Merry Christmas !!!!!!!!!!! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
Yeah,<\/p>\n
I know,<\/p>\n
I’m like five days late,<\/p>\n
But hey …<\/p>\n
Why should my holiday wishes be delivered any more timely than my Christmas cards ???<\/p>\n
Anywhose,<\/p>\n
I hope all of you had a great and safe Christmas.<\/p>\n
Mine totally rocked,<\/p>\n
Which my absence of postage for several few days could also have indicated.<\/p>\n
I’m back in the saddle again after finding myself in a stare down with a kickass cold …<\/p>\n
Ummmm,<\/p>\n
I lost the stare down.<\/p>\n
But now I’m ready to catch up on some posts …<\/p>\n
First in line – My Christmas Eve Scavenger Hunt:
\n
\nSince accepting my girldom, I’ve stopped doing what I viewed as a nicely suggestive “guy” behavior of waiting until the absolutely last minute to do my Christmas shopping.<\/p>\n
It’s amusing to me how even to this day, people seem to think that was actually a personality trait of mine.<\/p>\n
Clue in … that was a deliberate misdirection on my part to engage in an act so typically boyish that I could continue my attempts to convince the world that I was the guy I was pretending to be.<\/p>\n
Seriously, who in their right mind would want to the do the Christmas Eve shopping thing and deal with all that stress … regardless of the super sales one might find.<\/p>\n
I hated it !!<\/p>\n
So this year,<\/p>\n
I actually had all my Christmas shopping done nice and early,<\/p>\n
Except for my dear baby brother …<\/p>\n
Who is tied with my dad as the two worst people for whom to try and purchase a present.<\/p>\n
Us: “Dad, what would you like for Christmas?<\/i>”<\/p>\n
Dad: “Ohhhhhh, you know !!<\/i>”<\/p>\n
Us: “No we don’t. What would you like?<\/i>”<\/p>\n
Dad: “Ohhhhhh, you know !!<\/i>”<\/p>\n
Us: “Come on, what would you like?<\/i>”<\/p>\n
Dad: “Ohhhhhh, you know !!<\/i>”<\/p>\n
Now my Baby Brother historically was a bit different … difficult to shop for because he has practically everything a male being could ever desire.<\/p>\n
Every power tool known to man, some not yet known, along with every electronic gizmo ever made.<\/p>\n
But that’s really not what he is famous for,<\/p>\n
His claim to fame is that regardless of whatever you purchase him …<\/p>\n
He’ll return it.<\/p>\n
So despite how much effort you put into finding him a present,<\/p>\n
It’s all for naught usually.<\/p>\n
Now I know, one would think that I should just get him a gift card,<\/p>\n
Or money …<\/p>\n
Which is not a bad idea.<\/p>\n
But it’s Christmas …<\/p>\n
And Baby Brother needs a present to open.<\/p>\n
It’s only right.<\/p>\n
Besides,<\/p>\n
In our family,<\/p>\n
Finding Baby Brother a present he’ll actually keep is kind of like the Quest for the Holy Grail …<\/p>\n
For those of you who actually believe the Holy Grail is a chalice and not Mary Magdalen.<\/p>\n
So though all my holiday shopping was completed well earlier in the month …<\/p>\n
For the last week,<\/p>\n
I was pressing Baby Brother for some ideas of what to get him for Christmas.<\/p>\n
Now I’m not sure if it’s just something that the men in my family start doing when they reach a certain age …<\/p>\n
Or if now as my parents oldest son, he feels a legacy right to emulate a few more of my dad’s traits.<\/p>\n
But, daily for that last week before Christmas,<\/p>\n
My telephone conversations with Baby Brother at some point contained the following:<\/p>\n
Me: “What would you like for Christmas?<\/i>”<\/p>\n
Baby Brother: “Ohhhhhh, you know !!<\/i>”<\/p>\n
Me: “No I don’t. What would you like?<\/i>”<\/p>\n
Baby Brother: “Ohhhhhh, you know !!<\/i>”<\/p>\n
Me: “Come on, what would you like?<\/i>”<\/p>\n
Baby Brother: “Ohhhhhh, you know !!<\/i>”<\/p>\n
Now personally …<\/p>\n
I think he was just copping the scam from Dad,<\/p>\n
But for a different purpose.<\/p>\n
‘Cause with Dad …<\/p>\n
Even though he doesn’t tell us what he wants,<\/p>\n
There is something he really wants and we have to figure it out.<\/p>\n
But in this case with Baby Brother,<\/p>\n
I think he had no clue what to say,<\/p>\n
So he was falling back on Dad’s standard line.<\/p>\n
Regardless,<\/p>\n
On Christmas Eve …<\/p>\n
I was out searching for a present for him.<\/p>\n
Nephew 1 provided some assistance …<\/p>\n
Pointing me in the direction of a bargain bin X-Box game he wanted,<\/p>\n
And I already planned on getting Baby Brother a Best Buy gift card in a nominal amount,<\/p>\n
To be used to replace one of the 642 remote controls my brother’s two dogs, which apparently didn’t just fail obendience school, but plipped it the bird on the way out<\/i>, will eat over the course of a year.<\/p>\n
But I was still looking for the<\/i> present.<\/p>\n
You know …<\/p>\n
The present he’ll recollect getting from me for Christmas 2004 that he returned.<\/p>\n
Anyways …<\/p>\n
I hate getting most people clothes as a present,<\/p>\n
Because I prefer getting them some sort of toy type giftage;<\/p>\n
However,<\/p>\n
As I desperate …<\/p>\n
And since I had already gotten him the X-Box game and Best Buy gift card …<\/p>\n
I figured clothes might be a viable option.<\/p>\n
So I made my way to my third home …<\/p>\n
The mall.<\/p>\n
I immediately hit my basics when it comes to shopping for guys …<\/p>\n
Banana Republic, Marshall Field’s, J. Crew, AE, Gap and Express for Men.<\/p>\n
Well yeah, of course, I also looked for myself and went into The Limited.<\/p>\n
Be real.<\/p>\n
Now shopping for clothes for Baby Brother is the epitome of time-wasters,<\/p>\n
Because he dresses Engineer Kewl,<\/p>\n
Which differs from Engineer Dork which is sorta like the Drew Carey look,<\/p>\n
Engineer Kewl involves old old jeans, old old shoes – tennis or casual shoes both work, old old button shirt – often in plaid, frequently in flannel and the pants must always barely stay up, riding low on one’s ass and the shirt must be pretty much half-tucked. A two day beard growth seems part of the look too.<\/p>\n
Now granted,<\/p>\n
I think it’s a better look than Engineer Dork,<\/p>\n
But understand,<\/p>\n
I’m calling it Engineer Kewl mainly because other engineers seem to find it a kewl way to look,<\/p>\n
Not so much that I think it’s a style for which one should strive.<\/p>\n
Anyways,<\/p>\n
I knew whatever I purchased him he was going to return …<\/p>\n
It was inevitable.<\/p>\n
However,<\/p>\n
I put lotsa thought into every present I purchase for a person …<\/p>\n
Especially Baby Brother.<\/p>\n
So just picking something up and calling it a day was not going to be my style.<\/p>\n
I saw a casual top at J. Crew that was in the Christmas present spending limit range …<\/p>\n
Which I liked,<\/p>\n
And thought would look good on him …<\/p>\n
But they didn’t have his size.<\/p>\n
I was also sorely tempted to buy him one of those pairs of way overpriced, super heavy navy sweats at J. Crew …<\/p>\n
Figuring he might actually wear it,<\/p>\n
But I just wasn’t attracted to the thought of purchasing sweats for Christmas.<\/p>\n
Finally though …<\/p>\n
I found a great, stylish, sharp heavy down coat at Express for Men …<\/p>\n
Which was way outside the Christmas present spending limit,<\/p>\n
But it was marked 60% off …<\/p>\n
Bringing into appropriate range,<\/p>\n
And they had 1 in his size left.<\/p>\n
Sweet !!!!<\/p>\n
He’s outside walking his dogs all the time …<\/p>\n
It’s phreaking cold and windy here most days in the winter,<\/p>\n
And this coat would be nice and warm,<\/p>\n
Plus it had all sorts of neat extra pockets within it …<\/p>\n
For his Palm, cell phone, GPS, blah, blah, blah.<\/p>\n
He opened the present at about 1:00 pm Saturday afternoon,<\/p>\n
By 10:00 am Sunday morning he had already returned it !!<\/p>\n
You know …<\/p>\n
We’ve had enough changes in my family for a year,<\/p>\n
It’s so nice that some things never change !!! LOL<\/p>\n
Editor’s Note:<\/b> When Baby Brother returned the coat Sunday AM bright and early, there was already a line … for which he had to suffer through and wait … as he approached the cashier and presented the coat along with the original receipt (with him, you always give him the original receipt !! :)) … he was surprised to hear … “I’m sorry sir, this is Express. This was purchased at Express for Men, which is across the mall a few stores down.<\/i>” Too phunny and so deserved !! lol \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Merry Christmas !!!!!!!!!!! \ud83d\ude42 Yeah, I know, I’m like five days late, But hey … Why should my holiday wishes be delivered any more timely than my Christmas cards ??? Anywhose, I hope all of you had a great and safe Christmas. Mine totally rocked, Which my absence of postage for several few days could…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[139],"tags":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":139,"label":"General"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"Amy","author_link":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/author\/amy\/"},"comment_info":3,"category_info":[{"term_id":139,"name":"General","slug":"general","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":143,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":775,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":139,"category_count":775,"category_description":"","cat_name":"General","category_nicename":"general","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3427"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3427\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}