Early Christmas

My dad is a very sly person and it appears that he married someone that is in the same company! I mean that with all of the love and laughter in the world! Ever since I can remember, my dad has always done things in a manner that would cause me and my siblings to be doing things together - to create memories - bonds of trust - times of laughter - and so on. This year is no different. You see, this year for Christmas, from Mrs. R, my sisters and I received $150.00 each. However, there were rules that came with the money.

1. The money MUST BE SPENT on YOU and YOU alone! It is NOT for spouses, children, or things for your family/home.

2. The money MUST BE SPENT on a nice outfit to be worn to church.

3. ALL OF THE MONEY needs to be spent for this purpose

4. You must ALL go shopping together

5. Aislinn is in charge of the money

Now, as easy as this seems it is quite the contrary. You see, my dad (and Mrs. R) know that my sisters and I tend to spend what we have on our children, spouses, home necessities, and so on. They know that we sacrifice new shoes and outfits, make up, etc.. for the needs of our kids. So to be given instruction to spend the money only on ourselves and for new clothes was a real chore and proved to be more difficult than I originally thought! Here is a peek into our adventure...

First we went to JC Penny to see what we could find! As you can tell we found all sorts of things that didn't fall within the instructions given! As we made our way to the clothing section, it was hard to resist the photo opportunities in the housewares section!

We found a pretty good selection at JC P and we even made some purchases but not before trying on EVERYTHING that we could find! I, personally, love the B&W skirt (the one that plays with your eyes) until I put it on then it resembled too much of that school girl look and I don't think that's what we're going for here! Poor AA was so confused by all of the selections that she didn't know where to start. We tried on some things that we loved and others that would look better in the dumpster! Ash tried on this funky black skirt in Macy's and she couldn't even walk - that was too funny! AA tried on a cute black dress with a white sweater and she looked more like a Nun so we said "NOPE" and put it back! So the searches continued. We went to Christopher and Banks, JC P, Macy's, Dillard's, Urban Trends, New York & Co, and a few shoe places! After 7 hours in the mall we were WORN OUT!!!

When it was all said and done we got some pretty good things. AA was stumped as to what to spend her remaining money on and Ash suggested dinner. AA said that technically that could fall within the rules because you can take your dinner with you to church for years to come! (but she made a better choice and chose to find something more for herself!)

Anyway, with my money I purchased a B&W hounds tooth skirt (not pictured because they are shipping it to my house), a Brown on brown skirt, a black shirt, a cream shirt, a red sweater, a wine colored sweater , a white dress, and 2 pair of shoes (one brown, one red). I've always had "hand me down" shoes from my mom - so to get NEW ones was a real treat!

So to Mrs. R - thanks for the thoughtful Christmas gift - you're sneaky just like my dad but you must realize how much fun we would have together - me and my sisters. So, a huge THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. It was fun and won't soon be forgotten!