The Last Good Weekend to Go Shopping

This is the last weekend you have to avoid those long lines. It's the last weekend for me to find a free table in the cafe at Borders. I know I'm getting old when my search for a little peace and quiet prompts me to use the calendar. My mother's coup of my brain is complete.

I used to mix it up with the holiday crowds. I'd be the one up at 6 to be at the stores by 8. Now I would have to turn off the 11p.m. news and get in my car. I'm sorry but I can't handle shopping at midnight for a sale on electronics. I'll do it for an impromtu late night trip to Walmart without a clear goal in mind, but for Christmas shopping, yeah no. And what's with the advertised specials on electronics where the ad states "minimum of 2 in store"???? I'm going to fight a crowd just to catch a glimpse of some guy throwing the thing into the back of his car?..... or find out that the two were bought before the sale went into effect? (I've had that happen several times at Walmart.) Seriously?

I'm staging a sit-in this Christmas with wine, credit card and phone in-hand. Yep, I'm sitting in my big ole chair in the livingroom, surrounded by pillows, covered with the afghan and ordering Christmas in. I'm feeling a little smug about the savings I'll experience: time, gas, sanity. That last part is especially important as a parent of a tween.