Christmas Eve, Christmas, and the day after
4 minute read
December 26, 2004, 9:45 PM
My, what an interesting three days.
First there’s Christmas Eve. The crowds at Wally World were just amazing. Practically all of Waynesboro crammed into our store and cleaned it out. And then at 6:00, just like last year in the Staunton Wal-Mart, all became quiet, as the store closed, and the customers went home. All of us as associates finally wished each other a Merry Christmas, and went on home. Hey, the store was closed, and we were going to enjoy every minute of it. Though I think I caught Evelyn off guard with a Christmas hug.
Speaking of Christmas Eve, I’m still sore from that day. For one, my arms are sore from all the scanning I did. Let me tell you something. I was scanning far more items than a regular day, and was scanning at warp speed. So I’m still sore from that. We’ll recover. I also got a bruise on my front. I noticed it this morning while I was getting dressed. Then at work today, remembering where the bruise was, I realized how I got it. I must have accidentally jabbed myself with the arms on the bag spinner at some point, since it was at the right height to be the spinner.
Then there’s Christmas itself. Mom was the star of the show in the morning, overacting for everything. Sure, it was a bit bad acting, but it was cute. Meanwhile, you know you’re getting mature when you realize that the Christmas presents will still be there in the afternoon, and you don’t have to open them at the crack of dawn. I had no problem sleeping until noon or later. But the family woke me up at 9:00, and so I kind of lumbered down the stairs to open presents.
One present I knew about ahead of time was a plunger. I had said that my bathroom needed a plunger. So Mom bought a plunger, and wrote “Ben’s Plunger” on the side of it, and stuck a bow on it. So on Christmas morning, the first gift we did was the plunger. Mom’s all full of enthusiasm. She hands me the plunger and says, “Open it, open it! I wonder what it is!” I, still half-asleep, pulled the bow off the plunger. And Mom says, “Yay! A plunger! I would have never guessed!” It was definitely amusing. But now I have a plunger. And when I move to Washington DC after I find a job, I’m taking it with me.
We also continued what’s become somewhat of a recent tradition at Christmas when it comes to gifts. Who is it from? This is where we ham it up. I got a Titanic book one year. The label said, “To Ben from Captain Smith”. This year, they were quite interesting. Sis got a large tapestry with a butterfly on it. It said, “To Ann from Gerry Garcia” (sic). Yes, “Gerry” Garcia. A misspelling. And so Sis had a little fun with Mom with that typo. Then other gifts were also fun. Everyone got clothing from Greta, as in our dachshund. The label said, “To Ben from Greta”. The comment was, “You should have seen Greta running over to Charlottesville to get that for you.” Then we used to have fish in a tank in the kitchen at one time. They died, and we never replaced them. One gift I got: “To Ben from the fish beyond the grave”. Creepy. But cute. Then of course, one gift said “To Ben from Santa”. My comment: “Santa. You mean the dirty old man who watches sleeping children?” Did I mention that I love that Christmas quote I did in 2003? That was a great quote.
All in all, we had fun. Then we had Christmas dinner later in the day. Good stuff, and we all ate a lot. Then Mom, Sis, and I went to Sheetz in Fishersville, because Sis needed gas for the car. Turned out Sheetz was giving out free coffee on Christmas. Smooth! So we all had a cup. Mine was flavored “Candy Cane”, which really means peppermint.
And otherwise, I put my resume up on some more job-hunt sites and worked on my Transit Center site. I got all my new bus photos edited and numbered. I also redid all the databases for the planned overhaul of the Transit Center site to better organize it.
And then today, it was back to work. I worked 11-8, and found out that practically the whole bloody store was on sale. Practically everything was drastically marked down to move it on out. After work, I finally invested in a pair of slippers, marked down from the original $6.93 to a cool $5.20. My, I love clearance items. You get the most wonderful prices.
I also found out in the breakroom why the low-carb Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups were on sale. They supposedly have little to no sugar in them for those looking to curb their sugar. And you know what? They taste like they have little to no sugar in them. They tasted like cardboard, and also were a bit gritty. Say it with me: YUCK. Those at least taste like candy.
Meanwhile, I’m wearing my new slippers. Those feel good.
Speaking of footwear, you know what I don’t understand? It was twenty degrees outside today. And do you know what some people were wearing? Flip-flops. I actually counted the number of people wearing flip-flops with bare feet. Three people were wearing flip-flops in the dead of winter. I’m just thinking, aren’t you cold? Same with these people that wear SHORTS in the same weather. I’m just like, aren’t you cold? I know I would be.
Of course, on the same topic of fashions I don’t understand, I also have yet to figure out the soft-leather-boot fashion that seems to be all the rage with the ladies. They wear these soft-looking leather boots that look so warm, and then they wear a short skirt with it. It looks so strange to me, having these warm-looking boots with bare skin right above it. You would think that one would wear long pants with such warm-looking shoes. Or maybe I’m not supposed to understand. Who knows. Weird.
And I just love my slippers. So comfortable…
Web site: "Day After Christmas Sees Lots of Returns", which is an article I found on All Headline News
Song: The 12 Days After Christmas, which is the one where someone proceeds to destroy or return all the gifts from the original Twelve Days of Christmas.
Quote: "I'm still sore from Christmas Eve!" - Me on describing how I'm doing on the 26th.
Categories: Christmas, Clothing, Food and drink, Schumin Web meta, Shoes, Walmart