You know the ones.
People who don’t do a stitch of Christmas shopping until the days of December begin with a ’2′.
It was just a horrible combination of time + money availability not lining up until after the 15th of the month.
Then because my company is so generous with the holiday time off, I looked at my last day being 12/21 (ending at noon mind you) and thinking that 3.5 days was somehow PLENTY enough to get things done.
Sure, I am hosting lunch as usual which means cleaning and meal planning but NO WORRIES right? 3.5 whole days!
OK, then I remembered I was invited to an old friend’s house on the evening of the 24th. Which is GOOD since Alex is gone and I am quite used to sitting at home on the 24th watching It’s A Wonderful Life and waiting for his dad to drop him off here. Which isn’t happening this year since they are in Sweden. So rather than possibly sitting at home feeling blue it is good that I have a change of routine that takes me out of the house.
Except I have to leave here at 3:30 tomorrow.
So now I am down to 3 days.
And then Nick calls to remind of the 3 appointments he has Wed afternoon, Thursday evening and Friday mid-day.
All good and necessary as he FINISHES his DUI classes (finally!) and also gets some much needed medical visits in. He got himself a JOB starting next week – just part time but it’s WORK and that’s awesome.
But – this means chunks of time taken out of each day.
And suddenly, 3.5 days doesn’t seem quite so much!
I shopped locally Wed afternoon and marveled at how crowded it was. Not horrid, but surely more packed than normal in our local shopping center.
I had to hit the mall Thursday and it truly was PACKED. I was mostly surrounded by men or men +boys shopping for their women. I even was asked to consult with a couple of them on purses! Even though it was packed I was able to check out pretty easily and zipped out of there feeling not too stressed.
The roads were just teeming with cars though. Many zipping around as if no one else was on the road. That part was kinda scary.
Another outing early this morning to another packed to the gills store where the checkout line wound just about half way back into the main aisles. It moved quickly thankfully and the gal noticed that a picture frame I had picked up had been cracked. Of course, what she didn’t know is that it most likely was cracked IN my basket as I carried it through the store along with a wine bottle which clearly rolled into it one too many times! Oopsie.
Got out of there and then had to take Nick to the doctor and then we went to Wal Mart. Yes, Wal Mart on December 23rd. THAT was fun! So many people were cruising through those aisles that I swear we were breaking a capacity load of some kind. And I only had to get ONE thing!
The checkout line Gods smiled on me again though and we got out of there largely unscathed (there was the shopping cart that clipped Nick’s ankle, but he’s recovering nicely).
Another sort of stressful drive home past a fully engulfed big rig fire and YAY – I was done!
Then the wrapping began.
It’s still not done.
3 more boxes.
And I still have to get a few things at the grocery tomorrow.
And clean the house.
But I took the time tonight to make a pot of Glogg and Renee and I wandered around looking at Christmas lights.
New traditions.
But – I would be quite happy to never again be the last minute shopper driving around between 12/21-12/23 pulling her hair out to find everything for everyone on her list.
I suppose everyone has to do it once and that I am lucky it took this long to hit me.
I much prefer ordering online in November & sitting at home while UPS & Fed Ex deliver the gifts!
I’ll be the one sleeping all day Monday for sure 
Merry Christmas!
