Holiday Shopping

When one works full time and has a husband whose job takes him away for 24 hours at a time, one takes any time one can get to sneak in some holiday shopping. I am the one I speak of. Nearly every day this week I have trudged out of the office over lunch to shop (Target and the Ridgedale Mall to name two destinations) as I have desperately tried to check off those last few gifts on my list.

On Wednesday I found myself at Ridgedale. I only had an hour so I was a woman on a mission (when aren't I??) with a list in my head of my stops and a well-planned map of how I would get to them most efficiently, grab some food and make it back to work. I was in Macy's in the cosmetic department, had made my purchase and was briskly walking toward the door leading back into the mall. I was stopped in my tracks by a man at a makeup counter wearing more makeup than me who declared, "Let's touch up your eyebrows." Instinctively I reached my hand up to see if by some strange fate they had disappeared while in the mall. Nope, still there where they have been for nearly 40 years now. I then responded, "Touch up my eyebrows???" To which he replied, "Yes, don't you want me to touch up your eyebrows." At this point I wasn't sure whether I should laugh, stomp away or take him up on it. I chuckled and then as politely as I could muster responded, "No I don't think I want you to touch up my eyebrows." Of course now I have been asking anyone who will listen to me what is wrong with my eyebrows. I even emailed my friend in Florida who assured me that my eyebrows are just fine. My friend Carol however, was kind enough to remind me that my Florida friend hasn't seen me in quite a few months. Geesh -- leave it to a pretty man to give me a complex about my eyebrows!

Last night I took Ryan shopping to purchase a gift for his teacher. This is the first year he has expressed great interest in doing this and he (rightly so) is very fond of his teacher this year. I thought this will be easy. Boy was I wrong!

First I took him to a neat store in Maple Grove called "Good Things." It houses lots of unique gifts you can't find elsewhere. Surely he would find something in no time. His choice, a small plastic chandelier that lights up. I think it was actually some sort of gag gift but Ryan declared it very pretty and I had a heck of time convincing him to put it down. He decided there "was nothing good" at Good Things so off we headed to Bath and Body. It didn't take long and we were now 0 and 2. O.K. Carol maybe this won't be as easy as you thought.... I preceded to ask Ryan what exactly he wanted to buy. I suggested we go to Pier One. 0 and 3. I realized this was going nowhere fast and obviously Ryan had something in his mind but wasn't sharing it with me. I suggested Kohls and he enthusiastically said yes.

Once inside he was a man on a mission heading straight to the jewelry. It seems his heart was set on giving his teacher a necklace but he had been too afraid to tell me this. After much searching we settled on a pretty silver necklace with a neat phrase written on it. I thought it appropriate for a teacher. We boxed it up along with an ornament he got earlier in a cute Santa box and he plans to give it to her tomorrow.

And how has your shopping been?