Avoiding the Christmas Sales Onslaught

I am pleased to report that I finished my Christmas shopping yesterday.  And I am even more pleased to report that I totally avoided this nightmare:

Can you imagine a mob scene like this?  For what?  A couple bucks off a bad perfume set for your wife?  No, thank you.

Thanks to a bit of online shopping, free shipping, and one big box retailer (and not the great Satan that is Wal-Mart), I got all my shopping done yesterday.  The Boy was along for the ride and he was a good sport.  We had lunch at the Naf Naf to celebrate our victory over the shopping demons, and that was awesome, as always.

Accomplishing that allowed me to watch the Kona Ironman coverage, which made me tear up in the last eight minutes or so.  Seriously.  Then the Boy and I went down to the Fat Bean to listen to his buddies' jazz combo play.  These kids were pretty darn talented.  It was a good end to the day.

Only four more working days this coming week and then I am off for about ten days.  I could not be more pleased.  Really, really pleased.  And speaking of pleased, thanks to a suggestion from the running icon, Jeff, I think I have my first half-marathon of 2011 selected.  I'm kind of excited about it.  More on that later.