Monday, December 27, 2004
On the 2nd day of Christmas
One of the holiday staples that bugs me is when commercials encourage the listener to buy something for themselves. I mean, sure, commercialism is already running amok, but at least it's rationalized with a spirit of giving. When you start tempting shoppers to buy for themselves, it just strikes me as wrong.
Of course, that's just a big load of hypocracy, because shopping for ourselves is just what we did yesterday. Well, actually, it was just one item. One of Noodles' passions is celebrating Christmas and one of the essentials of her celebration is holiday specials. She's purchased her favorites on video and this year, in the spirit of upgrading, she requested DVD replacements for all of her Christmas tapes. That worked quite well, except that she didn't get specific with her request for How the Grinch Stole Christmas. She wanted the cartoon, she got the movie. No problem, we'll just go out and pick up the cartoon at the after Christmas sales. So on our way out to dinner (that's our 2nd Christmnas Day tradition--take Noodles out to the restaurant of her choice, even though her sister did most of the Christmas Day cooking) we swung by Silver Platters. Oops, lots of Christmas DVDs, no animated Grinch. Then we stopped at Borders. Out of stock. Then we hit Azteca. We're hungry and the stupid video can wait. Then we run (well, maybe waddle) to Target. They don't even have any Christmas vids on the shelf. Except Elf. We decide to swing by Fred Meyer because Poodlepums saw a copy there a few weeks back. On the way we start discussing our options if we strike out there. Call around local stores? Order from Amazon? Search E-bay? The issue is up in the air when we get to Freddies. Again, nothing Christmasy but Elf. I don't know what unique qualities Elf has to make it last longer than the other holiday vids, but there it is. (I'm assuming it's a distribution thing, because I find it hard to believe that the department stores managed to sell off all their Christmas vids while the vid stores didn't.) Noodles is about to give in for the night when I suggest we make one last stop at the Blockbuster across the parking lot. Frabjous Day! Thay have a single copy! We purchase it and I leave the store feeling odd that they haven't told me when it's due. Oh, well. Noodles is happy. I'm happy. Poodles is happy. And Bunnah is concerned because there is an extra vid (Horton Hears a Who) on the DVD and we didn't want that one. We assure her that we didn't have an option to exclude that one and we really don't have to watch it.
Of course, that's just a big load of hypocracy, because shopping for ourselves is just what we did yesterday. Well, actually, it was just one item. One of Noodles' passions is celebrating Christmas and one of the essentials of her celebration is holiday specials. She's purchased her favorites on video and this year, in the spirit of upgrading, she requested DVD replacements for all of her Christmas tapes. That worked quite well, except that she didn't get specific with her request for How the Grinch Stole Christmas. She wanted the cartoon, she got the movie. No problem, we'll just go out and pick up the cartoon at the after Christmas sales. So on our way out to dinner (that's our 2nd Christmnas Day tradition--take Noodles out to the restaurant of her choice, even though her sister did most of the Christmas Day cooking) we swung by Silver Platters. Oops, lots of Christmas DVDs, no animated Grinch. Then we stopped at Borders. Out of stock. Then we hit Azteca. We're hungry and the stupid video can wait. Then we run (well, maybe waddle) to Target. They don't even have any Christmas vids on the shelf. Except Elf. We decide to swing by Fred Meyer because Poodlepums saw a copy there a few weeks back. On the way we start discussing our options if we strike out there. Call around local stores? Order from Amazon? Search E-bay? The issue is up in the air when we get to Freddies. Again, nothing Christmasy but Elf. I don't know what unique qualities Elf has to make it last longer than the other holiday vids, but there it is. (I'm assuming it's a distribution thing, because I find it hard to believe that the department stores managed to sell off all their Christmas vids while the vid stores didn't.) Noodles is about to give in for the night when I suggest we make one last stop at the Blockbuster across the parking lot. Frabjous Day! Thay have a single copy! We purchase it and I leave the store feeling odd that they haven't told me when it's due. Oh, well. Noodles is happy. I'm happy. Poodles is happy. And Bunnah is concerned because there is an extra vid (Horton Hears a Who) on the DVD and we didn't want that one. We assure her that we didn't have an option to exclude that one and we really don't have to watch it.
