No Presence for Presents

Even though our house is all decorated for the holidays and I love to see the decorations in downtown SF everyday, I still cannot believe Christmas is just 2 weeks away. I am not ready for it! Where did the shopping weekends go?! I had thought we would get some shopping done last weekend, but when it came down to it, there just wasn’t time. First we had to go out to the East Bay for our last wood class (oh! I must blog about the stools we made!), then meet sis-in-law in SF for lunch. It took us longer to find parking then it did to actually sit in the restaurant. After lunch was over we then had about a half hour to shop before we had to race home so I could get ready for a “gig” that evening with my brass quintet. Afterwards Mr. Mingle and I treated ourselves to a fancy dinner in the city to celebrate the fact that I was all dressed up. I mean, if I’m going to get into a cocktail dress for my brass quintet, I may as well take advantage of it right?

Anyway, I do need to pause here a moment to tell you about our dinner, because it was a lovely unexpected surprise. We were in a section of town that we weren’t familiar with and my feet were already screaming at me for standing on them for 2 hours in heels so there was only a limited distance that we could walk. Therefore, after the gig was over, we stopped by a nearby hip hotel to see if they had a restaurant. The hotel’s restaurant was closed for a private party so they directed us to the concierge to give us some tips on nearby restaurants. And boy, was he helpful! Assuming that we were staying at the hotel, he told us all about restaurants and then called ahead to get us a table at the one we chose (Les Amis). He even told the restaurant that it was our anniversary, and that they should take special care of us! (We in fact had told the concierge that “no” we weren’t celebrating anything.) When we showed up at the restaurant they greeted us with champagne and then seated us very quickly. Mr. Mingle and I were not very hungry since we had had a late lunch with Sis, so we split everything and therefore got to try a few small things. It was delicious!!! I give the restaurant 4 Mingle Stars (out of 4) – friendly (not snooty), knowledgeable service (excellent wine recommendations) and very yummy food (except for the parsley soup with escargot…don’t need to ever have that again).

Where was I? Oh yes.. shopping. Last Sunday was spent cleaning the house and grocery shopping to get ready for Sis-in-law and husband who came over for dinner to celebrate her birthday. So, all in all, no shopping was done except for the one gift we had to buy which was for the birthday girl.

Now, I am sitting in a hotel room in Phoenix, where I’m traveling for work and will be here until Wednesday. I don’t really want to buy gifts here since inevitably someone will want to return something. Meanwhile we have to ship Mr. Mingle’s dad’s gift (which we haven’t bought); celebrate Christmas with Pop and J this Sunday (to give gifts that we have not purchased); and then leave for Hawaii next Wednesday (with gifts for the rest of the family which we do not have). Can anyone say gift cards?