My daughter and I are going to try an experiment. After today, there are - uh, let's see - six shopping days until Christmas. If you are of the sane mind, you will have just about everything done - maybe a stop off at Dollar General for some stocking stuffers (CAUTION: DO NOT GO TO WALMART FOR REASONS THAT ARE SELF-EXPLANATORY) and maybe a jaunt over to Food Lion to pick up some macaroni noodles or eggnog, and well, maybe a stop off at Peebles to buy a gift certificate. All of these are perfectly sane things to do because you can't think of everything, but you have at least thought ahead to have your other Christmas shopping done. These are things that the ordinary sane person leaves for the last minute because it really doesn't require much thought nor fighting over the last remaining Nintendo WII and having the cops come and escort you out of the store.No, you're sane. You're what I call enviable, too, because I don't know if you fit into that category, but I don't and I really don't know how to fit into that category. But, oh, I wish I did.
And it's not that I don't know better; I do. I just don't know how to plan something like CHRISTMAS SHOPPING weeks ahead. Even if I go in it KNOWING what it would be like a week before shopping (hell, I've gone Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve before, not that I'd do it again, but still...), that doesn't seem to make a bit of difference.
But...then...maybe I'm not sane.
Scary thought, but anyone who thinks going out shopping during the week before Christmas must have a few screws loose somewhere.
So, my daughter and I were sitting out there and she said, "Let's make this fun."
Fun to me means sitting home and catching up on promo, or setting up tour stops for my authors, or working on the website, or catching up on email. I wasn't sure how we could make this shopping trip beat something like what I could be doing otherwise.
But, then, we got to talking and I said, "Let's try an experiment. Let's not go in it with the attitude that we're going to hate the earth these people walk on. Let's go in with a non-attitude."
Can we do it? Can we walk out of this house with a perennial smile that won't come off? Can we stand in lines and not push and shove? Can we smile when someone whips the last remaining item we so had on our shopping list off the rack without even a second's thought that maybe someone else was just seconds from putting their fingers on the very item?
I'm not sure but I'm taking bets. Can an over the hill boomer chick make it through a 4-hour shopping trip in the city without getting an attitude?
Stay tuned for tomorrow's post. If I'm still alive.
Tags: Boomer Chick, over the hill, Christmas shopping
The shopping craziness is why I started in August and was finished in November. Dorothy the attitude you go in with will be the one you come out with. A kind word and a smile helps everyone.
ReplyDeleteI agree with theresa. And I have found that you can shop at Walmart even this time of the year. You just do it at 5am. The only crowds are those pesky things running around restocking the shelves.
ReplyDeleteI order a kind of last minute thing today for Pat for Christmas online. Am paying twice what I should in order to get two-day delivery. Now to see when they actually ship it. I have another I ordered some time ago but it is a cut flower basket of exotic tropical flowers from Maui. It is coming by overnight delivery but with Christmas on a Tuesday it will be here early. They ship it Wed & it should arrive Thu afternoon. Again, we will see how well those plans work out. At least there is a little wiggle room for both of them if they are a day or so late. But I don't want those flowers sitting out in a cold truck here in the northwest overnight!
I am sane! And I have most of the shopping done. And it was easy this year and I didn't start until Dec. 7th! I still have to pick up 3 more presents but those are easy too. This shopping season was a breeze for me....don't understand why, but I'll take it and not complain!
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas