Christmas Shopping

Let me start off by saying I HATE crowds. I get a little anxious when there's a lot of people around. Stores get busier and busier as it gets closer to Christmas and I'd just rather stay at home. It's bad enough that I have to pass THREE malls on my way home and that it takes at least 20 mins longer than it should due to all the traffic. I always do my Christmas shopping in November so I don't have to deal with all the crazies and fight for "deals" that are really not any better than any other time of year. I'm a very good shopper and get a lot of bang for my buck no matter what time of year it is.

My mom, on the other hand, is not gifted with foresight or the Christmas spirit. It seems she is waiting later and later every year to get everything started including decorating and shopping. So she calls on Saturday and convinces me to go out with her so that I can help her get the stuff on her list. The mall is 5 mins down the street from me but on Saturday...it took 15 mins to get there!! Surprisingly though the stores that we chose to go to weren't that bad. It took us about 2 hrs to get *almost* everything on her list. So I decided to use the little remaining time the stores were open to check out my favorite bookstore. Its called "A Real Bookstore" and it's really awesome. They sell self published works of local authors and big name stuff too. They have signings, and cooking demos, readings and book clubs. I'm a huge book nut and would actually like to start participating in the ladies' book club...maybe if I ever have time to actually sit down and enjoy a book I will. Anyway I digress.... The mall is more of a collection of stores or an outdoor mall..that seems to be the new style these days. So the Santa for this "mall" is in this bookstore. Since shops close at 9, they close the line at 7 so that everyone in line has a chance o see Santa before he goes back to the North Pole for the night. Well apparently there were a few dad's that didn't seem to agree with this policy. While we were there, there was a dad who was yelling...yes YELLING a the man standing guard of the end of the line demanding that he let his son get in line to meet santa.  I made a comment to the girl at the counter about it and she told me there was a dad there earlier who was so mad that he was about to jump over the counter and beat the guy! SERIOUSLY... what kind of message is that sending your kids! That if you kick and scream and fight you'll get what you want? sorry, it doesn't work that way and you shouldn't be passing that kind of mentality on to your kids!