Proof of Purchase

I realized as soon as we checked out that the item I had bought for a Christmas present was the wrong size, but I didn't want to take time to go to the service desk for a refund.  I would exchange it later.  "Let me have the receipt," I said to my husband when we got in the car.  I put it in my purse for safekeeping (LOL), and didn't think about it for a couple of days.

Wrapping the gifts, I saw that another selection was wrong, too, so I would return both items and shop somewere else.  The receipt wasn't in my purse!  Well, I had changed purses for Sunday, so I looked in the one I carried that day.  No receipt.  A search of my brown purse revealed nothing.  I needed the refund to go to another store!  One item I could exchange, but not the other.  I checked the waste basket in that room, then all the others in the house.

Then there was nothing for it but to go through the kitchen trash.  Ugh! It probably wasn't there either, since the bag had been replaced by then.  On the slim chance, I excavated layers of our history of the last 24 hours.  Mail, banana peels, egg shells, tea bags, paper towels, leftovers and floor sweepings.  No success.  I looked and there was a black bag on the back porch that hadn't been deposited in the alley.  Worse junk, but no receipt.

"Howard!" I fretted, "I can't find that receipt anywhere!"  Then, double-checking a waste basket at his desk, I saw one I had missed under a table.  There it was with the clean trash of his waste basket!  I'm sure I didn't put it in there!  It had to be Mr. Neat who disposes of anything immediately (including my prescription drug side-effects information before I have read it--he knows it will discourage my taking the medicine!).

After getting the refund, I hurried to store of my choice only to find they didn't stock what I wanted!  It will be two days before we can go to Stillwater to finish our shopping, and time is growing short to get things in the mail.  My husband assures me there will be plenty of time, but he never worries about anything.  He just waits for Christmas to "happen."

And it will.  Like the Dr. Seuss story when Christmas came without ribbons, boxes, tags, packages, or bags, the real spirit of Christmas has little to do with material things.  And that is what I am looking forward to most--the presence of loved ones, shared good times and the real meaning of Christmas: Jesus birth, whose life, death and resurrection purchased our salvation.  Even though a couple of weeks of being under the weather around here has slowed us down, there is still time to freshen the house, tie up the details, and plan the food and festivities!  Even if  a little help from me does go into making it happen!