It's Christmas Time in the City

Well, Stacey and I came out unscathed last night from the Christmas Shopping Extravaganza. The driver of a green Mazda almost took us out a couple times, but we managed to successfully drive about Silverdale without a wreck or lost limbs. And we didn’t do half bad on the shopping either, almost got everything I was looking for.

Some of my favorite moments:

A cheap dinner at Red Robin.
We both ordered our old standby, Kids sized Clucks and Fries. It’s genius really – you get two chicken strips and unlimited fries, just enough to make you full. Our server (realizing from our order that we weren’t going to be his big tippers of the evening) was great to us. I think he figured if he was very attentive to our needs and delivered speedy service, he might up his ante a little. And it worked. We are not known for our chintzy tips. (Thanks to my poor math skills, we once gave a $10 tip for a $30 breakfast. Sorry girls!)

Hallmark, when you care enough to give the very best.
After browsing through the Fresh Ink cards (and laughing at the Love section – depending on who you gave some of those cards to, it could get really staker-ish.), we walked up to the front to pay for the winning card. The Sales Associate was a little on the …. hmm, shall we say discourteous side? Not impressed. I used to work at Hallmark back in the day, so it stuck out to me all the more.

As we were attempting to exit the store, I whispered to Stacey, “Good thing we weren’t secret shoppers or something, huh?”

She quickly retorted, “Yeah, wasn’t she awful!” in a not-so-quiet voice, before we entered back into the abyss of the mall walkway.

“Why don’t you say that a little louder?” I had a good laugh at Stace’s expense after I pointed out her volume and she quickly turned bright red. The holiday shopping was quickly getting to our systems and we weren’t about to last much longer.

Just about gone.
Our last stop was at Pier 1. As we browsed around the store, we became those annoying shoppers – the ones who are laughing hysterically about nothing, shouting across the store at each other when we found a desired item, and making the sales person dismantle a candle display because we were in need of the item that held it all together. Thankfully we managed to leave the store intact as we departed.

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One more Holiday tradition under the belt for this year. Just a couple more to go!