{"id":18603,"date":"2016-12-15T00:33:37","date_gmt":"2016-12-15T00:33:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=18603"},"modified":"2016-12-15T00:33:37","modified_gmt":"2016-12-15T00:33:37","slug":"christmas-shopping-can-be-done-with-ease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=18603","title":{"rendered":"Christmas shopping can be done … with ease"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I am announcing today that I completed my Christmas shopping with 11 whole days to go before the big day.<\/p>\n

Are you proud of me? I hope so, because I’m proud of myself.<\/p>\n

I’ve developed over time my own philosophy about the holiday season. It centers on my refusal to let anything about it stress me out.<\/p>\n

So often during this time of year, I get the question: Are you ready for Christmas? My answer: I stay ready! I was born ready!<\/p>\n

I grow weary of hearing tales of woe from friends, acquaintances and total strangers who say, “Oh, this time of year just stresses me out. I can’t take it! I can’t wait for it to be over.”<\/p>\n

Really? Are you kidding? What about it causes the stress? Having to shop for those you love? Baking all those goodies you take to holiday parties?<\/p>\n

Good grief! This is my favorite season of the year.<\/p>\n

So, today I ventured\u00a0to Westgate\u00a0Mall in Amarillo\u00a0to take care of my shopping needs. I got it done in about three hours. How do I accomplish this? It’s easy, folks.<\/p>\n

I write a list of things I need to buy; I plot my course throughout the city. I stop at each location on my list, walk in, make the purchase and then leave for the next stop on my route.<\/p>\n

I consider Christmas shopping to be something like a surgical strike. I select my target, hit it, then leave. I’m a Delta Force commando shopper. Boom! In and out! Just like that!<\/em><\/p>\n

There’s no stress doing it this way. I set my goal, meet it — and then declare victory!<\/p>\n

So, my shopping is done! Now I’ll sit back and enjoy the rest of the season. I won’t worry about a thing. This is a joyful time of the year … the frigid Texas Panhandle weather notwithstanding.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

By the way, I looked for Santa Claus at Westgate Mall, hoping to see him fielding requests from children about what they want for Christmas. I didn’t see him, nor did I see any sign of that nimrod “pastor,” David Grisham, who made a spectacle of himself the other day berating parents and kids, telling ’em Santa ain’t real.<\/p>\n

I fear what I might have done had I encountered that clown.<\/p>\n

Not to worry. Tonight I’m a satisfied Christmas shopper.<\/p>\n

Mission accomplished.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

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I am announcing today that I completed my Christmas shopping with 11 whole days to go before the big day. Are you proud of me? I hope so, because I’m proud of myself. I’ve developed over time my own philosophy about the holiday season. It centers on my refusal to let anything about it stress … Continue reading Christmas shopping can be done … with ease<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[978,6750,5238],"class_list":["post-18603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-news","tag-christmas","tag-shopping","tag-westgate-mall"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18603"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18605,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18603\/revisions\/18605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}