Shop(lift)ing

Scott does all of our Christmas shopping, but you probably already knew that.  You've seen him at Sam's Club and Target and Kohl's, just admit it.  He know the sizes of all our kids, their favorite colors, their individual styles and what they asked for yesterday as opposed to today.  He has a typed list of not only the amount of money he has spent, but the amount he would have paid if he had bought the item at full price.  So he knows how much he has saved, which is even more than he's spent.  Many of our family members know to consult Scott before purchasing a big-ticket item.  He'll find it for half the price, with free shipping. 

I ran into the store for a few things the other day, which is how I do all my grocery shopping, since I'm not a menu planner.  I take a quick lap around the periphery of the store grabbing milk, bread, produce, yogurt, butter (my favorite food) and meat, then grab whatever is on sale on the endcaps, and that's what we're having for dinner.  (Forget Christmas shopping with six kids' sizes and a dozen relatives in mind!)  This trip to the store, I got to the checkout, reached into my purse for my wallet and pulled out a bag of chocolate chips.  OK, that was one of the things I ran into the store for, but why were they in my purse?  The cashier kindly suggested that maybe I had "brought them from home to compare and find some that were the same brand."  Uh, no, that doesn't sound like me.  I would have left them sitting on the kitchen counter.  I truly had no recollection of anything that happened after I turned my cart down the baking aisle, but I told the cashier that I had probably inadvertently put them in my purse and that I would try not to shoplift in the future.  Fortunately, she didn't hit any panic buttons, blow a whistle or call 911, which is good because if I was booked on shoplifting charges, Scott would have to take time out of his shopping to prosecute me in court.  Then not only would their mother be in jail, our kids wouldn't get any presents.  I'm going to stay out of retail venues until January and leave the purchasing to the expert.  Scott could have found those chocolate chips for half the price, anyway.