it's a bad time of year to leave the house

I don't like shopping at the best of times, but at this time of year, I find that it becomes really unbearable. I try to do most of my christmas shopping (and let me just say, there isn't much of it) online, and even rely on the mister to pick up groceries on his way home from work during the week while I'm out here in the sticks. But every now and then, I feel the need to get out, and the other day decided to head into town for a few things , including a sniff through the local oppies which are always beckoning. I should have known better, I knew it was risky with the christmas crowds and jasper's unpredictability in public, but filled with optimism, I went anyway.

he is by no means an unruly child, it's just that he's either "on" or "off". He was switched to "on" by a well-meaning old lady in the first op shop we visited, who handed him a bright green lollypop before I could get a word in. That's the other thing about this time of year, you can't avoid the sugar. That lollypop kept him going through three more oppies, which was good in itself, but after that there was a weird kind of quietness as the sugar did it's thing. And that was when I made my first mistake and did a '"quick" trip into target. I don't know why, I think it was the promise of 20% off lego and secret santa gifts to buy for carols on the weekend, but I actually thought we could do it. And then I made my second mistake, I saw something I wanted to try on and jasper promised to sit quietly on the little seat in the change room, and I believed him. Mid way through this exercise, he decides to exit underneath the door (why can't they make those things go all the way to the floor??). So, I'm in the change room, trying to wrangle my way out of a pair of cossies whilst calmly calling out to him, but he's not answering. And then a horrified voice comes from the change room oppposite "oh my god, he's in here". Right, so he's crawled under the door of another booth, no biggie. I open my door, and she opens hers, and through gritted teeth, says "can you just get him out of here", whilst cowering behind the door. Jasper by this stage has realised his mistake and is in his hiding place, underneath the chair, crying.

Now, I don't know about you, but if I found a small child hiding in my change room, I'd probably laugh, definitely try to make them feel better when they started to cry, and assure the mother that it was no biggie. But no, hostility reigns supreme in the land of fluoro lights and that is exactly why I will continue to do my shopping online and if I do feel the need to get out of the house, it will be by myself.

Oh, and the kicker, the lego I was after was all sold out. Merry bloody christmas, target.