Adios Christmas!

Christmas at the Wilson household is a little more laid back then most. We don't do the big family thing or really have any Christmas traditions that we adhere to. My family (and by family I mean my parents, sister and myself) is really low key and casual. Most of the day is spent in sweat pants and on the couch while my dad flips the channels from Sci Fi to whatever sporting events are on and back, usually watching 4 programs at once, none of which anyone else wants to watch. My mom makes a coffee cake and we have oranges for breakfast and thats when the present handing out begins.
Inevitaly my mom forgets whose presents belong to whom (she doesnt always use tags)and we end up opening a gift of someone elses. My dad fancies himself a comedic poet and a gift from him is typically accompanied by one of these poems. This year my gift from him was all clothing items to keep me warm since I am always complaining about being cold. He actually did a really good job with both the poem and the gift. The big gift though was a washer and dryer that is going to be installed on Saturday. I don't think I could be more excited about this, I am all a tingle.
This is the second year in a row that we havent had my sister home for the holidays though and I miss her a lot. Now that she is married she has to split time between the two families and she just got a new job and has done a lot of traveling this year for her wedding/honeymoon so she couldn't come out. My sister and I are really close and definitely have that unique sibling bond. I just always have more fun when she is around and no one else can understand frustrations with the family like your sister can.
It was a good Christmas and I am grateful for all that I have, but I am glad that it is over for this year. I hope everyone else had a good Christmas as well. Cheers!

Christmas Cheer, not so alive and well

I am not one of those people who get up at 4 am to go shopping the day after Thanksgiving. Frankly I don't understand the appeal and you couldn't pay me to do it, but to each his own.

The main reason I avoid the crowds is because crowds make me clausterphobic and I am prone to becoming very anxious in them. This weekend I was at the Joann's in Riverpark to buy some christmas decorations and craft supplies and since I was in the area, I stopped by Target to pick up a few items. Naturally it was packed so I wanted to get what I needed and get out. One of the items I was thinking about picking up was Guitar Hero. So I made my way to the Electronics area of the store which was probably the most crowded area to see if they had any left.

I find the case and there was one left. I quickly decide to go ahead and get so I look around for an employee to open the case and as I am walking back with him another customer stops him to ask him a question. So I patiently wait as he explains to some lady that if her nephew has an Xbox, the Wii controller won't work for it and by the time we get back to the case another employee is already there opening it. This emplopyee was behind the counter when I asked the other guy to help me so a customer had come up after me to get his help. As you can probably guess, we both want Guiter Hero.

As soon as we all realize that this is the case the other customer immediately starts saying that he was here first and that he was going to get it. The employees look at each other, both of them know that I asked for assistance first but since my guy was stopped we got to the case later. The employee I was with starts to say that I technically asked for assistance first and attempts to explain it to this guy but he won't hear any of it and says that it wasn't his problem and that he was at the case first so he should get it. Neither of the employees knows what to do and they seem afraid to say anything and I wasn't going to stand there and argue with the guy about Guitar Hero, he was obviously going to fight for it to the death anyway. I thought about challenging him to a Guitar Hero showdown to decide who would walk away with it but then I realized I was still on the easy level and there was a good chance I wouldn't win. So instead I smiled and said, "Go ahead and take it and I hope you have a very Merry Christmas" with a huge smile on my face. He looked a little sheepish after I said that at least.

To continue my cheerful holiday excursion I was looking for those lighted balls to hang from my window and was actually able to find those without a face off with another customer and grabbed a box and beelined to the checkout stand. Well they were out of baskets when I walked in so I have about 6 items that I am trying to carry along with a cup of coffee and I am losing the battle. A pack of batteires slips out of my hand and falls to the ground and I am walking in the middle of this crowd of people so I can't stop to pick it up or people would probably trip over me so I try to try to pick it up but I cant without risking losing everything else in my hand that I am juggling so I end up kicking it to the side so I could stop and put everything down and pick it up. Despite the fact that I was engulfed in a crowd of people kicking a pack of batteries that people had to step over with my hands full not one of them attempted to help me. Then I lose a lean cusine and next was an ornament. All the while people are stepping around me and someone even stepped on my ornament, looked down and it said "oops" and kept going.

Thank you River Park shoppers, and a Merry Christmas to you too.