Christmas Shopping

Cal, Brett and I left this morning for our annual Christmas shopping trip.  Brett had finished his list, but Cal and I still had gifts left to purchase.  We stopped first at Kohl's to take advantage of my 30% off coupon.  The three of us were pleased with our finds and enjoyed hearing from another shopper that Miley Cyrus had done a cover of Brett's "favorite" John Lennon Christmas song War is Over.  We couldn't wait to find it on Spotify.

After Kohl's we headed to University Park Mall.  Barnes & Noble and Box Lunch were high priority stops for the boys.  I had a coupon to use at Yankee Candle for a free jar that I made good use of.  While Brett was checking out Hot Topic, Cal and I made a tour of the mall so that I could get in some more steps before leaving for lunch.

Although there were a lot of great places for our noontime meal, we had decided earlier in the week that the new Portillo's was the choice of the day.  It had opened several months ago, but we hadn't had a chance to try it yet.  It was just as awesome as the ones in Chicago.  Doug called while we were waiting for our order and was disappointed that he didn't get to try it with us.  Brett and I went with what made them famous - hot dogs.  Cal ordered Doug's favorite, Italian Beef.  We also decided to try a chocolate cake shake.  We had heard positive reports on them and were not disappointed.

From Portillo's we drove to Target to buy some groceries, making our final stop of the day The Wakarusa Dime Store.  We had talked about going multiple times, but had never made it.  We were thoroughly impressed with the amount and variety of candy in stock.  Cal was able to easily purchase his last gift while we also chose candy for everyone to try at home.  Brett scored big today when he found bottles of Moxie in the cooler.  He picked up one for each of his brothers and also a surprise drink for everyone to try later.

We made it home by 3 p.m. with plenty of time to spare before Nick and Meg arrived.  She didn't have practice today and they wanted to study for finals.  She picked up Cameron later for us and once everyone got home we all sampled our finds from the Dime Store.  All received thumbs up, except for the surprise drink that Brett picked out - Sweet Corn Soda.  Everyone tried a sip.  It was as terrible as we thought it would be and we agreed that Brett should have to finish it.  We also decided that we'd go back next week when everyone would be able to pick out their own soda to try, although no one was interested in the one marked ranch dressing.