The Good News Is...

I was able to get my Christmas shoppping done. Granted, mom was still with me, but I got it done. I started fresh today and we were able to get everything taken care of without any tears shed or high blood pressure - thanks MOM!

Here's who drew whose name:

Mikala - Dad

J - Mom

Dad - J

Mom - Bro

Bro - Mikala

First off, I got to mom's around 1:00 pm. I was running late because my neighbor finally came over and asked if he could get in my backyard to cut and get rid of all the tree limbs from his tree (the ones that fell during that ice storm - he's such a nice guy). Then, we headed out to Crestwood Plaza (which was unusally empty considering the date). We parked by Dillard's, the one at which I worked (and Linlee too). Since J had drawn my mom's name, I had to do the shopping for him so mom wouldn't be left without a gift to open while we were all opening ours tomorrow night. So, we had to head to Victoria's Secret (remember, it was just for lotion, nothing sexy - wouldn't that be awkward?). So, we hit Victoria's Secret and I buy mom's lotions for her. Yes, she was with me. Yes, she actually carried the stuff to the checkout and yes, I still plan to keep it in a pretty bag for her to open tomorrow night.

Since my brother picked my name and my dad picked J's name, mom had to do the shopping for them, as well. Yes, my brother is 35 and my mom has to do his shopping for him (dad has a legitimate excuse - he's never actually Christmas shopped on his own - I usually do it when he buys mom something, he'll just give me the AmEx or the cash). Mind you (about my brother) this is the same guy that graduated, with honors, from St. Louis University. Anyway, I told my mom that we could go ahead and get my gift now. That way I'd know what I was getting too. So, we walk the entire 2 miles to the other end of the mall to hit Macy's. We get all the way down to Macy's and that particular Macy's didn't carry the perfume I wanted. The only one that carried that perfume was the Galleria Mall Macy's. So, mom and I walked another 2 miles back to my car (a 4 mile walk for nothing - but it felt good).

We get back in the car to leave Crestwood Plaza and decide to head down to the Galleria. This was really easy...we parked about 4 cars from the Macy's door and ran inside. They had my perfume - YES, I'm getting my Juicy Couture perfurm. We paid for it and immediately turned around and left.

By this time I was so happy that things were turning out so well that I was pumped and ready for anything. After the Galleria, we had to head to Walgreen's to get the Cardinals Monopoly game for my youngest nephew, The Snake. He saw that we had bought it for someone else, and he made it very clear that he wanted one too. So, we run into Walgreen's, buy the game and look around for a few minutes (because mom still needed some ingredients for baking). We were in Walgreens all of 10 minutes when we were ready to leave.

After Walgreens, we headed over to Wally World to see if they had mom's baking ingredients and dad's favorite store-popped popcorn. We walk in and go get the popcorn (which hangs on a rack at the Blimpie inside Wal-mart). As we walk away to check for our baking ingredients, the guy sweeing yelled at us and said we had to pay for the popcorn at the Blimpie Checkout. My mom corrected him and said that she could pay at the regular checkout and that she does it all the time. Unfortunately, the guy insists, so we walk over to the Blimpie checkout. We pay for the popcorn and asked them if we could have paid at the regular Wal-mart checkout and they said, "of course". Go figure, but oh well, what can you do?

We finally head over to the baking ingredients aisle and they don't have what mom needs. It's official, we have to go to a grocery store (do you know how crazy grocery stores are this weekend?)!!

We head back to the Schnuck's (a local grocery store) by my mom's house and we get what she needs with relative easy, I might add. Both of us even bought a few Powerball tickets (no, I didn't win - y'all would be the fourth and beyond to know - there'd be me, J, my parents and all of you). Anyway...we are finally headed back home and it is only 5:00! Can you believe it? We got everything done today that we wanted to get done yesterday. I was so happy and so relieved (and less depressed). Plus, I get my perfume tomorrow!

So, mom and I headed back to her house to bake. Okay, fine, I took a nap because I'm getting sick and she baked. When I woke up I decorated the sugar cookies with icing and that was that. At 9:00, Beanie and I were headed home.

Now, tomorrow is Christmas Eve and I will have to be at my parents' house by 3:30 or 4:00. That means, I'll get up early tomorrow, straighten my house, wrap presents (I still have to wrap my dad's gifts and I told mom I'd wrap all of the gifts that she bought so she wouldn't have to worry about that while she was worried about baking and cooking tomorrow's delicious Christmas dinner), get ready and take off. Then, it's Christmas Eve celebration time!!! Woo HOO!!!!!

I'm so happy and THANK YOU FOR BEARING WITH ME MOM!!!!

Oh, and you want more good news? J got his box today. I had three Christmas gifts, a card and some cookies in his package. I immediately asked him to open one particular gift. He opened it and loved it. It was a mini replica of the World Series Trophy. Remember, he wanted one to rub it into the Houston guys' faces (since he's working down in Houston right now). Too funny.

Since this was one big ramble post, please excuse any typos, grammatical errors or spelling errors. I'm too tired to worry about it.

Can y'all believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve, 2006? My Gawd, where does the time go?

Merry Christmas!