No, I did not participate in Buy Nothing Day.

We went shopping. The Scientist took our car and went record shopping (also picking up the gold paper we're using for our annual Christmas newsletter--yes, we're dorky that way) and I went out with my aunt, A., and grandma. It was surprisingly tame. We went to Barnes and Noble where miraculously I found a box of our Christmas cards. The Scientist forgot a bunch of people on his side of our list and we therefore needed more cards but the B&N in our town was sold out of them. I also bought two CDs for me (Norah Jones and The Chieftains) and a book for JK.

Then to the mall and Williams Sonoma (also amazingly unstressful) so my grandma could by an apron for Aunt J. Next to Grand Avenue and the local Cooks of Crocus Hill store where my aunt got my grandma's Christmas present (or maybe birthday--my aunt, mom, and grandma all have January birthdays so we tend to double-shop for them at the holidays) and I got some new oven mitts and potholders.

My grandma's back was hurting her so we went back to the house and hand lunch and then my aunt and I went to The Bibelot Shop (yes for the second time in two days) where I bought a bunch of random stuff, including a shirt for our nice that says "Little Elf" on it. So cute!

I wondered if perhaps the holiday retail season wasn't going to be as strong as past years, given how easy our shopping experience was. We never once had to wait in horrendous lines (or really any lines at all). I've been buying presents since about September and am now completely done with my Christmas shopping--are other people spacing out their Christmas buying? That would make the retail picture look grim, when really I've spent about the same as any other year, just spread out over several months instead of bunched up in one month.

At night JR and The Scientist and I went to see Solaris. We started out going to a stadium seating theater but ended up at the Mall of America (the first theater was sold out and we missed all the 7-something shows so since we were going to have to wait until 9-something we decided to go somewhere we could shop to kill time).

JR bought a puffy down North Face coat at Nordstrom (they were price matching with REI). I tried to buy slippers, but the store I wanted had gone out of business! It just goes to show that if you find the perfect slippers you should buy them immediately and not wait out of some misguided attempt at thriftiness.

The Scientist liked the movie a lot. JR and me...not so much. I read a review recently and the reviewer loved it so much and I kept thinking, "I am one of the short attention span teenagers except I am 27 years old." I felt vaguely guilty for not liking the movie--I could see how someone else would like it, but I was mostly bored. I'm such a philistine.