8:21 p.m. - 2004-12-10
Fourteen Present Day
Holy crap, I got so much done today. My feet are killing me and I'm ready to never see a mall again, but I was so productive you will all gape in awe at my fabulousness.
I got up this morning and cleaned the apartment. Well, part of it, anyway. The kitchen is absolutely spotless - I did a million dishes, ran the dishwasher, put everything away, scrubbed the counters, and swept AND swiffered the floor. It is tidy in there!
Jamie and I then went to meet my sister to buy my dad's present. Which was on sale! So we picked up a very nice globe for him, and it's going to drive him crazy because it's really lightweight and doesn't rattle at all (it came wrapped - even better!), and he will never in a million years figure out what it is. Muah ha ha.
We were so pleased with ourselves that we went for lunch. Mmm, Olive Garden breadsticks. Yeah! So that was time consuming, but also allowed for some gift brainstorming.
After we left my sister, Jamie and I went and picked up her boyfriend's present and then also managed to get the rest of her present, although we had to go to a couple of places for that. We then went to Canadian Tire to find a tree stand, which we did with fairly minimal hassle. Then we went to the tree lot and picked out a Christmas tree!
I have been going to the same tree lot since I was about 8, and the guy there is extremely nice. We found a very cute tree - not terribly big, but neither is our apartment. Diana has never had a real tree before, so I wanted to find a really nice one so she could enjoy the whole previously live thing.
So we packed up the tree in the tree condom (ribbed for the tree's pleasure! That is funnier than it should be in the middle of the night when you're really tired), and got the tree into Jamie's car and up into my apartment without shedding a single needle, which was excellent. The tree stand proved to be both easy to put together and very steady, and now the tree is sitting jauntily next to the tv with a very nice red tree skirt around it.
Jamie had to run at that point to go to a caroling gig, so he dropped me off at the mall so I could brave the crowds. First stop was the post office, which was surprisingly devoid of gong-showness, although the lady there was not the brightest. But I finally got my CD exchange CDs mailed and picked up part of Mum's present, bringing my present tally for the day up to four.
Since I was in the mall, I went to go look for Jamie's present. Much to my delight, I found exactly what I was looking for with almost no hassle, and purchased it immediately, knowing that if I didn't it would be gone next time I went to look. I have learned my lesson with Christmas presents - as soon as I see something good, I get it, because whenever I leave to "think about it," it inevitably gets sold.
I picked up a few other things while I was buying Jamie's present - presents for Methos and Hermione - and searched in vain for something for Foreman. I also picked up a box of tea for my mother, because when she came over to visit a few months ago, I made her some of our orange tea, and she was incredibly surprised to discover she actually liked it. She's kind of a monogamous tea drinker - Earl Grey or nothing - so it was nice to find a decaf tea that she liked. But of course, she's never actually bought herself some, so I picked some up to put in her stocking.
I wandered through the Christmas store when I went past it, and found to my total delight that they had extremely pretty star tree toppers. My family is very firmly in the camp of stars on the tops of trees, but it is very, very hard to find a decent tree topper that isn't a flashing light star or an overly ornate angel. The Christmas store, though, had six or so very nice ones to choose from. I immediately called my sister to make her come over and help me pick one - we've been looking for a new one for Mum for years. She made it to the mall eventually, and we picked up a few things for her boyfriend and another couple of things for Jamie's present, and then picked out a tree topper.
I also got one for our tree, since neither Diana nor I had a tree topper. It's cute - a star with little swirls inside it - and small enough that it doesn't topple over our tree, which the other ones would have. I'll take a picture once the tree is decorated.
So we were pretty pleased with ourselves for having a nice tree topper for Mum, and we figured while we were in the mall, we should take advantage of the stuff at the Bay and buy the rest of Mum and Dad's presents. We ended up buying a rice cooker for Mum and a frying pan for each of them, because they recently threw out all their crappy old pans, so we bought them some nice new T-Fal ones.
That brought today's gift total up to 14. Damn, that's a lot of presents in one afternoon! I think this is officially the most productive single day of Christmas shopping I've ever had.
So now, my feet are killing me and I'm hungry, because I haven't had supper yet. But I'm sitting on my couch in my delicious Christmas tree smelling apartment, and the fireplace channel is on tv, which amuses me and also has excellent Christmas music, and my to-buy list is suddenly down to almost nothing, and I'm about to watch a Christmas movie.
Life is good. Fourteen presents! I rule.
