Twas the night before Christmas…

Well, due to great demand (you three people who e-mailed me, yeah, you know who you are) I am going go ahead and post the “Christmas IPAQ experience”.

Now, since I don’t want to type it up I’m going to grab a copy of the story I sent a certain girl. I’m self editting it, but Star, if you ever read this, I hope you don’t mind me sharing it 😉

So it’s Chrismas eve, and my mother and I had to do some last minute shopping.

My mom wakes me up at 6:30 to go shopping
with her. I stumble out of the shower around seven thrity, and we take
off for Wally world. We proceed to buy the usual fair. CDs, DVDs, candy,
milk, and oh, about a million crates of eggs (apparently she has some kind
of egg related festivities planned.) Went back to the Casa and dropped off
the food, hid the presents. We then took back off (siblings still rousing
from the sleep) and headed for Provo and the University Mall.

We park, and walk right behind Santa, now you may think “Nahhh..” But it
really was Kris Kringle! It was like he was the Fonz version of Santa
though. All the girls in the shops were talking to him, he was pointing
at people waving at them as he went to the little north pole land.
Apparently he’s the “Good” Santa, and is liked by all above the “Mediocre”
Santa at the southtown mall.

So my mother and I go about out our business of shopping. This means we
showed up at Sees Chocolates, at two samples and amscrayed when we
realized we could go to Costco’s, get the coupons for Sees, and save $2
per pound of chocolate.

Oh, and I learned this one important fact while at Sees. Do not come
between a woman and her sweets, unless you want to danger loosing fingers,
a limb, or your life.

So we get more food, deal with the hordes of humanity @ Costco, get the
Sees Chocolates and take off.

Now (important to this story) I had my PDA on me, on my belt, this entire
time.) I don’t know if you ever saw it, or if I didn’t wear it during the
date, so I could look ultra cool, but I have a PDA that is my brain.

So, I call my mission president, because he had offered to go to lunch
with me. We are pretty good friends, and we just wanted to chat. He’s in
Sandy, and I had to get some stuff in SLC, so me and my mother started
heading up there. My president doesn’t awnser his phone, but I leave him
a message and we get on the highway.

When we get to SLC, I went to a little Pinball store that I buy parts from
(I’ve also gotten to know the owner pretty well). We talk for a while, I
get the parts I needed (wooo!) and then I head for the Gateway Mall, My
mission president still hasn’t returned the call, and I decided that that
was a wash.

We get to the Mall, and I head for Tilt, where they sell off their arcade
games during Christmas. My mother and I go over to the pinball machines,
and I was disapointed to see market value pins. So we leave, as we leave
I point out the European connection “That’s were Star and I went to grab
some creapes” . We jet out of there, and take off towards the Western Nut
store.

Now, one of the sister in laws had called us to see if we would buy some
nuts for her parents, and once we got in there, my mother was in shop-till
her son drops mode. Everything gift wrapped was 40%, so she was trying to
find anything gift wrapped. I just spent my time listening to a very
annoying music device playing the same song, again, and again, and again,
and again, and again, and again.. I think you get the idea..

Finally we leave. I’ve been jonsing for some ethnic food, so we stopped
at Siegfrieds for some german food. It was good and my mother and I went
looking for food for my sister (she just returned from her mission in
Germany). I pay for that and then, Zing! we are off back home.

Now here’s the reason I’ve been telling you all this back story 😉 As I
start driving away, I feel at my belt, and the PDA is gone. I pull over,
and have my mother look on her side, and I looked on mine, nothing.

I turn around, and drop my mom back off at Siegfrieds and I drive up to
where we had parked to see if it had fallen off. No luck on either count.
We then start calling western nut, and they don’t have it, but I drove
over to look anyways. I can’t find it.

This day had gone from very fun, to horrible in ten minutes.

I didn’t care that the handheld was missing, I was afraid someone had
access to the data. I was not handling this well. To top it off, my
mother started crying because she felt it was somehow her fault. This
makes no sense to me whatsoever. It also just makes me feel bad because
she’s crying.

Another Guy Rule:

#3 If woman that means anything to a man starts to cry, he will do
whatever it takes to get her to stop.

So that’s stressin me out as well. So she starts to call family members
to have them look as well (in Payson) and she has them pray as well.

Eventlually the second oldest calls and asks “Where in the mall did you
go?” I told him Tilt, and then he hangs up.

So we start driving towards the pinball shop when my mother gets a call “They
said they found it?”

It had been turned in @ Tilt. Wether it was some little kid, a store
employee, or the three Nephites, I will never know.

We turn around, head for the mall. I pick it up, and the guy said “It was
just here when I came in for my shift.” I thank him, and we take off.
Later on talking with the second oldest I found out that one of the other
siblings had called him in, and had him pray that I’d find it. He said
that after he prayed, he walked away and felt a prompting that everything
would be ok, and that he should start calling. He called the Mall itself,
and they said they didn’t have anything. He was sure they would have had
it, so that’s why he called and asked where I was in the mall.

Corney as it may sound. Things like that continue to strengthen my
testimony. And it took a good day, turned bad, and made it good again.

I felt like running around yelling “Merry Christmas Mall, Merry Christmas
you little savings and loan, Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas!”

We headed back to Payson, stopping at Lowes for some doorknobs and stuff
for me, gassed up, and arrive back in payson for some aunts and uncles
showing up for a little get together my mom had planned. It was hectic,
but fun.