Shopping is not my favorite activity and shopping this close to Christmas is about the worst. But this afternoon I had the honor of taking my nephew to the department store to help him with his Christmas shopping list. Being the mom of 3 daughters of various ages, usually when I have company shopping, it’s one of my girls, and the focus is definitely on their leisurely shopping adventure. They enjoy themselves during the outing, and in fact, sometimes I think they could be professionals!
Well, let me tell you, it’s a different situation shopping with a 17 year old boy. We were on a mission, we only had an hour window, situated after school, and before baseball, to purchase gifts for 7 people. I really didn’t think it was possible. We walked into the store with a few ideas and I couldn’t believe how smoothly it went. He was insisting on getting gifts for certain people who were special to him. My mission was to make sure he was pleased with his purchases and reasonable with his money. We had been in the store about 12 minutes and were searching for a particular beard trimmer, when he said, ”I think that’s good….I’m getting a headache”. “What? A headache?” Apparently he can’t handle shopping! So obviously, he’d never make it as a professional like my daughters.
To my surprise, and happiness, in less than 30 minutes we were done! Gifts for the cousins, uncle, girlfriend and dad, in hand, and under control. Whew! that was easier than I thought it would be. We still have the “best friend” gift to purchase and will need to visit a sporting goods store, so we’ll tackle that later, but if there’s one thing I would bet on, it’s that it won’t take long. Thank goodness!
Tonight before heading off to bed, he looked over his shoulder and with a little smirk of a smile said “ thank you for shopping with me today Auntie” It wasn’t a bad afternoon, but if it had been, that would have made it worth it.