Last-Minute Shopping - Survival of My Nervous System At Stake!

[wwdnet]

Yesterday, my husband finally told me something he wanted for Christmas, after months of prodding:rolleyes: So off I went (to 6 different stores) in search of sweatshirts and winter jackets (it does get cold in NE FL) to replace all of his way-too-big ones. First store - a couple of sweatshirts. Second store - a nice cool-weather jacket and a nice windbreaker-type jacket. Third store - nothing. Fourth store - a lined flannel jacket and a puffer winter jacket for armed-robbery prices. Fifth store - a nice medium-cold lined jacket, again at an armed-robbery price, along with some stocking-stuffer candy and jerky. Sixth store - a jacket that looks just like one of his too-big jackets that he really liked. Now he has a LOT of jackets to choose from, a couple of sweatshirts, some new t-shirts, lottery tickets, a gift card, and some stocking stuffers.

After spending 3 hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic to travel a total of around 15 miles, I kind of lost track of what I'd bought, but my checking account is screaming at me;) Moral of the story - tie your spouse up and demand an answer at least a month before Christmas. I will NEVER go through this again - I hate crowds and I hate traffic. The survival of my nervous system is at stake!!!

Why didn't he just ask for a #10 can of spaghetti with meat sauce? I had that already...

Then today he said he wanted a new pistol:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Or....tell him at Christmas that his present is we are going shopping for new jackets for you next week. I would have bought them for you before Christmas, but I wanted to spend time with you shopping for something you want and need.

[Lowdown3]

Been so darn busy barely got any shopping done till about a week ago.

I used to get away with no wrapping of presents- everything that wasn't going to my wife she wrapped. Then I would ask my Mom to wrap the presents for my wife...LOL. Wife put a kaboosh to that years ago. And then I started having fun with wrapping presents. She has opened up presents that were inside traffic cones, priority mail boxes with lighted Christmas lights wrapped all around them, etc. One year she mentioned I didn't use bows- I think I fit 86 bows on the outside of a Priority mail box that contained her present.

I still try the stick a bow on a box that a present arrived in, I can usually get away with one or two like that.

This year I cleaning out an old storage room and she had probably two dozen various "hot and cold" bags, Ikea bags, etc. that her Mom sends her home with. She's got one present there that is inside 13 of those bags inside a box. There is even a big wad of old wrapping paper, bows and ribbons and such that we have all taken turns recycling over the years for fun that I usually just tape the big wad of it on the outside of a package. I got her a couple nice things this year, cause we could and it's been the year from hell as far as work and stress, but I instituted a new rule- if a present costs more than XXX dollars I'm not required to wrap it....

In a way, I "wrap presents" 364 days a year- packages for other people, so my enthusiasm for doing it more is lacking.

It's like guys that come to our NV classes and think we are just going to geek out over specifications and talk about stuff, nope, your here to TRAIN and so am I. One guy gave me a puzzled look and I said "you got to keep in mind I talk specifications, platforms, tubes, etc. 10 hours a day mostly 7 days a week, this is a TRAINING class, if you want to geek out over specifications, call me during the week, we are here to train!"

Sometimes you just need a break from the constant day to day to day to day to...