Christmas Shopping

Saturday Paul and I set out to Christmas shop for his mom. She came with us, but didn't realize we were shopping for her. We had planned to buy her a watch, but her boyfriend got one for her, so then we went to plan B. She really wanted an electric stove/fireplace. We had one picked out, but it was gone, so we went to three other stores and they didn't have them either. We were discouraged, so we went to plan C, which was a Bunn thermal coffee maker. They were way out of our price range and not what we wanted. So by mid afternoon we were ready to go home and didn't have a thing for her. Finally I talked to Paul about option C, an upgraded sewing machine. She has a manual machine, but it's not a whole lot of fun to sew on, so I really wanted her to get an electronic one. We went to the store 5 min. before they were closing and looked at them. We showed her what I was thinking and then the next upgrade was $50 more. She really liked that one better and decided she would get it and pay the difference. I was so excited for her! We had to do a couple more stops and then we were going home. We were just leaving Wal-mart, when we were backed into, by an uninsured lady! I won't go into details, but she didn't see any reason to have insurance or why you would want to fix just a scrape! So it was after 8 when we got home Sat. night.
Sunday morning I got up to go to church and then we realized we had forgotten a few thing at Wally. We went to get those couple things and ended up with a new rug for the living room. We had to put the seat down of the little cavalier to fit it in. Then we went to Safeway for a few grocieres and some flowers. Paul ended up buying me a dozen red roses which are absolutely gorgeous. Then it was on to Menards for a shelf and his mom found a fireplace/mantel that she fell in love with. We packed it into the back seat and took it home, so now she has two Christmas presents! We ended up rearranging, putting the mantal together and cleaning house. I was completely exhausted Sun. night.
Monday Paul and I worked our little tales off to clean the house and get food prepared for our Christmas eve party. Then we had to run to town and get a few things. I had a 50% off coupon at Hancock's for a notion, but the lady who was working said the item I was buying wasn't a notion. I know it is because I've bought it before, but she's new and doesn't know what she's talking about. I was so mad I walked out the door. Paul knew I was mad too, because I am a very frequent customer and all the full time people know me by first name and my mom too. We got home and had his family out for a party. It was fun and I got lots of nice gifts from his grandparents, his mom, and him. We had planned to go to midnight mass, but we had freezing rain and decided it would be better not to go out on the icy roads. We thought we could just get up and go to church on the way home to my parents in the morning. Tues. morning we were up at 5:30 to get going. We called the weather hotline and it said slippery with spots of black ice. Since it was dark we decided to wait until the sun came out and the sand trucks had been out. We left at 8 and the roads were only bad in a few spots. We arrived at my parents and Jim and Addie, and Ed were there. We opened gifts, had lunch, everyone except me, mom, and Ed took naps and then they all left. It was a short day. Jim and Addie announced that they are expecting the end of June. I was so tired and cranky that it didn't make for a good combination. I felt like we flew in and out of my parents and didn't get to spend any time there. My parents did play cards with us and we had supper before heading back. When we got home I packed up Leslie's machine to trade at the store and put some of my gifts away. I didn't sleep real well, so I'm tired today. It doesn't help that there are less than 10 people of the 100 or so that work here, actually here. The rest took vacation. I need mine for the wedding and honeymoon, so I'm stuck here. Paul called this morning and his fuel injectors went out on the way to work, so I had to go pick him up to take to the shop and then he took my pickup home. He'll be here in a few minutes to pick me up.
On an exciting note, my mom and Ed got me lots of sewing related things for Christmas. Ed got me the large size ruler holder I really wanted. I'll have to take a picture when I get it set up. It's so cool. Mom got me a 8X24" ruler, a 12 1/2" square ruler, a sewing carry case for taking to class in pink, black and decker electric scissors in pink, a sewing basket in the black and white fabric I loved so much this year, a new 60" rotary cutter, and a couple USB sticks to put all my quilting pictures on. The other fun toy was a bluetooth headset for my phone. Paul got me a nightgown, pj's, a robe, and perfume. I was really hoping for an MP3 player, a quilt rack, and boots, but I guess I'll be buying those myself. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. I'm going home tonight to work on my b/w quilt. It's the last major project I want to quilt before the new year. We'll see how it goes.