Christmas Shopping

Got alot of Christmas shopping done today - all online. It's not that I have some sort of phobia about going to REAL stores. Most of them are festive enough and have hired extra staff to deal with the extra shoppers. It's the TRAFFIC I can't take. With little ones, I can't sit in traffic very long at all.

I guess it's a statement of fortune that it's difficult to buy for everyone in my family (except my mother, the insatiable music fanatic). What to get for two nephews I hardly ever see? I went traditional and low-tech, Mancala
for the 8-year old and Trouble
for the 6-year old. If you've never played Mancala, you should try it. It's actually
one of the oldest board games in the world. I forget how to play it, but I remember it was fast-moving and fun. It's simply a wooden board with small wells carved in and glass pieces sort of like squashed marbles. That's it, no card, spinners, or dice.

Really, my aunt, dad and stepmother, and brother and sister-in-law have everything
they could need and can afford to buy what they can't. So Aunt got a George Foreman
Grill, brother and sister-in-law a Cuban music CD, and the only remaining gift is to
be purchsed for my dad and stepmother.

Go to a retail store and take a look around at the suggested Christmas gifts. Foot
massagers. Bath and lotion sets. Boxes of snacks - food readily available much cheaper at the grocery store boxed up nice and fancy. Each year the gifts get more
ridiculous, but it just goes to show that most people have all the food, clothing,
and basic items they need. I really shouldn't complain.

My favorite Christmas shopping of all was when I was in college and lived in Philadelphia. It was so much fun to walk or ride bicycle from store to store; and watch people walking down Chestnut street carrying their packages. Chestnut Street was a pedestrian street closed to traffic. And I could always find something cool and novel for family and friends. One of my favorite memories is, my mother wanted new wooden spoons. So, I went to the Gallery, a mid-city shopping mall in Philadelphia. I purchased several new, white wooden spoons. Even as a college student, I did not know that wooden spoons were ALL white
and that they darkened with age. So,when my mother opened them on Christmas, I said, I'm sorry I had to get these because I JUST COULDN'T find the dark ones. I think my grandmother nearly fell off her chair laughing.

What's your favorite Christmas shopping memory?