I left my yearly LA visit in November with the thought that I really really really need to get my act together and start looking for my niece and nephew's birthday-xmas-birthday (in that order) presents RIGHT NOW as Turkey day would be upon me before I knew it and I would find myself born upon the wave of too-many-shoppers and not enough parking spaces as I did last year. (There is nothing more bizarre to me than being at at a crowded toy store at almost 11PM, I really didn't want to repeat that experience.)
I should have been more determined.
In the same WHHHHOOOOOSH that has been time this year, hello, really? We last touched base in September and since then even Blogger's desktop has changed so radically I'm not sure how badly I'll mess up this post....it's DECEMBER. Black Friday had come and gone and all my plans...well...not so much achieved. I did manage to procure and wrap at least the bday gift before I boarded the plane for home...but in no way managed to even start the xmas shopping, for anyone...
Until last night.
I've known what I wanted to get my niece for xmas for a while, ever since a friend of mine posted about their existence on FB in...was it October...I will slyly link to their main page here with no picture preview or name because they keep SELLING OUT, possibly from the cuteness, if you are into dolls, that is, and toddler-aged looking ones especially, and I was actually finally defeated and wondering what my plan B would be, when I purchased the one I wanted the other night by sincere and happy accident. I was lamenting to my supervisor that I was going to actually trudge my sorry self over a tolled bridge in order to try to procure, one last time, the item in question...he was intrigued, so I showed him the site and the doll, and it was IN STOCK. To his astonishment, I logged in right then and there and put it in my "cart." (Yes, I even created an account just in case.) I couldn't whip out my credit card, even I have limits, but I was NOT going to just let it pass. Could not.
That just left my nephew, for whom I'd have to venture into stores, gulp, during the official maniacal xmas shopping period. There is no link to his present. Not because I'm being all secretive, mostly because I could not find any! The goal was coloring book based. Remember those? Didn't we have a jillion of them? You could get them anywhere and everywhere for all the characters of your commercially branded favorite cartoon/movie/heart's desire. Not watercolor or activity or, dear god, really - STICKER books, but good, old fashioned COLORING books. If this blog exists into a time where he is reading this, I hope it to be a little bit of evidence as to how much I love him. Because added to that, this weekend in particular, beautiful and sunny (yet bitterly cold) as it is? Is also experiencing a pretty bad "Air Stagnation" alert. It's just smog, in a place where the winds generally dissipate it. Imagine one of those tar boiling machines driving into your neighborhood...and stopping for a visit. The smell isn't that bad, thanks to our 40-degree highs, but your eyes, throat, and lungs sense that there is a great disturbance in the force. The air feels "thick" in places.
But out I did go, and I might have gone down streets I had not intended as the crowds of people was at times a little hard to wade through (up hill, in the snow, both ways! I know, I sound like such a sufferer :).) Suffice to say, people smell bad. Downtown Seattle does not smell like roses right now. Paint thinner and used sweat socks are a better description. Despite all this? I'm done. And it's only the 4th. I have about 10 days to gather wrapping and shipping supplies, and maybe bake some cookies if I really get on the ball, as I patiently wait for that one item to arrive so I can ship them all together, and it feels deliriously wonderful.
I'm not trying to rub it in, really, I just wanted to share this feeling of bliss. If it makes anyone feel any better, I'm only speaking of the little ones' gifts here. I've only just purchased the yarn for one gift, and still have to figure out where to go to best obtain items for the adults on my list. Nor have I achieved the gift buying for the January bday. Like I said, I definitely need to be more determined next year. If this whhhhooooshing trend continues, I won't have long to wait.
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