Push Me, Pullman

Tis the season for last minute holiday shopping and double murder homicides apparently. Earlier this week the residents of Pullman were sent into a panic when the evening news reported three dead bodies were found in a local apartment complex and neglected to mention the murderer's suicide. That's some responsible news work there. Scarier than that was the fact that Christmas was a little over a week away and I had so far bought zero gifts. Never have I waited so long and I was feeling the pressure. If our presents were to arrive before Christmas we needed to purchase, wrap and mail them in three days.

For our first attempt at shopping we headed to Lewiston, ID since they have a mall and decent selection of department stores. Unfortunately the mall was a total let down. We pretty much walked in and out in under a minute. After coming up empty handed from every store we went to we decided to head home and try again on Saturday at Moscow. The trip wasn’t a total loss. We got to see Lewiston’s over done light display which made the park look like a rainbow had thrown up. Unfortunately Amanda forgot to put her memory card back in her camera. The next day was much more productive. Within 30 minutes of arriving at the Palouse Mall I had all my Christmas shopping done. The annoying commercials are right. Palouse Mall, they know what you want and they got it!

This will be the first year neither Amanda nor I will be heading home for the holidays. Usually we visit my family then head to Jackson to be with Amanda’s family on Christmas. It had become a tradition with Amanda’s family to do a secret Santa gift exchange, but unlike the usual secret Santa protocol the gift is to be accompanied by a poem written and recited by the gift giver. Being over eighteen hundred miles away presented a problem, but nothing a digital camera and Google Video couldn’t solve. So without further ado here are Amanda and my secret Santa poems.