Sisters, Shopping and Shoes

I did not participate in Black Friday and have not for several years. I am older now and wiser and I now know that there is absolutely no sale on the face of the earth that is worth getting up for before the sun is even awake. We live so far away from civilization that we have to get up super-early to get to the stores by 6:00 a.m. And now that some stores are opening so much earlier than that, we would just have time to eat our Thanksgiving dinner and then leave to get to the stores. I am not fond of the large crowds anymore either because it generally seems to bring out the worst in people. And it brings out the worst in me. And I get testy and ornery and I lose my witness. Besides I have to go to the bathroom a lot and on Black Friday you have to stand in line for the bathroom for a loooooong time. It is just so not worth it. Anyway, I digress. I said all this just to tell you about my weekend before Thanksgiving shopping trip.


On the Thursday before Thanksgiving, Leah, Kristen and I set out for the Mall of Georgia for a little lunch and a little shopping before we were to attend a Ladies Tea at North Metro First Baptist Church later that evening. Leah is a very gifted speaker and writer and Kristen is a very gifted singer with the voice of an angel. (I am not sure why they let me tag along). We had fun at the mall and then we went to North Metro for a delicious dinner and a wonderful message from Angela Thomas. She spoke about how God takes our ashes on trade-in and He will exchange them for beauty (Isaiah 61:3). And about how the King is enthralled with our beauty (Psalm 45). We had such a great time and our sides hurt from laughing so much.


On Friday morning we left our hotel and headed back over to the Mall of Georgia. Leah and Kristen left me there to meet my four sisters-in-law, (Nancy, Trisha, Cindy and Jennifer) my mother-in-law (Betty)and one niece (Sandy) for our annual girls only weekend. We all try to get some Christmas shopping done. I don't usually get much done because I am having such a good time laughing and enjoying catching up with everyone. And my tiny little brain can only handle one thing at a time. I always have a list but never seem to get anything done. The only one that really does well is Sandy and that's because she is in her 20's. The rest of us are.....not. She can cover lots more ground than all of us combined. She has a list, she sticks to it and by the time she is finished and comes back to find the rest of us we are still sitting in the food court after lunch trying to decide where we will have dinner. Frankly, I think we hold her back.

We make sure that Betty has a wheel chair because she can't stand or walk for long periods of time because of her arthritis. We had to get a second wheel chair for Cindy this year because she sprained her knee playing tennis the day before our big trip. But, she was playing a college girl and she won. So the sprain was totally worth it, right Cindy?

Our shopping weekend evolved from just one night to the entire weekend and matching shirts so we can spot each other in a crowd. Usually we are having such a good time that we don't split up so we can easily spot each other from across the aisle.


First stop was Dillard's where they had their Merrell and Born shoes on sale for 40% off! I don't have to tell you what happens to women when they see a sale sign in the shoe department. We were like sharks in a feeding frenzy! I get very easily distracted by shiny things and sale signs in the shoe department. A very nice lady named Tricia (not to be confused with sister Trisha) waited on us. All of us. In our matching shirts. Bless her heart, she had the patience of Job. I don't know how long we were there. I lost track of the time and I lost count of how many pairs of shoes we tried on. I think we all bought at least two pairs of shoes. Again, Sandy came back to find us and was amazed that we were still in the same place that she left us over an hour or so earlier.

Our loot:

At lunch, Nancy commented that she had the same make-up that I did, but my complexion was dewy and hers looked dry. I explained that I thought it was "due" to the perspiration from my many hormonal hot flashes. It became our main mission of the day to achieve dewy skin for Nancy. We sent her to the Clinique counter and went back to the shoe department just in case we overlooked anything on sale. An hour later, Jennifer and I found her wandering around Dillard's in a daze. She did not have dewy skin. So Jennifer and I took matters into our own hands and "took" Nancy to the Clinique counter. The salesperson decided that her lack of dewiness was "due" to her failure to exfoliate. After we all finally decided on the best color foundation for Nancy, (it was a group effort and my apologies to the women at the Clinque counter at Dillard's) she was so radiant that the next day Jennifer, Trisha and Sandy wanted to achieve dewiness also. I know that they were so glad to see us again. All of us. In our matching shirts.

After our long, hard, day of shopping sweet Trisha (not to be confused with Tricia from the shoe department) would give us foot rubs. And we would stay up half the night laughing and talking and planning the next day's strategy.

We attracted a lot of attention on our trip. I don't know if it was because of our laughter, our matching shirts or because we moved with the grace of a herd of cattle. I'd like to think it was because they had never seen a group of women with such dewy skin.

I am so thankful that God invented laughter and sisters and that He delights in our good times and that He cares about every detail in our lives, even the little ones. I prayed that He would bless our weekend and boy did He ever. We found things that we needed on sale. We had a great time of fellowship. My wonderful weekend began in the company of my sisters in Christ whom I love dearly. I had such a great time with you. And it ended in the company of my sisters-in-law whom I also love dearly. Thank you for welcoming me into your family so long ago and treating me like a sister. I had a great time with you. I am grateful and thankful that God has placed so many wonderful women into my life.

Life is Good,

Cindy