Stuffed Beavers. Yah. That's What I Said.

My sister and I participated in the full contact sport that is shopping on the last Saturday before Christmas.

And we bought beavers. Stuffed ones.

We did IKEA first ("You Crabbypants . . . you love the IKEA") and despite the crowd of people pushing against the seat belt like barricades and pining "open, open, open" it wasn't as bad as I expected. We were eating breakfast watching them. And as that crowd raced through the store, we strolled leisurely to what we wanted to look at . . . I'm an IKEA savant, so I can always find the shortest route through the maze. Kinda like a rat in a cocaine experiment. (look! those rats go faster!) Bought some very heavy things for Mr. Crabbypants, which I did not put together. I figure it will be like legos for grownups on Christmas morning.

And that is where we come to the beavers. My sister and I had been discussing the stuffed bugs, with big zipper mouths, that were on sale. And what we would store in them. And what we could store in them. Next to the bugs were a surplus of beaver stuffed animals. Which led to much speculation on why in the world someone would design a stuffed beaver . . . knowing what the word beaver also meant in slang. We figured it was a Swedish thing, somehow someone thought it would be a great idea to sell stuffed beavers in America. After joking about it for probably too long, we decided to purchase a beaver each. (I'm sure there will be pictures tomorrow) (the girls and their beavers)

Now there is discussion about how they might become travel beavers . . . coming with us on trips to be photographed in different locales.

They were on sale. And they seem to have a lot of them, should anyone else want, desire or need a beaver. (Gosh, that is fun to say!) They are, however, noticeably absent on the IKEA website.

We then went to Ferndale, Royal Oak and Somerset, in the search for the sister-in-law present. Somerset was crazy, but only because everyone in the world wanted to valet. I found a spot right next to the door. And there was only a little elbowing and only one SUV sized stroller incident. Well, two . . . but who's counting? It's the holidays.

Still slave elfing tomorrow . . . have some things to finish. The girls received their sock monkeys on Friday, but I failed to take pictures before I handed them out. Perhaps because I was pretty much sewing them seconds before I gave them to people. They did turn out cool though.

More shopping tomorrow too. And have to wrap the world. And take a picture of my sister with her beaver.