Fa-La-La-La-La! La-La-La-La!
It’s Christmas time….in case you hadn’t noticed. And that means the time of Peace and Giving.
And while I feel the crunch of the season that everyone else
does, I do appreciate that I have been given a lot of gifts and have an
obligation to share.
I had the good fortune of having the “Giving Tree” at my
church to myself one Saturday morning.
So I spent 20 minutes reading all the tags on the tree.
Many were for gift cards.
I decided to leave those for someone who was under even a bigger crunch
than I am, or who does not have the “shopping gene.”
I did take a card for a care package for displaced families. It requested items like soap, shampoo and
toothpaste. Easy-peasy!
I was narrowing it down, but kept coming back to a card that
stated a 62 year old woman wanted a brown coat.
Not that I admit to it, but 62 is not that far from my age. It is within a decade, or two, or three…depending
on my mood on any given day. And this
lady is my size….I know where to shop for that.
So, shopping I went….
And was hit with the facts
1.
Near Seattle isn’t that cold of a place, they
don’t have many coats to sell
2.
Brown is not a popular color for coats this year
3.
Puffer coats are all the rage this year, and I
did not feel that was the right way to go
And mostly
4. Stores do not carry many, if any, plus
sized coats.
I guess us large girls don’t get cold!
So after 6 stores, with very few choices, and most of those
in black and/or puffer coats, I knew I was going to have to get creative.
I did some searching online, even though that felt like
cheating and ordered the ONE BROWN NON-PUFFER COAT I could find.
With clothes, and with coats especially, I like to see the
item and feel it before I make a decision.
The coat ordered online was going to arrive very close to the date the
presents were due to the church.
What to do, what to do?
I decided to continue to look locally…just in case.
So we ran to Burlington Coat Factory…let me repeat that
Burlington COAT Factory…they should have coats.
Lots of coats. Coats of many
colors and many sizes.
Well, they certainly had the biggest selection I had seen…but
I was not overwhelmed. I did have the
choice of TWO tan coats. Let me point
out that tan is not brown. They were
both of the puffer variety, but a little more subdued and less Michelin Man. So I bought the better looking of the 2.
And now I wait for the ordered coat to arrive, to decide
between the two…and either return the rejected coat, or donate it to a coat
drive in the area.
I'm glad I didn't have to get this guy out again!
But, while I joke, I have used this experience to appreciate
all I have been given and to hope I make one woman’s Christmas a little
brighter.
s