I did it again. I procrastinated and waited way too long to purchase Christmas gifts for everyone on my list.
I went back to my mom’s house over the holiday. She couldn’t sleep on Thursday night/ Friday morning, so she asked me to accompany her to Walmart at 1:30 in the morning.
Car trouble had prevented me from doing almost all of the shopping I had intended to do, so I took advantage of the situation and got some of it done.
I also wasn’t going to let her go by herself so early anyway.
I didn’t manage to finish that night — or morning — so I had to go back to town on Friday.
I was in negotiations over finding a vehicle — which my uncle got me a nice deal on because he knows the lot owner — and didn’t have a car of my own.
My stepdad took me to a few places, so just a little bit more of my list got crossed off.
But I still wasn’t done.
I managed to get what amounts to an extended test drive on a vehicle, so I could drive myself back to Walmart. I didn’t want to go on Christmas Eve during the day, so my mom suggested that I go early in the morning, and I mean early.
I walked into the Jasper Walmart at 2 a.m. on Christmas Eve determined to cross off each name on my list before I left the store. And I did just that — two hours later.
I don’t think I have ever napped so much in my life as I did at my mom’s house on Friday and Saturday.
I got my shopping done, but I was exhausted. At least I didn’t have to go back to MegaStore USA for anything else.
I had a nephew, niece and step nephew born this year, so they each got to enjoy their first Christmas.
My nephew probably didn’t enjoy it much, though. He had an upper respiratory infection and was running a fever, poor little guy. At least he’s feeling better now.
Mom got to see me, my sister and my niece/ her granddaughter on Christmas, but my brother and nephew had to stay in Tuscaloosa.
At least she saw my brother on Christmas Eve.
She had planned to serve breakfast to everyone on Christmas Day. She ended up only feeding my stepdad, herself and me.
Robert Burns said it best in his poem “To a Mouse.”
“The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley.”
This is what has come to be known as “the best laid plans of mice and men go oft awry.”
Robert Burns — that old Scotsman — was absolutely right.