.'s birthday today, and like a good hubby, he wanted a nice surprise for her. So we decided to go visit Tita Edith's grave in Maryland before putting the birthday surprise into action.

Tita Edith was Kuya's mother, and had passed away in 2005 from breast cancer. So actually, this is T's first visit back here since Tita Edith had passed away. We got some flowers to lay at her grave, and we spent a bit of time there. S3 went along with us for the ride, so the four of us were there, and we had prayed a decade of the rosary before we went on our way.

The surprise: a new smartphone. We suspect Ate S. is happy with it, especially now that she can check Facebook more often and request vociferously to remove pictures of herself she doesn't like. ;)

A feast at Todai followed. All in all, it was a nice day, and it also allowed more bonding time for the Yalong cousins.

With regards to S3 (the six-year old)... she had found a ladybug this morning that still appeared to be alive. She decided to put it on a tissue paper and then let it go outside. I told her she did a very good thing by putting the ladybug outside.

Finally, Black Friday. Ate S. works at Walmart, and she had to work the midnight - 10:00 am shift early this morning. She said it was crazy with a capital C from the time she was there until 2:00 am. It was so packed, you couldn't even walk without bumping into someone. After 2:00 am, she said the crowds lessened considerably.

My friend, Sherrye, put it very well in her Facebook status. She is based in Long Island, NY, and it's a post-Thanksgiving tradition for her and her husband to spend the day in New York City. Of course, now that they have a toddler, they have to cut their daytrip short. Now it's an annual trip to FAO Schwarz.

She says:

So, I was wondering where the hell everyone was today. We drove to Manhattan (no traffic), drove down 2nd Ave (no traffic), and parked in Midtown. Had lunch (not busy), saw people on 5th Ave and in FAO Schwarz, and returned home w/o traffic... THEN I found out where they were.... sleeping, because apparently, a lot of morons ran to the stores in the middle of the night. (Emphasis mine.) Toys R Us looked like a tsunami hit it, but had no people in it. Weird culture we have.

I never remembered it being like this in years past. I do remember the sales at the Navy Exchange, and my mom would drag my brother and me with her, where we would be looking for the sales, but I don't ever recall it being as crazy as the Black Friday or even post-Christmas sales can be nowadays.

Time flies so quickly. Tomorrow, T. will be returning to New York City, and I will probably start driving back to NC tomorrow evening as well. I'm glad we're here, spending time together. :)