Supremacy

The day before Christmas, we hit the mall for last minute Christmas shopping. This was actually the best time to shop. Many of the stores we 25-50% off and it wasn't crowded at all. I picked up two more work pants at Banana Republic. The US may trail the rest of the developed world in education, health, and infrastructure, but it is indisputable that we have the best shopping in the entire world.

I wanted to get Saori a particular perfume for Christmas, but it turned out I was too ahead of the curve. Macy’s had never heard of it. The second perfume manager I talked to at Nordstrom had heard about it, but didn't have it since apparently the designer has an exclusive contract with Barney’s, and there are none in Salt Lake City. We took a short break for lunch at the house, reheating a giant tub of frozen “chili” which turned out to be some delicious gumbo. David took us out again to the dying mall which had a real bookstore and we also took another spin through Sur La Table, because kitchen things are fun.

The evening was a wrapping frenzy in the wrapping room, complicated by the fact that we were all wrapping gifts for each other. Mom and Larry picked up BBQ and that was really really good. Saori made her hot spiced apple cider with a heady dose of whisky, and then a second batch. We ended up sitting around the massive mound of presents under the tree and chatted until it was time to fill the stockings and build Logan’s big toy, a kind of motorized HotWheels collider track.