Retail Therapy

Today I went with my mother to meet my aunt at the outlets in Lee, Massachusetts.  The drive is about halfway between both of our homes, so it works out perfectly. I know that whenever we meet, we are in for a good time!

When we meet here, our shopping is either hit or miss. We either come home empty handed or toting lots of bags. Today, we took toting bags to a whole new level!

After buying bag fulls of clothing at each store we walked into, oh, and a pair of shoes, we decided it was necessary to stop at the car to put the already acquired bags away. We had so much, they were bogging us down. It wasn't until we were walking to the car, less than half way through our shopping voyage, that I noticed the snootiness that had taken over my mother. You see, here is my sweet, innocent, 4'10" aunt carrying the bags:

What you can't tell from this picture is that all of the bags my aunt is carrying, hold the things my mother bought. Yes, some of that stuff is for me, some for my brother, and some for her. But, none of those things belonged to my little auntie. My mother, snooty as she has gotten, told my aunt to hold her bags. She walked ahead, probably because she wasn't bogged down by the weight of the bags. Her reasoning for not carrying her own bags was that she already had a bag to carry. 

Can you see that bag hanging off her left shoulder? Yup. It's her Coach bag. That Coach bag has really changed her. Instead of being cremated and put in an urn, she would like her remains to be buried in her Coach purse. All joking aside, the back of the car looked liked this after we were done with just a quarter of the outlets:

We vowed that once we went back out there bagless, we would shop as though we had not bought anything yet. And, that we did. It was a wonderful day. Very therapeutic for me. Retail therapy and the therapy of great company. I am so thankful for my family getting me through these long stretches without Jeff. 

The one thing that made me so sad about bringing home a carload of new stuff is that I didn't get to show Jeff when I got home. I used to proudly display the new stuff and give him whatever I picked out for him. I have a feeling he is really going to like what I got him today. And, I can only hope to find out sooner, rather than later!