bzarcher | (no subject)

That was a surprisingly nice morning / afternoon.

Lisa and I roused ourselves Too Damn Early to go up to the new donut shop up the street (which, I'd add, is AWESOME. The family running it are really nice, and the owner was getting blown away by business - they'd already made a double-batch for the morning, expecting a large crowd, and he'd sold through it and a good part of another double-batch by the time we walked in. The donuts are also good, but I think the pecan roll is the real unsung hero.) We brought breakfast back for Alex before he had to go work some overtime down at OSU, and then girded our loins to go out and get our Christmas shopping done.

To my surprise, we not only succeeded gloriously (I still need to buy for Alison and Crystal, who haven't given me lists yet, and buy the 2nd parts of a couple people's 2-part presents, but the rest is done), but I think I managed to get a lot of stuff people will like, but won't expect.

...my Best Buy card's now a bit unhappy, but that's life, right?

After we got done at Best Buy, Lisa went to the Mart of Wals and found a nice gift for Crystal, then we meandered down to Half Price books and had a really relaxing browse there, occasionally stopping to chat with each other. I managed to find unexpectedly perfect things for my Dad and Granda, which was a nice surprise. They're always really difficult to me to shop for, and even the years where we do a gift exchange or a "Only spend $10-20 on people" limit, I seem to always draw them...

On our way out, Lisa asked if we could look at a spice store that's opened up down on Kenny Road, which turned out to be absolutely awesome, and part of a rather neat spice chain. They also gave me a white chili recipie that I think I'm making for dinner tonight. :> I see them getting much of our business next time I need to reload on spices, or for the next chili cookoff at work.

On our way back home, Lisa and I ended up at a Greek restaurant down the street from the house (My Big Fat Greek Cuisine!) which was really, really good, and bookmarked for later excursions, then grabbed some groceries for dinner and wrapping paper.

The last hour or two have been spent wrapping presents, including Alex's while he's at work, and Lisa's while she was in the bathroom, while Lisa gave me a hand with the various presents for my mom and dad that we'd picked up, while Lisa actually started to get into the All-American football team awards, and the coach of the year awards. (I'm as shocked as you are...)

Lisa's friend Leah called a bit ago, and the two of them left to go do some more shopping. There's been threats of buying my Christmas present while she's out, so I've tried to answer the endless question of "What do you want, anyhow?" without lamely pointing to my Amazon list that I continually update without remembering to actually buy anything on it. (Ah, well.)

It was a really, really nice day. We tried to spend more time with each other during the Thanksgiving holiday, but that really turned into trying to do holiday stuff more than anything else, getting places and seeing people.

This weekend was really just about going out and doing stuff for ourselves, and we spent a lot of it talking and laughing. I really have missed that.