Prosaic Poppy 2005-2006

Next...Birthdays!

Well, it's done. I am FINALLY completely done with my Christmas shopping. My husband has declared that he is NOT finished. But I AM *does a little dance*.

This means that I will NOT be out shopping with all the other losers on Christmas Eve. (I can safely say this, because I have been a Christmas Eve shopper for the past 5 years).

Trust me, the selection at Meijer at 5:00 PM on Christmas Eve is dismal.
(They close at 6:00)

Que the ducks Brando, 2005).

Meijer: Christmas Eve 2003 The only way I can enter a Meijer store is to arm myself with a bullet proof list. Armed and ready, I venture in. I know exactly what I want to give my children, and Meijer is the only place open at this time of night. I rue the thought of having to go home and wrap presents, but since I had to work, and then wait for someone to watch the kids...now is the time.

I am tooling down the toy aisle chucking the items into my cart, checking them off of my list. Things are going well for the first few minutes. Then it happens. They do not have the one item that will surely put this Christmas on the map of best Christmases ever. In fact they do not have anything remotely comparable to replace it with.

Here is where I begin my descent.

Because they do not have exactly what I have painstakingly wrote on my list...my mind goes blank and for the next two hours I am officially a vagrant walking aimlessly around the Meijer store dropping items into my cart.

Security is definitely watching me as the tower of items gets bigger and bigger. Certainly the vacant look in my eyes indicates that I am going to bypass the checkout counters and bolt out the doors with one coveted item that I have sleighted under my many layers of clothes.

See...since I had to alter my thinking, I have lost track of what I was suppose to be buying. And in an attempt to cleverly alternate items to replace my original plan, I have once again fallen into the Meijer trap. I buy much more than I need, to make up for what surely would have been the best present ever.

Meijer knows this. Meijer secretly watches me write my list and then evil Meijer Minions set out to remove the precious ONE GIFT and any plausible substitutes that would fulfil my quest.

I'm not kidding.

****

So...THIS YEAR I have been able to completely elude the Meijer trap. I have driven up and down and all around to purposely avoid stepping into the "convenient" one stop Meijer department store. Instead I have made several small trips to Target. Where at least I can "feel" that they are not trying to make me buy more than I need, and their selection is not purposely plotting against me and my list.

Now I can attend to the eight birthdays and one anniversary that will need recognizing in the next 2 weeks. (Thatplus baking, sewing, and painting all my crafty gifts) Thank goodness for online shopping and free delivery.

It feels kind of nice. I am not sure why I didn't do this before...

Of course, next year if my wits are about me, I will probably do most of my shopping online. I think that I am totally demystified on the whole "holiday shopping experience" once and for all.

Except maybe with Target.

Baby steps people. Baby steps.

posted by Kassi Gilbert @ 7:53 PM