Santa's (not-so-) little elves
My dad and I usually go on shopping excursions together this time of year. Sometimes we pick out stuff for each other; sometimes we help the other get gifts for mom and grandma. They're hard to buy for. On Monday, dad had said, hey, do you want to go out tomorrow? Okay, fine. Except on Tuesday he ended up working late and was tired. Okay, how about Wednesday? The same thing happened. However, his job gave him Thursday and Friday off this week, as opposed to Monday, so we decided to meet at Fox Valley Mall after I got off work to wander around and see what inspiration struck. There's a Penney's there, and I wanted to stop there for something, so what the heck.
We wandered a good portion of the mall. We each bought a calendar--one was for me from him, and one is from me for mom, though dad attempted to buy that one as well--and then he bought things from a few other places. Macy's was one. Maybe Carson's was a second? Yeah, because my mother is so into buying things for herself that it's hard for us to find things for her. She doesn't need clothes. She doesn't need purses. She doesn't need lots of things. Something consumable can generally be a good idea, and they had Keurig coffees on sale (buy one get one…something or other), so I talked him into that. Meanwhile, I'd spotted something at Carson's that could work for dad, but I didn't want to really look at it with him nearby.
After a couple hours, we were both hungry, so we went to Panera. Little did we know we'd get dinner and a show--we were partway done when loud yelling started occurring in the hallway, and the next thing we know, there's potentially going to be a fight. I could see this teenage-ish boy outside yelling something or other, and next to him was a teenage girl holding up her phone because, of course, you have to record everything in this day and age, and someone nearby in the restaurant (which was fairly full at that time) said it was because someone hugged the wrong person. I couldn't see much of what was going on, so I really only saw the two people I mentioned, but within a few moments things had quieted down and they had dispersed by the time we left. Good. Such a useless waste of energy over stupid things.
Dad had left a message for mom--several, actually--that we were shopping. Her phone had died, so luckily he thought to call the house phone and leave a message there. She called back when we'd just gotten to Panera and he bought her a salad, so he figured he should just go home. Okay, cool; this means I can shop for what I wanted for him without him standing there. I was low on ideas for mom, so I ended up getting the same thing for her. I'll share what it is after Christmas. I had two more stops, Jewel and Target, but that combined with what I'd bought--and wrapped already--earlier, means I am totally done. It won't be a terribly exciting Christmas, but some of my gifts should go over well. They won't be expecting them. This year, I am going with the pleasant surprise.
We wandered a good portion of the mall. We each bought a calendar--one was for me from him, and one is from me for mom, though dad attempted to buy that one as well--and then he bought things from a few other places. Macy's was one. Maybe Carson's was a second? Yeah, because my mother is so into buying things for herself that it's hard for us to find things for her. She doesn't need clothes. She doesn't need purses. She doesn't need lots of things. Something consumable can generally be a good idea, and they had Keurig coffees on sale (buy one get one…something or other), so I talked him into that. Meanwhile, I'd spotted something at Carson's that could work for dad, but I didn't want to really look at it with him nearby.
After a couple hours, we were both hungry, so we went to Panera. Little did we know we'd get dinner and a show--we were partway done when loud yelling started occurring in the hallway, and the next thing we know, there's potentially going to be a fight. I could see this teenage-ish boy outside yelling something or other, and next to him was a teenage girl holding up her phone because, of course, you have to record everything in this day and age, and someone nearby in the restaurant (which was fairly full at that time) said it was because someone hugged the wrong person. I couldn't see much of what was going on, so I really only saw the two people I mentioned, but within a few moments things had quieted down and they had dispersed by the time we left. Good. Such a useless waste of energy over stupid things.
Dad had left a message for mom--several, actually--that we were shopping. Her phone had died, so luckily he thought to call the house phone and leave a message there. She called back when we'd just gotten to Panera and he bought her a salad, so he figured he should just go home. Okay, cool; this means I can shop for what I wanted for him without him standing there. I was low on ideas for mom, so I ended up getting the same thing for her. I'll share what it is after Christmas. I had two more stops, Jewel and Target, but that combined with what I'd bought--and wrapped already--earlier, means I am totally done. It won't be a terribly exciting Christmas, but some of my gifts should go over well. They won't be expecting them. This year, I am going with the pleasant surprise.