A lovely vacation and Shopping thoughts

The Christmas break is wonderful. One of the huge benefits of working at the school is getting so many of the school holidays as work holidays. I don't get many vacation days... but I get so many days off, I can't complain!

Vacation days are lovely and leisurely. Even though the whole family is home, which can be a good thing and a bad thing. (I like having the house to myself a little bit!)

Every morning, I've set my alarm clock for 8 or so. And every morning, I laugh at myself as I turn it off, and sleep until way later than I ought to.

Today, being football day, I was hoping the whole family would be heading to the Jackson's to watch the game, but they decided to stay on the couch. So I met Beth and the girls and her mom for lunch at the mall. We had a nice lunch at Friendly's, and visited a little while. I gave the girls their Christmas presents, and then we separated. I shopped a little bit, hoping to find the bargains they've been talking about on the news.

This is what I've been noticing about the mall and the economy: The stores are scared, and trying to play it conservatively. That's my opinion. It seems like they are filling their shelves with cheap merchandise that if they are stuck with, it won't be too bad for their bottom line.

For example, I've shopped at one department store for their holiday decoration shop for years. They always have a huge selection of expensive items to choose from. But this year, their baskets were full of bulky, inexpensive, plasticy stuff, and even before the holiday the selection was much smaller than usual.

And today, at another department store that I often do well at when buying clothes, I saw table after table of one style of cheap sweater. It was priced pretty well, but it wasn't overly attractive. It looked like something that they had gotten at a really good price and were trying to bulk up their sales with. I guess they can't have an empty store, right? But they don't want to over-extend themselves with items that cost a lot, because no one is shopping much.

It feels like the stores are making every attempt to survive the long, bleak winter ahead of our economy. Only the strong survive, right? So I don't blame them for making this effort. I hope that they all come out doing well, with many jobs intact.

I just hope that the winter ahead isn't as bleak as it seems... and that when spring comes, we are all happy and healthy. I love to have a huge selection of beautiful things to look at when I go shopping. I've been so spoiled in my life.

And yet, I also wish that our whole culture wasn't so based on a disposable lifestyle. I'm as bad as anyone else I know, but I want to change. Will I? Can I? I don't really know.

Well, I didn't buy any clothes today. I don't need anymore clothes -- I need to look better in the clothes I already have. But I did buy books. I'm so excited! I bought a Deepak Chopra book, and a novel that was on the reduced price table, and that Barbara Kingsolver book about eating food that is grown locally. I hope it inspires me to have a bigger garden next year !