That reminds me of a cold Christmas eve a few years ago when I was driving down mainstreet in our town and some dude was walking, huddled over himself freezing because all he had on was a wifebeater. I remember thinking as I passed him I could stop and give him my hoodie -- at least it would be a little warmer. But I didn't. But the time I figured out that it wouldn't really be a big deal to give it up since I was in a warm car and had more at home, it was too late to find him. Hopefully he got where he was going. I suppose maybe he wasn't going far -- it's not like this was downtown Houston or anything... But I felt like I missed a chance to do something good.
Anyway, back to the present. While I didn't really have much shopping to do overall, I did have a very special mission to accomplish in the marketplace. I had been hounding my niece for weeks to tell me what she was planning to ask Santa Claus for and she would never spill... Until the last minute a few days ago. She told me she was going to ask him for a bell from his sleigh, like Hero Boy got in The Polar Express. I figured it would be cute to find a bell and give it to her "from Santa." Not one of those cheap-o bells like on those red-string necklaces either... the ones that when you jingle them sound like a single Tic-Tac rattling around inside its pastic box. I wanted a real silver bell that made that beautiful sound the kids kept going on about in the movie. You wouldn't think it would be so difficult to find a genuine jingle bell at Christmas would you? You'd be wrong. I checked everywhere -- Hobby stores, department stores, drug stores... Hallmark had the perfect jingle bell in size and sound -- but it was made to look like a golf ball. Was there really more of a demand for jingle bells that looks like golf balls than for ones that looked like jingle bells??
Finally, I learned of two silver companies that made high quality commemorative sleigh bells every Christmas: Reed & Barton and Wallace Silversmiths. Now, being that I didn't find out my little niece wanted this bell until just a day or two ago, it was too late to order online and get it in time -- I had to find where these bells were sold in Houston. I go to the Wallace web site and click on the link that locates local dealers of their products. I enter my zip code and up comes a message telling me that the authorized retailer locator is "Coming Soon!" Couldn't they just put that on the front page in place of having an actual link, the way most web sites do? Or at the very least, put it on the second page in place of the actual form field where you enter your zip code? But I digress... On the Reed & Barton site, the retailer locator worked and gave me a list of about 12 local shops -- All of them sold out of the Reed & Barton bell. One suggested I try this dealer in New York (uh... thanks), another told me they didn't get the Reed & Barton bells but they got the Wallace bell (Me: "!!") but that they sold out of those a week ago ("D'oh!"). Another told me that everyone was sold out and even Reed & Barton had run out of the bells...
Then I start calling the major department stores that were on the Reed & Barton list: Neiman Marcus, Dillard's, Macy's. One Dillards said they had them and would hold one for me, so I drive up to the mall (mad parking!) and make it to the store only to discover that the bell they had was just a regular... bell. It was from Reed & Barton, but it wasn't at all a sleigh bell and I was a little annoyed that the clerk couldn't seem to understand the distinction. So I walk over to Macy's and they say they only got the Wallace bell which they sold out of a week ago, but that the Galleria Macy's might have come. She calls and... THEY DO! I confirm that it is in fact a sleigh bell and ask them to hold it. I was kinda dreading going to the Galleria--I love a bustling mall at Christmas, but parking at the Galleria is hell even on a regular weekend and I really wasn't curious to find out what it was like the weekend before Christmas... but I had come too far to turn away. I went to the Galleria and got the bell... the exact, perfect bell. (The picture is the right bell, but mine is silver, not gold) Mission Accomplished...I guess that was a pretty Christmasy adventure... Time to watch Mixed Nuts and drink cocoa while wrapping presents... I guess it is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas after all...
Ooooh... that would have been a perfect way to end this post, except I have one more thing to talk about. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. OK, this is going to make me sound like I've been a nitpicky grouch my whole life, but I don't like Rudolph and I never have. He's not canonical... There are only eight reindeer to me, always was and always will be. The whole glowing nose was a little too far-fetched for me, especially for a fable that was already walking a thin line... The fact that his orgin story painted the other reindeer as big jerkweeds was also offensive to me... Like, they had to take down the other reindeer -- the real reindeer -- just to make room for this twerp?? And bear in mind, these were my thoughts as a child!! I'm not coming to this conclusions now... As a kid I hated the Rudolph song and even the TV special. If a Christmas card or wrapping paper or candy wrapper had Rudolph or included him with the other reindeer pulling the sleigh, it counted against that card or product. I'd get another one instead... (Actually, I think it was worse to me for them to put Rudolph with the other reindeer -- I'd prefer them to just have Rudolph pictured alone. Maybe because if the other reindeer were there, then they were inevitably being upstaged by the phony...) I was only a kid, but I still rolled my eyes a little everytime my mom would bring home wraping paper with Rudolph on it... I just wished they would paint Santa and his eight tiny reindeer and leave it at that...
Thoughts?
