Friday I decided to take the opportunity to get some Christmas shopping done. I am a hunter/gatherer kinda shopper where I go out for as long as it takes and go where ever I need to go at one time. Friday was one of those days. With list of some gift ideas I headed out after work. My first stop was Darlington Farms. This is a factory that brings in cheap Christmas gifts one time a year and just my luck it's right down the road from where I work. It's a neat place where just about everything in the warehouse is $1.39 a piece. There is some pretty nice little nick-knacks and other stuff. I originally went in there looking for stuff for my Dad and step mom, but nothing stood out to me, at least nothing I wanted to spend $7 in shipping a $1.39 item. But I did end up finding some stuff for other people. I left with a big bag of stuff for a little over $13 so pretty good on my part.
North. Being ever the Next was the part that I dreaded..... Jefferson Point.... I like Jefferson Point as a shopping center, but whoever designed the way the traffic flowed has to be mental in the head. Who in their right mind designs a 4 way stop with at least 4 lanes in 4 different directions (including turn lanes) and then does it twice in 1000 feet?? I would have to say they need traffic lights, but I think it's private property so they can't or something like that. So my first stop was Kohls to get see if they have a gift that I saw over at another Kohls, and stuck out. Of course it was nuts busy in the store and there was the "gauntlet" of trying to leave the store to get to the parking lot. People do not understand the concept of Yield to pedestrians at all. Next stop was Wal-mart. Of course nuts busy again to the 10th degree. I went in looking for a few things including another gift for my father in law. No such luck.... again. I did find the one thing for my brother in law, but I wasn't about to get in the checkout lanes for one thing. I figured that I would hit the Walmart out by us since I had to buy eggs and butter anyway. The one nice thing this year is that I have been able to keep a little change in my pocket so I am actually able to put a little something in the kettle at the doors of walmart unlike the past couple of years when I had nothing. Even having a little pocket change, I found myself only putting in a few coins to give myself something for the next time since I was going to walmart so often lately. I was thinking about getting out of Jefferson Point when I decided to be brave and attempt the 4 way stop from hell to actually go to Jefferson Point shopping complex and see how bad it was over there. I get across the streat pretty well and it was a totally different story across the street. It wasn't too crowded at all, everyone was relaxed, and I was able to stroll easily into a couple of different stores and get SERVICE almost immediately!!! So with refreshed enthusiasm for shopping I headed out to the Northside of town. Fist stop was at Target for a few things on the list. I was able to get one of the things with the other ending up being way more expensive than I thought it was. Next stop was Walmart. I decided to hit the Kohls up North in the slight chance they restocked that item I was looking for, and by God they did! Score! Next over to Walmart to get a couple things and I was able to get most of my list over there. I get to the 20 items or less self-checkout behind a couple with a whole cart full of stuff. I was going get pissy about their 40 items but decided just to hum a merry tune. As I was checking out there was a thing where the kid working the self checkout had to check me out at his station. Nothing like the personalized service at the self-checkout. Of course I found out later the kid forget to put something back into the cart after scanning it so I had to go back the next day to get it. At that point I am pretty tired so I grab Wendy's and head for home where the boys help me eat my frosty and fries.
Saturday we got up and around and out the door to Charlie's birthday party. That is such a fun time at the roller rink. My boys find the video games fun to look at so I spend most of the time with them on the other side of the rink. I sadly didn't get a chance to visit with anybody that much. First thing when we get in the door I am getting ready to say hey to Keith and he proceeded to drop a bowl of meatballs on his lap. I tried not to laugh too hard. As I was helping clean up meatball juice off the floor I notice the chocolate phallus on the counter. It was supposed to be a chocolate fountain, but the chocolate got too thick (Lori blames Keith) so it just caked up all over the fountain. The little bit of chocolate trying to come out of the top was a little unnerving..... Anyhow in the process of chasing kids here and there, both the boys said they wanted to try and roller skate. I got them both skated up and I was able to drag them about 30 feet before they both were done. I think William was just goofing around where Andrew wasn't getting the concept of being on wheels. I think that if I would have been able to do them one at a time I could have gotten them a little more comfortable on the skates. So off come the skates and back to the video games and running around. Before I knew it the party was over. Lori invited everyone back to their place for a visit, but we had more stuff to try and get done before Jen went to work. So a couple more stops for Christmas shopping (including a place I hadn't been to in 15 years so I couldn't believe it was still there) and we headed home. With snow flying the boys and I settled in and Jen took off for work.They had predicted all kinds of different snow and accumulation for Saturday night/ Sunday so we didn't know what to expect.
Sunday morning we woke up to 6 - 8 inches of snow. Dang they actually got a forecast right!! Lucky buggers. So while Jen gets ready for work I run out to shovel off the driveway. I like to try and get it shoveled before we drive on it since it makes it easier to maintain. I decided to have Jen take the Jeep to work. The tread on the tires isn't the best, but at least its 4 wheel drive and higher clearance. So I get the driveway shoveled in time for Jen to leave for work. Yeah I need to get the snow blower working again. Basically the boys and I just hung around the house for the day watching even more DIFFERENT Disney movies all day. During the majority of the day we were stuck on Dumbo, but not too long. In the morning I decided to take the opportunity to make my Christmas cookies from my grandma's recipe. I was attempting to do it alone, but quickly got help when I started to put them together. Overall the boys did pretty well and I let them help me every once in a while. The funny part is that they got into the container with the cookie cutters so William stars handing me all different kinds of forms. So this year we have a Christmas Cat, some stars, and some moose. The cookies turned out perfect, even the raw dough tasted exactly as it should have. Afternoon I went back outside to shovel the drive again as Andrew was down for his nap. William told me he was going to watch me from the window in his pajamas, but after10 minutes came outside fully dressed with coat and boots on. That kind of surprised me. So I gave him a small shovel and was trying to explain what to do, but he found it more entertaining to put the snow back onto the driveway then off of the driveway. The rest of the day was just watching movies and football.
Overall I would have to say we have most of the Christmas shopping done for this year. I still have to try and find something for my mom. She is a hard one to buy for. I also found out that I have 3 days to burn before the end of the year so I am planning that right now... wheeeeee. I am still in the Christmas spirit and feel pretty good besides my possible sinus infection.
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