Shopping Lessons

I can shop, til I drop and never buy a thing...I am the Queen of window shopping!  I love to find a good deal, sometimes I buy and sometimes I walk away...  Sometimes I just love to SHOP,SHOP, SHOP...  I think this love has been passed down to my granddaughter Audrey Jane.  This is one little great shopper.  She's content to just go and look; she's content to buy.  Audrey Jane has taught me a few lessons about shopping I didn't know until she arrived on the scene.  Maybe you also can benefit from these tidbits of knowledge:

Lesson # 1  A. J. loves for me and her to be engaged in making some sort of project (at my house or hers) constantly...One day, much to her delight, I took her to the ultimate crafter's store:  MICHAEL'S.  She was delighted just standing outside the doors.  And outside the store is where she taught me my lesson.  "OK Mammy, before we go in, this is a Arts and Craps (couldn't say Crafts) store.  Before we go in, we gotta decide are we gonna do Arts or Craps; we can't do both.  So, Mammy what's it gonna be?"  I wasn't sure but I was pretty sure her pronunciation of the situation would be exactly what it turned out to be.  So before you go in...you gotta decide...What's it gonna be?

Lesson # 2  Audrey's mama took her on a pre-Christmas shopping/planning trip.  Tafta was letting A. J. pick out what she thought she wanted Santa to bring her.  Audrey looked at everything (and I mean everything) on the shelf.  Her eyes rested on a box; she pointed to it and asked her mama, "What's that?"  Tafta looked and said, "Oh Audrey, that's a Snow Cone Machine.  You get that and we could make snow cones."  Audrey's eyes lit up and her little hands went to both sides of her mouth, "Oh I did not even know I needed that thing!"  The story of my life & shopping...

Lesson #3  Tafta, A. J., and I were out of town for a family function.  Audrey Jane got her feelings hurt by someone inadvertently.  The poor child was devastated.  Nothing could cheer her up.  I was driving so I pulled into a HUGE store that Tafta and I wanted to visit.  It had EVERYTHING!  You could tell this without going in, just by looking in the great big picture windows that covered the storefront.  I knew A. J. was depressed, but I didn't realize how much until she said, "I'll just stay in the car..."  Yeah, like I'm gonna leave my 5 year old shopping buddy in the car.  We convinced her to come in and told her she could just walk by the buggy and not even talk.  She did...for about 1/2 the store.  All of a sudden she stopped dead still, through her hands up in the air and shouted, "OK everybody let's just cheer up and BUY SOMETHING!"  Another testament to my shopping mantra...

So here it is folks, we're not going to take it with us when we go so we might as well follow A. J.'s advice and, "cheer up and buy something"  'cause you probably don't even know everything you need yet.  Just make sure you choose between your arts and your crafts!!!