The Great Christmas Shopping Trip of 2010....

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If there is love in your heart and your mind

You will feel like Christmas all the time...

("Where are you Christmas?", Faith Hill)

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Okay, I started off early in the morning for my Christmas shopping trip in the truck. The picture above shows my truck in the snow. But I have to be honest---it wasn't snowing the other day when I went Christmas shopping. It snowed last night and so I took the picture of the neighborhood under snow this morning because it's a prettier picture.

Anyway, first stop.....the Mall of course!!! Because I wanted to get the roughest shopping done first. And you know what shopping early in the morning gets you? A parking place close to the buildings. Later in the day and closer to Christmas you will find out that close parking places become like unicorns......mythical, unseen things. And when it's the last 2 days before Christmas, any parking place at all will be all the way out to the Outback Restaurant or 95th Street. (And me trying to park that damn long bed truck is similar to what I think parking a Boeing 747 would be like.)

Below is the inside of the mall. See how it goes on to infinity? I hid under the escalators while I plotted a strategy of getting to the places I needed to go without crossing the path of those lotion kiosk idiots who assaulted me that time.

(Remember? One of the sales girls actually grabbed my hand as I walked by, jerked me back to her, and squirted lotion on my hand and started rubbing it in before I even realized what was happening! But I jerked myself back from her and ran like hell.)

Lookie Lookie below!!!! The fabled mall Merry-Go-Round! Isn't it a wondrous sight? And see the intensely beautiful blue Mer-Horse? I wanted to ride that stupid Mer-Horse so bad I could taste it. But instead I just stood there, staring at it wistfully. (If you click on the picture it will enlarge so that you can see the glorious Mer-Horse up close.)

Next stop, Costco below. I went inside to buy Blaine a regular, $50.00 membership but I let the lady talk me into buying him the more expensive, $100.00 "Executive Membership". I'm hoping so bad that he'll like this present because he never gets to go shopping at Costco unless his brother-in-law, who has a membership card, goes. Now, with Blaine having his own card, he will never have to wait on his brother-in-law again---he'll be able to go whenever he wants to.

Blaine loves Costco because there's great deals on groceries. Also, they have great deals on Gloria Vanderbilt jeans and sweaters/pullovers for me.

Next, on to Kohl's, below, where I bought Blaine a $150.00 gift card. He likes buying clothes at that store because they have nice stuff. He likes the store so much that he has a Kohl's charge card. And he gets their sale coupons in the mail which he always uses, and so I figured he'd appreciate a gift card from there.

Oh! What is it that I see below???? Could it be.......A YARN SHOP??!!!

My mother sent me a gift card for this particular yarn shop and she emailed me that I had better NOT use the card till after Christmas Day. Of course I told her "Sure, sure, Mumsy" and then promptly went down to the yarn store and spent it.

But I had good reason to do so, I swear!!! I had to use it now!! (God, I hope my mother doesn't read this.)

But it's true---I definitely had to use the gift card now because at Christmas time the yarn I want flies out of that store as soon as they get it, which is the same thing a knitter friend told me. She said that if I waited till Christmas to use the gift card, the high quality yarns in the shop would be picked over or else out-of-stock altogether. She suggested buying the yarn I want now and then putting the bag under the tree. So, I did as my friend suggested.

So I bought ten hanks of Malabrigo Worsted in the "Snow Bird" colorway (vivid red, greens, and yellows---softly luscious and GORGEOUS!)

So don't worry Mumsy (if you're reading this)---I put the bag of yarn under the Christmas tree and won't use it till after Christmas.

Next stop---Hobby Lobby, where I bought that stupid little potholder loom so I could make potholders for my sister.

One might ask what's with my sister asking me to make her those particular potholders which we made when we were young children? After all, she's a millionaire now, after having married the millionaire guy that she did, and so she could buy any dadgum potholder she wants! And I bought their family lots of lovely presents, which are going out in the mail tomorrow. But she said she also wants me to make her those dadgum little loom POTHOLDERS!

And so here I sit with a bag of loops, weaving those idgity little potholders on a childsize plastic loom like an idiot.

Sigh...

(I have two finished....)

At the last minute, I realized I forgot to buy gift tags. AAAAARRRRGGHH! So I made one more stop at the below CVS, which is close to my house, to buy the damn tags. Then, as I was dying of hunger, I went through the Taco Bell drive-thru and bought lunch to take home with me.

I love Taco Bell.

Well, that's it. The Great Christmas Shopping Trip of 2010.

(I just gotta say it one more time: I would give anything if I could ride the lovely Mer-Horse on that Merry-Go-Round....)

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