I love holiday shopping!

I went out to do some holiday shopping, taking advantage of the bigger kids being in school and only having 2 with me, and being able to shop for those that are not with me.  Although I still shop for Samantha and sometimes Amber too while they are with me because sometimes they don't pay attention to the less exciting things such as clothes that I may be getting them. 

I had to return a few things because I got a better price somewhere else, saving like $15 and that was worth it to me and I also had to go get a new blanket for Samantha.  I first head off to Target looking for a blanket for Samantha.  When Amber was born one of our neighbors got her a super soft blanket with pink stripes on it.  Amber used it and then Samantha used it too, but Samantha sort of attached herself to the blanket and that is HER blanket now.  She loves the tag on it.  Her blanket is looking pretty gross.  It is all stained, and looks dirty even when clean.  A sure way to tell if it is clean is to smell it, but I wouldn't really recommend that. I recalled the girls noticing in other shopping trips that Target had a blanket just like Samantha's. 

Upon the arrival at Target, Amber spotted a kid cart (the ones with the special seats for kids to sit in and not be in the basket).  She requested it, and I thought they would do better in there anyway.  (I must have forgotten our last trip to the store when we used the car...that ended badly.)  I grab the girls and we walk through the parking lot across two rows where she spotted the cart in a cart return area.  We snag the cart and go inside. 

I am purusing around in the dollar section....  I see a few things for some of the girls, but then I need to even it out and find something for the other girls...  Amber has decided she doesn't really want to be buckled up by now and she is sitting on the side of the cart.  Samantha keeps saying "buckle" and she wants out too.  That isn't going to happen!  I try to get Amber to sit back down in the seat.  I find a singing christmas pig, turn it on and put it in our cart where the girls are sitting.  While that is entertaing the girls for a bit, I go looking for the blanket that we came for.  I am looking, no special exact blanket.  I then see a small piece of a blanket that is soft and has several little things like tags hanging off the sides, pooh and friends, and then some ribbons too.  I show it to Samantha to see if she accepts it, she looks at me and says, "NO!" I give her a few more soft blankets and she holds them and loves on them and then says, "here, " as she gives them back to me.  I try another blanket, and kind of untuck the tag that is bundled up inside the folded blanket.  Samantha seams to be taking to it, or at least more than the rest.  I decide to walk through the blanket and bedding isle one more time... and ta da!  I found her blanket but in BLUE.  I am thinking WHO CARES if it is blue.  I give it to Samantha and she immediately says, "kitty" and loves on it.  (She calls her blanket kitty, not sure if that is what she is saying or if she is trying to say blanket, but it sounds just like kitty.)

Sweet, so we got the blanket.  Amber is now deciding that she wants to have the blanket.  She is mad that it is all folded up.  She keeps baby talking, "Blanket!" I give her the blanket but she wants it all unfolded.  I push the button to the snorting, singing Christmas pig.  Not working... she is ignoring the snorting pig singing or snorting Christmas tunes.  I take the ribbon, tags, and the hanger off the blanket and give it to Amber.  I put all the torn off packaging in my cart.  Amber is finally satisfied. 

I go to the next item I am searching for.  Now Amber is trying to lay the blue blanket on Samantha and lean on her like a pillow.  Samantha is getting upset and pushes her away.  Amber tries again, and then cries and complains that Samantha isn't letting her lay on her.  Amber decides she is going to walk now.  I take a deep breath, knowing what this is going to end up like, but also realizing the cart isn't working out so well either.

Samantha is crying because she wants out too.  I give her the pig again... no one cares now about the silly snorting pig, that is probably why it was dumped in the area we found it.  I am trying to hurry but I am still looking for one more item... which was in the department by the toys.  Amber sees something she wants to look at in the toys.  We go over there and she gets out of the cart.  She pushes the buttons on it, and then I urge her to get back in the cart.  She decides she is going to sit under the basket, but it is too short so her head doesn't really fit in there.  I told her it wasn't going to work... she wouldn't listen, until she got her head hurt.  Now she is crying too. Now we aren't just annoying the people in the isle that we are in, but the whole departmant we are in, possibly the entire store.

Amber gets back in the cart.  I am looking for my last item still.  Then Amber kicks Samantha, and then squishes Samantha.  I forget about the last item.  It will have to wait.  As I am heading to the front of the store to check out, I see winter coats on sale.  Lauren needs a new coat. I see red shirts.  Emily needs a red shirt for her Christmas program.  The girls are both contently sucking their thumbs.  I stop for about 2 minutes and then the crying begans again.  I continue to the check out line. 

Of course like ALL check out lines there are rows and rows of candy and suckers that light up and spin when you push a button, small toys and snacks.  Amber is now showing me the sucker and wanting it.  I tell her no.  She picks up something else.  I tell her no.  She then starts crying, "I can't get ANYTHING?  Thats not fair!  You just don't care!"  I look to see if that is really Amber standing there or if it is one of the older girls.  Yep, still Amber although she sounds just like one of the other girls.  I want to give her big long talk about respect and being nice and talking nice and how we can't always get things.... but I am tired and worn out too, so I instead pick her up and hold her.

We finally get out of the store and find our way to the car.  I go through a drive through to get some food for me and the girls and we head to yet one more store to make a return.  That store (The Red Balloon) was much quicker, I didn't need to shop, just return an item and that was less eventful although I did have to pry Amber away from one toy and then another and another toy. We finally made it out of the store.  Phew!

I was thinking if I had time I would go to another store, but that will have to be for another day... maybe today I will gather all my patience and try it again for my last item list.  Although it seems that my last item list keeps growing and doesn't really end up being my LAST and FINAL item. 

Other than all that stuff, I love holiday shopping! 

Yep - I love holiday shopping with the crowds and my screaming girls.....I love it more than spaghetti!