Today the look of desperation was on many faces coming into the store. How frustrating it must be to be a non-reading half of a couple when your partner is a person who likes to read.
They walk throught the doors and stop dead in their tracks. The panic sets in as they realize that finding a book with a blue cover, a bunch of snow, and a title that includes the word “wild” may not be as easy as they had hoped. When one of our booksellers swoops in and offers to help, the relief is palpable.
Today was all about the gift card. I pulled a register report as I was leaving at 6:00 PM and gift cards were a full 40% of our transaction count. Another 10% was the Twilight series of books. Cookbooks were going gangbusters.
And then there is the dark horse book that none of us even knew existed: “Up In The Air” by Walter Kirn. We aren’t even modeled for a copy of the book because it is from 2002 and he’s had more recent books. But, the news hit this morning that George Clooney will be in town for about five months filming the movie based on the book. So now we have people wanting to read the book.
ANY big budget movie filming in St. Louis is big news, but one that will star Clooney…well….
My very favorite librarian/customer came in today so we could exchange our personal Christmas gifts. You can tell how much I like her by the fact that I parted with one of my precious bottles of Mauro’s olive oil as her gift. She brought me an interesting looking bottle of Sicilian wine, some chocolates, and these adorable wine glasses that she painted herself! I love them!

Why is it that it seems like things are never done?
Last night I stopped at the grocery store for some last minute things for Christmas Dinner.
Tonight, I realized that I didn’t have anything planned for stocking stuffers for our five grandchildren. We have beautiful huge stockings to hang on the mantle and nothing to put in them.
Plus, I didn’t have stocking hangers. So, after work today was a trip to Target.
I just got back in the house from making the rounds of our neighbors with their bags of macaroons. We do this with our seven immediate neighboring houses. Two years ago, I started this little secret santa thing, with no expectation of repayment or even acknowledgement. In fact, I didn’t even include a note. I just package the macaroons in cute ceramic pie plates, left them on neighbors doorsteps and rang the bells. A couple of them figured out who had done it and dropped something off at our house in the same spirit.
Last year I did it again, changing nothing but the decorative container. Everyone else did it too.
Now, this year, half of them have beaten me to the punch. We have cookies, brownies, even ‘secret recipe’ homemade dinner rolls sitting on our dining room table. And it is spreading up and down the street because the neighbors on the far edge of my sphere, have other neighbors further past them that they include.