Homemade Happiness 2

It's getting closer every day to the biggie - to Christmas!!! I know it is not quite October, but good grief, now that I have retired and have all this time on my hands I just don't see any sense of driving myself any crazier by waiting till the last minute, to say nothing of all the cashiers and employees in and near every store close to the mall!!

If they have been there a few years, they know me by name and I can hear them sometimes (though they think just because I am old I can't hear good and usually speak to me in unusually loud voices). They will warn newer employees when they see me. I understand clearly every word that is said. "Oh, my God!! There she is again, the one I told you about. I had hoped she would not make it through another Christmas, but she is one tough old bird and it is beginning to look like she will be here long after I'm gone. Don't let her get you so rattled you just throw up your hands and walk out the door. I promise, they are not all like this one! Fact of the matter, I don't believe there are any like this one. Get through this without going to jail and you have it made! If you make her happy, you can do whatever it takes to survive in this business and you will have a great career, possibly in management."

Well, I do have to do my rushing around at the last minute, digging through stacks of stuff, opening boxes, laying dresses removed from hangers across a rack, that sort . It is so much easier and quicker and I am in such a hurry for I have waited till the last few days. It's so Christmasy (is that a word?).

I have been known to leave a perfectly neat store in shambles in way less than an hour!! It is the only way to look is all I can say. I do feel a bit guilty that store personnel must stay late after closing to have the business presentable for the next day's customers. Not too guilty though, 'cause it sure doesn't keep me from a good night's sleep after I have separated my purchases into piles to keep as presents and piles to return because it didn't seem somehow to be what I had wanted after all. Oh well, a trip back the next day will keep me young and give the employees job security.
This will be repeated till the last store closes on Christmas Eve and you would think they'd be glad to see me as I buy and return till the very last minute, begging them to stay open just a little longer while I try to decide on the necklace I tried on and cannot get unclasped now or the cute sweater I have hung somewhere and am unable to talk one , not even one of them to help me find it!! They will only unclasp the necklace, scoot me out the door, lock it quickly behind me, yelling Merry Christmas the whole time.

How in the heck can I have a merry Christmas now? I haven't even decided who to give what for I am not really completely sure what presents I have even bought!!!

Just now the last part of September and I have time to begin to think about and plan Christmas.

Everyone knows when you retire, you are broke, so I will get to give presents of the very best kind ... gifts from the heart, handmade and homemade with love in every speck! Not a cute sweater lost on some rack in a store or a necklace I have to practically strangle myself to remove, but a gift made with my own hands, mind and heart, a treasure for them to keep and that is the best kind of gift after all. 

Ain't retirement grand!!??!
Most importantly, never forget to be sweet and always be good!