Adventures in Christmas Shopping

Today was the first day Mark and I were able to get out to shop for our kids.

A Saturday.  In December.

We're pretty spoiled when it comes to days/times to shop because Mark has days off work during the week, so that's usually when we choose to shop.

It's much less busy during the week.

Mark had dialysis this morning.  When he got home we formed a game plan and got ready to go.  Called the babysitter my dad to let him know our ETA.

Slowed the car down, tossed the kids out Left the kids in Grampa's capable hands and off we went.

I consciously decided (is that redundant?) to check in with Foursquare everywhere we went in order to have a record of the day:

As you can see, we were not having any luck at the first 3 stores.  The stores either didn't have what we wanted or we didn't like the price.  Coulda Maybe Almost bought something at Walmart, but we weren't standing in a long line for cookies!

We found the gift we wanted to be from us at the Sony Outlet Store - yay!

By this time we NEEDED food.  Because it was just the 2 of us, we headed for our favorite BBQ place. It was the messiest damn thing I have ever eaten but I did NOT get one single drip of sauce on me.

As we ate we talked about what we should do about the fact that we were coming up empty-handed.  I consulted the handy Amazon app on my phone and found that the things we wanted to get were available there and we still had time to order for pre-Christmas delivery.  I couldn't believe we were going to spend all this time out shopping only to go home and order everything online!

Checked in with Grampa and told him we wanted to try one more store.

We headed to Target, at the other end of town.

I needed to use the restroom but Mark was antsy so he said to meet him back in the toy section.  Pfft, whatever, Mr. No Pee!

He left me unattended near the dollar bins!  Silly man.

Actually, after finding a couple cool snap bracelets I restrained myself from further perusal and made a beeline for the toys.

And what to my wondering eyes should appear?  A miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer My husband with stuff in his cart!  Stuff we wanted even.  And, AND it was ON SALE for less than everywhere else we had been, including Amazon!

Target gave us a Christmas shopping miracle!

{Begin gospel interlude} Oh happy day!  Oh happy day! {End gospel interlude}

Still came home and placed an order for some things.  And there's still stocking stuffers to get and small packages to send.

But major progress was made and I am pleased.  And I didn't even want to kill anyone.

"In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it 'Christmas' and went to church; the Jews called it 'Hanukkah' and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank.  People passing each other on the street would say 'Merry Christmas!' or 'Happy Hanukkah!'  or (to the atheists) 'Look out for the wall!'"  ~ Dave Barry, "Christmas Shopping:  A Survivor's Guide"