Getting ready for Christmas has been something of a hassle. Oh, Lidia took care of the tickets and Mom and Dad paid for them so that was easy, but the rest of it!
Yesterday I drove 96 miles doing my Christmas shopping and I drove another 5 today finishing it up. Still, it's December 15th and I have all the birthday and Christmas presents of the season so hooray for that! I spent $200 on all of it, but what is a salary for if not for Christmas and birthday presents?
My first stop yesterday was The African Hut in Laguna Niguel and GUESS WHAT? They FINALLY had Peppermint Crisps!!!!!!
They cost $2.48 each but I got six. My salary is earned by sweat and misery and Peppermint Crisps - which I haven't had since last Christmas, and I only had them then thanks to Nicky who sent us some from Canada - are totally worth every penny I paid for them.
I got Mom's wors and Mark's lychee juice (I hope he likes Ceres) as well as a few presents, and the total was a whopping $73!!!!!!!! Luckily, Mom is paying for her own wors so I only spent $46 of my money. And I was very good, I didn't buy any of the lovely Christmas candy, nor a single candy bar that wasn't peppermint crisp. I did buy myself a box of choc-kits but they were on sale for $2 a box so I was quite happy with that. (Think about that for a second, a box of choc-kits is cheaper than a single bar of peppermint crisp!)
They had the loveliest Christmas crackers that seemed to have really nice toys in them but they were horribly expensive so I didn't get them. The cute ones we get from Tuesday Morning pop just as well as those do.
The African Hut was as busy as I've ever seen it, full of Britons and South Africans and I felt like home listening to the accents eddy and swirl around me. What killed me though was that they'd got their new refrigerated section up and running and they had CHICKEN SAMOOSAS!!! They'd better have some when I get back...and those bangers and meat pies that were also tempting me.
They also had a huge quantity of mince pies and traditionally Christmasy things and I stood and drooled for a long time in the wine section.
I drove home and had lunch before setting off again, this time to Stein-Mart where I found some excellent presents and managed to resist a beautiful ring and an even more beautiful necklace that were totally reasonably priced. I almost bought Mom a Kindle cover, but I knew she'd gotten herself a cover already and she probably wouldn't appreciate a gold giraffe-print one anyway.
There was a store in the same plaza named Farmer's Harvest (or something like that) and I, being unable to resist that kind of store, snuck in to see if they had any annonas. They didn't, but oh my gosh! I'm SO going back. They had the yummiest-looking fresh sushi ever, and it was $4 for a STAR ROLL! Those usually start at $12 in restaurants, if not $20. They also had tons of candy - watermelon taffy that had green outsides and pink insides with black spots, lumps of dutch chocolate, black licorice in strings and sticks, toffees, basically every kind of candy kids used to grow up dreaming about. They also had an amazing selection of healthy snacks - okra chips, wasabi-coated sunflower seeds, low-sugar dried papaya cubes, as well as the more usual pineapple and mango and apple. No citron though, unless I missed it.
There was also a section with an enormous juicer standing next to a rack full of empty bottles and a bin full of oranges. Make-your-own fresh orange juice, can you believe it?!
The drinks looked lovely too - especially their homestyle lemonade. They had a beer section that was so expansive and alluring I didn't dare let myself look properly, and I noticed they'll special-order kegs from local brewers...SO going back!
Then I headed over to Bristol Farms and bought Mom's peppercorns for her, and drooled over their deli section for awhile. That place is SO fantastic I swear as soon as I'm rich I'm buying lunch there daily. You know how most stores have cheap stuff at the register for impulse buys, like $1 Twix and Milky Way bars? Bristol Farms has boxes of 8 truffles that costs $11!!!!! I can only imagine how rich their average customer is.
After Bristol Farms I went to Big Lots to look for a cheap padlock for my garage storage unit and couldn't find any (and looking at the line I was glad) so I hopped over to Trader Joe's to get some presents. Unfortunately I couldn't find those chocolate-covered orange sweets that Dad likes, which sucks, but I did get some nice stuff. They had some really crazy stuff like eggnog cookies and huge wine-sized bottles of "Trader Joe's Holiday Ale" (no, I didn't get any) and it made me wish for a superfluous income. They had "brandy beans" made with real brandy but I decided to not get any since they might be nasty like other American liquor chocolates. The one thing I DID want were the chocolate-covered cream-filled figs! They sounded AMAZING, but I am on a budget, so maybe some other time.
I made a quick stop at Target where I finally got my padlock and then decided to skip my last stop and just go home because even though it was only 5pm it was pitch black outside and I was tired.
I spent the rest of the evening making lists and trying to organize myself...and eating choc-kits...
Today I got up and attended to urgent business in the form of printing my boarding pass and things, checking into my flight online, and ordering my taxi (do you know you can do that online??) and calling Toyota about my car. I have to leave it where it is, but I'm going to take the battery out so no one will steal it, and I wanted to call Toyota to make sure my car wouldn't be damaged by being without a battery for a month. After being transferred a few times I finally got a technician who assured me my car would be just fine, so tonight after I'm sure I don't have to drive anywhere I'll empty it of everything, put the lock thingy on the steering wheel and take out the battery.
Then I went to BevMo (a wine and liquor store) and Petco for my last presents and I'm so glad I'm finished with Christmas shopping this year.
Now I just have to clean, pack and organize everything. I feel slightly overwhelmed but a new list will go far to help me get everything ready. I think I'm going to clean my bathroom and kitchen first just to get them done and off my list.
I'm so excited! But first, it's time for lunch.
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