Lions and Tigers and Mervyn's Going Out of Business Shoppers, OH MY!!!

Just a few random thoughts from this weekend when Shannon and I went down to Mesa and Phoenix to do a majority of our Christmas shopping. An accompanying picture is of me and Kate Sunday morning after a non-stop Saturday. Another is Danica with Kate during our visit to see them. It was so good to see them on Saturday night and catch up with them. It was our first trip to their apartment on the West side of Phoenix and it was so hard to leave because our next chance to see them will probably be February. So we wish them the best and hope they know we miss them very badly. Also, sorry Cody if we only made Danica even more baby hungry. If we could have brought Logan at that age we would have. Would have cured everything. Now to some thoughts I had during the shopping season as experienced this past Saturday:

1. When Wal-Mart is your only shopping option in Safford, you forget how absolutely wonderful Target is and just how much Wal-Mart sucks. I would like to come up with a wickedly smart comment about how bad Wal-Mart is, but their total lousiness just isn't funny anymore. So what is so much better about Target? I know I don't need to answer this, but one, they don't put a million and one things in the aisles. Nothing like having to walk through women's unmentionables because you couldn't get down the main aisles which were blocked by the lastest version of the toe hair shaver and two people with carts who found that item too interesting to resist pondering over for ten minutes. Two, you can see in Target. Wal-Mart must be going green and refusing to use lightbulbs. It is like a cave in there. Three, Target actually staffs their check out posts, at least to the point where you are generally second or third in line. I have waited 20 minutes at Wal-Mart in an eight person line to get a couple of cans of dog food. I was worried if I had to wait much longer, I would have had to eat the dog food for survival purposes. Target was probably the most positive shopping experience of the day.

2. Going out of business sales bring out a certain segment of the shopping population that you don't normally see in the mall. I recognize this comment makes me sound a bit snobbish and maybe I am, but Mervyn's this weekend was a completely different experience I would just as soon not have again. It felt like someone decided to have a swap meet inside the northern part of Superstition Springs mall.

3. AMAZING SALES BEFORE CHRISTMAS are really not that amazing. I am perfectly aware that I am new to this shopping game and this fact is something most of you probably already knew. I am sure that the 50% off tags had to have been 50% off of the 40% increase in price they had just prior to the sale.

4. I am thankful for a wife who doesn't put a lot of pressure to get too much stuff for the holidays. When we finished up and our checkbook hadn't burst into flames, I just reached over and hugged her.

5. I want to move into the Bass Pro Shop store.

6. I am really saddened that the Thomas Kinkade galleries have started to hire former used car salesmen to staff their stores. When I stepped in to look at the latest paintings and heard the guy say, "I guarantee this one won't last the rest of the day. I have already sold the only other two I had this morning." I had flashbacks of trying to get off the Earnhardt's car lot when we were first married. I love his art, but it may not be worth the effort to admire it anymore if I have to have some idiot saying in my ear, "Ok, what is it going to take to get you into a painting today."

7. I have the best baby ever. Kate went and got her pictures taken at 9:00 a.m. and then got dragged to more than 15 different stores without crying once. Shannon has never had that experience before, not even with me. Ok, especially with me.

8. For the first time in my life, those chair they have in the mall that want you to pay $1 for a three minute massage sounded awesome. I actually paid it and didn't have a second thought.

9. As bad as it got in some of the stores in the mall, the most competitive shopping experience was the 15 minutes I spent elbowing senior citizens at the Farmer's Market in Mesa just trying to get my father some grapefruit. Living in the cold weather states must just make a person meaner than they would normally be. Follow up example, I submit the sport of hockey.

I am happy to report we are all but done with Christmas shopping. In fact, it is the Christmas shopping that can almost ruin the whole reason for the season. Now, we can sit back and enjoy the other yearly traditions of hour and a half long primary school concerts and dental work (oh wait, that is just our family.) To help us remember the reason for the season, last week for FHE, we went caroling to some elderly people in our ward and left them some cookies. It was really neat and our kids loved it. (See Photo) They were very appreciative and hopefully our kids will remember something about Christmas other than the "What I got Christmas morning" memories.