Excerpt from my Freshman Year of college. B. was my roommate from another state and had never experienced the glory that is Dallas at Christmas time...

Yesterday, B. and I went shopping for the rest of our Christmas stuff. We got all dressed up and curled our hair and put on make-up so that the salespeople would treat us nicely.

First, we went to this Xmas store on Preston. They carried this expensive line (Fanini) of advent figures, and B�s mom had some of them, so B. was looking at them and trying to decide if an angel was in her price range, when one of the salesladies came up and went �Oh, do you have Fanini?� as if that were B�s ticket into high society.

Then we went to the Galleria, so that B. could see the Xmas decorations, and we stopped in at the Macy�s Christmas store. We got this really nice rose and gold ornament that was in our price range, and when we were waiting in line, the lady ahead of us bought over $570 of stuff with cash. She had seven receipts, and they were carrying her purchases out in buckets. B. nearly fainted. Then it was our turn, and I was like �We�ll pay cash too.�

At least we looked decent.

Then I took B. to Crystal�s for lunch. We were in the cartoon room, but the sound wasn�t working.

Then we drove through the ATM machine at the bank, and I nearly took my mirror off. B. says I�m fun to drive with.

Then we went to The Container Store, which B. had never seen before. Then I took her to NorthPark to see the Xmas decorations there. We checked out the Disney Store (we saw the one at the Galleria, too), and we also looked at the new Warner Bros. Store. It was pretty neat. Then we went to Target and stocked up on decorations in our price range.

Our room looks very Christmassy now. We put the tree in the corner where the bean bag was and wrapped this rose-colored lace around its base as a tree skirt. Then we put the lights and the gold beads on. We got this rose-mesh gold-sprinkled wire rose to put on top of it. Then we hung this green and gold tinsel off of the ceiling, with different ornaments on each loop. The side by the tree has all gold, rose, and green ones, and the side over our bunks has Sesame Street ones. We hung another green garland above the windows, with a gold and rose ribbon twined around it, and we fastened rose bows everywhere the tinsel and the garland touch the ceiling.

We were exhausted by the time we went to bed, because we shopped for seven hours straight, and our legs ached from standing up all of that time in such bad (but dressy) shoes. We feel better now, and as soon as I finish this, we�re going to dress up and take Christmas card pictures.