Monday, December 07, 2009

Decadence

Well, that daily blog-prompting thing didn't last long with my too-full schedule over Thanksgiving! And now we are knee-deep into Christmas planning and celebrating. I'll revisit the daily blog themes later!

Speaking of holiday planning, Dylan and I did something so decadent last night--we hired a babysitter to put the kids to bed so we could do some Christmas shopping! Although I have actually been 99% finished with my gift shopping and wrapping since early November, I tend to do my best shopping for myself in the few weeks leading up to Christmas. hahaha The only thing that gets in the way of that, however, is having two kids in tow!

A few weeks ago, I received an invitation to a special after-hours holiday shopping event at our Nordstrom. I had been invited once before, three years ago, and it was a lovely shopping experience--sipping white wine, listening to live musicians' holiday tunes, munching on strips of sugared bacon (more on that later) and truffles, while browsing new stuff at my leisure.

So when I got my invite, I knew I was definitely going back to Nordstrom. And I wanted Dylan to come along because although he is not a shopper, he would really enjoy this. And he was really curious about going.

The event last night did not disappoint. I go to Nordstrom frequently, but it was quite dressed up for the event, with tuxedoed waiters proffering wine, cocktails and yummy h'or dourves while a sharp jazz quartet entertained us all. There were lots of people there, so it was quite festive.

The thing I remembered most about the event three years ago was these awesome brown sugared bacon strips. People were going nuts over them. And they served them again last night!  Sybaritic Decadence. I was so happy. But alas, I only had one strip, when I could have easily eaten a dozen. They were that good. No worries though, as we also had great regular and tempura sushi and other great little bites.

I had several items on my "list" that I wanted to look for, and I amazingly found all of them! Dylan was just happy to eat, drink and carry my purchases and my wine glass as he followed me around the store--what a sweetie.

Some cool finds:

Ivory wrap desperately needed to keep warm at cold office holiday party


Adult-size slippers that are still ok for an 8-yr old girl

I love Nordstrom. They don't try to shove items down your throat when you say you're not interested. They don't follow you around the store. They don't have a gazillion items for sale, just a choice selection that makes the process easier. They have a wonderful cafe inside that my kids love. And they still respect the holidays--all of them:

Photo taken at Nordstrom 2 days before Thanksgiving, which is thankfully still a real holiday for some and not just a speed-bump on the way to Xmas . . .

We shopped some other stores besides Nordstrom as well and finished the evening off with dessert at Sonic! We would have gone for holiday lattes at Starbucks except that all four of the Starbucks around us were closed before 10 pm. Strange but ok, as my retro Coke Float was a perfect end to our shopping date.

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