It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas

I love Christmas. The decorations, time with friends and family, cooler (and sometimes even cold, but not usually in So Cal) weather with the general upbeat mood and spirits all make me happy as we move along, building with anticipation the celebration of Christ's birth in a joyous and loving fashion...until it is time to go the mall.

I have very little to worry about in terms of Christmas shopping this year - we got lucky and booked a deal of the century trip to France for our Christmas celebration, so have decided as a family that gifts need not be exchanged - the experiences (and subsequent photos) will serve as our gifts this year. With that said, there were a couple of items that I did need to pick up for those not lucky enough to be going to Paris with us, so I finally ventured out to the mall for 3 things on Saturday - 3 things that I thought should take me about 30 minutes total time to get.

How very naive I was! The parking situation alone was enough to kill 30 minutes (which it did) and I declared something resembling a victory in a parking place when I squeezed into the last spot at the farthest point away from the mall (the owner of the Jaguar in the accompanying space must not have realized that they were hanging a good third of the way into the next space), walked through the construction area across the parking lot and finally made it to the outer perimeter of the newest portion of the mall.

I will spare the sordid details of what I will call bad Christmas behavior, but suffice it to say that while I consider myself a pretty upbeat person, I was about ready to gauge my eyes out by the time 90 minutes had elapsed and I left the mall with my 3 items in hand. It was feeling a lot like the commercialized side of Christmas that we hear many people complaining about, yet it continues.

And I admittedly fed right into it!