grande vanilla latte

i have 2 different subjects to post about this morning. it is our last day of school before the christmas break so i have a million things going on today and on my mind...slow down...

first: wil and i went out yesterday afternoon to wrap up his christmas shopping. he just finished with his first semester exams, which were also his first round of upper school exams, so he was in great spirits and relieved to be done. we have been mentally preparing for this for months. we only have one grade back so far and it was a good one so we are eagerly awaiting the others. when i say "we" in this, i am really not including wil. several of his exams had essay questions. a teacher that was working with him in the planning for exams stressed that the teachers would be looking for facts and less fluff in his writing. he could be creative, but make sure to include the important info the teachers were looking for. the more facts, less fluff is what stuck in my head. so here is the more facts, less fluff version of my christmas shopping experience with wil...could be a compare and contrast sort of thing if you read yesterday's post about emily's shopping day.

em's shopping took a day. wil's lasted all of one hour. now let me preface anything else i am going to say with the fact that wil has one of the biggest hearts i know. he is the kindest and most thoughtful kid around. but shopping is not on his list of things he loves to do. unless it is for something specific that he has to have. so our trip involved wrapping up the shopping he had left to do in one store. (he had given his christmas money to em and me on saturday to do most of his shopping for him.) there was a lot of me checking the list, me holding up items, him nodding, him checking his phone, him looking around to see if he knew anyone in the store and him asking if we could go to starbucks at least 6 or 7 times. wil wanted to get gifts that people would love, but there is no fluff to go along with the experience. we were in, out and done. ready to move on to the next thing.

second: i was experiencing my own distractions because i had not been in tj maxx in a few weeks. lots of good stuff yesterday. so i went back later last night to look by myself. i also ran by pier one. something about shopping after dark just feels so christmasy to me. i scored several great finds that i will try to photograph and include in a blog over the weekend. we are having a casual dinner party tonight and i found some great things for my table. i also spotted a little short, fur swing coat at tj maxx that was on the clearance rack. a girl followed me around the store eyeing it in my hand. i know she was waiting to see if i would put it down...i only know this because i am guilty of this same crime...stalking an item. i did not put it down. finally she asked me where i found it. i tried to help her find another one but no luck. anyway, the fur coat came home with me. so cute. and for $20.00 how could i pass it up?

so, a successful afternoon was had by all. i found some fun little treasures and wil was able to finish his shopping without too much pain or discomfort. for those of you receiving gifts from him, they will be given with equally as much love as em's gifts. they just had their own christmas shopping experiences. but here is a question i leave this post with...did i do it again? should i have let wil out and told him to finish his shopping on his own and that i would pick him up in an hour? did i miss a teachable moment here? at some point i have got to quit doing everything for him so he can learn for himself...before he passes the gauntlet on to some cute girlfriend or later wife that will do everything for him all over again : )