Born to Shop

The term "Shop til you Drop" was developed for my sisters,myself and our daughters. I think there is a gene we were born with that is activated when we get within a 50 feet of a store that makes us automatically turn into the parking lot and 10 hours later we pull out again. I just returned from the 3rd annual "Summer" Mother/Daughter shopping trip.
This all started when my sisters and I and our daughters started a shopping trip to the Mall of America the first weekend in November 9 years ago to do our Christmas shopping. This is a true Girls Weekend away. We leave on Thursday afternoon and everyone usually gets to my niece's house in Hudson by 5:30 ish and we go to IKEA then hit somewhere for supper. The next 2 days we do the outlet mall at Albertville and MOA(Mall of America). We always find time for a nice dinner out and a few drinks and one year we even did the musical Lion King. Three years ago we decided that we had so much fun doing this in November that it would be even more fun to shop in the summer when it was warmer so we planned a shopping trip for Minnesota and expanded our group to include some friends and their daughters and saw the Broadway musical Wicked which was absolutely wonderful! the second year we went to Chicago and had a wonderful time in all the great shops and restaurants. This year we planned to go to Iowa City where they have a great mall and the Amanna Colonies close by. Unfortunately, Iowa City got flooded out and we had to change our plans at the last minute so we ended up back at the MOA.
Also unfortunately, neither of my daughters were able to come this year so I was daughterless. Kind of lonely wandering around that great big shopping mall all by myself with no one to ask their opinion when I tried something on. So if I bought something totally hideous this year I will blame my daughters for not being there to talk me out of it. Don't get me wrong, I had no trouble spending money without my daughters there. God forbid that should ever happen!!! Put me in a body bag then because I surely must be dead if I ever can not spend money! I love shoes and we found the greatest deal on a pair of Chinese Laundry shoes. It was in this little boutique in downtown Hudson and there was a bin full of size 5.5-6.5 shoes with a buy one for $30 get one free. It just so happened that one of the other women with our group, Janice also wore a small size so her and I were each able to get a pair of shoes and split the cost. Not too often I only have to pay $15 for a pair of shoes!!!! I am wearing them as we speak to break them in so I can wear them to work tomorrow and show them off. I admit it- I am a shoe addict with purses a close second. Someday George may have to put me into rehab if my addiction gets out of control. We had a great time at supper at PF Changs. I had never eaten there so wasn't sure what to expect but the food was good and the mojitos were great so all was right with the world.
I have quenched the spending thirst for a short time so the credit card is safe again and will have time to cool off and heal from the burn marks of sliding it thru the machine so many times.
We will repeat this all over again in Novemeber when we do our annual Christmas shopping(at least that's what we call it) trip. Until then I am exhausted and happy to be home with my hubby.