Shopping, the Bane of my Existence

Back in September I declared that I would be done with my Christmas shopping by the first week of December. I had every intention of following through with that. And then the kids got sick with a stomach virus. I soon joined them. They say that misery loves company, so I just did my part in complying with the adage. My plans for getting out to shop on Black Friday were a bust. I decided to roll with it and did some online shopping, but I didn't have much luck finding everything I needed. Having to brave the stores was becoming necessary. I hate shopping, particularly during busy seasons. The malls at Christmas time are not happy places. People are downright irate instead of jolly. Want to see people a hair away from losing their minds? Visit a mall around Christmas.

Anyway, some days later, my husband and I decided that he'd take a vacation day, and that we'd make that our shopping day. As an aside, just a few days before the scheduled shopping day, I was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection, but I was determined to not let health, or lack thereof, get in the way of my shopping again. I thought that I had foiled the universe! But of course, the universe had other plans. Earlier that shopping day we all went to the museum, and guess who missed the last few steps on her way down the stairs? Yes, that would be me. My left foot spazzed out, and I landed on it twice while it was bent inward, spraining my ankle. Another wrench in the works. But no matter! After a quick detour home for some Advil (three!) and a high-speed binding of my ankle, we were back on our way, with me moving at a snail's pace.

After a few minutes on the road, I was reminded that I still didn't know what to purchase. I can often only entertain one thought at a time, and until then, my mind was solely focused on the throbbing in my ankle. I had had days to gather ideas online, but I found little to no direction. It doesn't help that 1) my kids have obscure tastes, and 2) one or two of my children often decline asking for anything at all. Let me interject here to say that I'm prodigiously proud of my children for not being hyper-focused on gifts and the whole unfortunate commerciality of Christmas, but it would have been nice to have a bit of direction, especially as we seemed to be averaging one gift per hour spent shopping.

So yes, I finally got to do some shopping. But I'm still not done. Self-proposed Christmas shopping challenge failed.