Back and Forth

"Hey mom. Can you drive me and my friends to Seymour on Sunday afternoon."

"Sure. If you come to church with me on Saturday night."

And there you have it folks, parenting at it's finest.

Mandi joined us, so it was like a party. A going-to-church party.

Unfortunately it was the 'Children's Christmas Program Extravaganza' which is the highlight of the year if it's your child or grandchild on stage and not so much if you're unrelated to everyone in Abbotsford under 15.

But we went and heard a good sermon where the concluding line was, "And I think I speak for God when I say, Merry Christmas."

(Which is interesting because Jon of Stuff Christians Like mentioned that he's never seen the words Merry Christmas in the Bible.)

When we got home, Maureen came over because we both have crushes on Ryan Reynolds. Drew and Mandi left because they don't.

We watched this:

Yeah.

A chubby Ryan Reynolds.

So easy not to lust.

Of course he lost a ton of weight in the movie and it ended with him looking lustable again.
At 1 am I drove over to Surrey to pick Drew up from Mandi's.

This is what vehicles and gasoline are for. For driving.

At 2 am once we got home, I watched Johnny Depp as John Dillinger in Public Enemies.

Meh.

At 2 pm this afternoon, we left our house. I picked up his friends at their assorted homes and dropped them off at Seymour at 3:30 pm. It was pouring.

"Are you sure you want to stay? You're going to get soaked..."
"You don't get it do you? We're boarders."
So, I left them there and drove home. Arriving back in Langley at 5 pm. I thought I'd have 2 - 3 hours to do the stuff moms do before Christmas.
I got a call at 5:30, "Can you come get us? We're wet. And cold."

So I drove back to the mountain and picked them up at 7 pm. And got them all delivered safe and sound to their respective homes by 8:30 pm.

"Mom? Can you drive us all to the theatre? We want to see a movie... yes, I'll do chores tomorrow."

So at 9 pm, I picked them all up and dropped them off at the Colossus at 9:30 pm.

And on my way down 200th, I remembered something.

Walmart is open 24 hours.

!

So I stopped in. And in 20 minutes had all my last-minute stuff done. There was a woman who was in the market for the same item that I was. She called over a salesman and asked for help. I pointed to the cabinet and said, "Which one do you own?"

"That one," he said.

"Are you happy with it?" I asked.

"Very."

"OK, I'll take three of them."

The other shopper said, "Well, if it's good enough for him and you, I'll take one too."

We both paid for our purchases and then she said, "Thanks so much for making that decision so easy, I loved the question you asked him. You are a smart shopper."

"Actually, I'm a lazy shopper," I corrected her.

"Well, I gotta go. Twenty minutes til closing..."

"They're open 24 hours - you don't have to rush," I informed her.

"Oh. Are you sticking around for awhile? What else are you shopping for? Maybe I can just shop with you?"

Hahahahaha.

"Uh, well, I've just got socks and boxers left to pick up... Good luck with the rest of your purchases ... Merry Christmas."

Gotta love Walmart shoppers.

Three things I'm thankful for:

1. Gelato

2. Opportunities to be with Drew and his friends. If you were keeping score, I spent almost 7 hours driving today - most of those in the company of some awfully nice 15, 16 and 17 year olds.

3. If I mail my Christmas cards tomorrow, Canada Post will get most of them delivered in time for Christmas. Phew.

Shalom,