On Saturday, the Hubs, Abby and I headed to the blessed Mall of America to do some Christmas shopping. As with any trip to the MOA, we are required (by unwritten law) to take Abby on three rides, at minimum. She talks about these rides pretty much every other day. It’s adorable, but also CAN I GO TO THE MALL WITHOUT GOING ON RIDES? After the rides, we headed to Noodles for Abby’s mac & cheese fix. As we were leaving with full bellies, I went to hike up my jeans, and hulk smashed the belt loop right out of my pants. DAMMIT. Strike one.

We wove our way through shoppers and some of the best people watching I’ve seen since the state fair. We searched through Nordstrom Rack for a gift for my mom, then made our way to Marshall’s and decided we’d had enough of the crowds already thankyouverymuch. It was at our decision to depart that I realized my jacket wasn’t on the stroller anymore. Dear God. Strike TWO. My angry meter had reached about a 9. We backtracked and eventually made our way back to the Rack, where I walked through the areas Abby insisted on pushing the stroller. BY HERSELF, Mama. No! Don’t touch it! I’m doing it BY MYSELF. Aye. Lo and behold, my coat was laying across a rack; apparently someone found it and propped it up. THANK GOD.

We headed home, where I decided to go ahead and get this shopping over and done with. AMAZON, I love you. Santa’s purchases have been made, as well as some other gifts that needed to be in my hands.

(In case you’re wondering what Santa’s got in his sack this year (ha, ha. sack.), we bought Abby a Peppa Pig DVD, some Crayola Washable Mini-Stampers (this kid needs to stamp all the things all the time), Hungry Hungry Hippos, Melissa & Doug Pasture Pals, LeapFrog Explorer Learning Game: Letter Factory (for her LeadPad we bought her last Christmas), LEGO DUPLO Creative Cakes (a Lego cake set? YES PLEASE.), and for the grand finale…a Playskool Classic Sit – N – Spin. SIT. AND. SPIN.) none of those links are affiliate or anything. just an FYI.

ALL of those things I purchased on the Amazon. And I hope all of those things come before Christmas.

I nearly struck-out on holiday shopping. However, I think I’m going to put this year’s attempt on the win list.