What kind of Christmas Shopper are you?

What kind of shopper are you?

Early Birdie:  you finished back in November, with everything wrapped and labeled and hidden and cards addressed and just waiting for the holiday stamps to go on sale at the post office.  We envy you, and want your advice for next year!

Mall Crawler:  you are on a first name basis with everyone at most of the stores, and they have to throw you out most nights so they can lock up.

Yo-Yo:  you go to the mall and get your sweetheart a present.  Get home and realize you forgot mom and dad.  Go back to get stuff for them, and forget your sister.  Go get something for sis, and then get home and remember brother-in-law.  Once you finally get everything, you realize you forgot wrapping paper.  Then you have to go back for tape...

CyberMonday Superstar:  you got everything online, mostly because you cannot stand hearing one more chorus of Rudolf sung by those "elves" at the mall.

Plastic Plus:  the only place you hang out is where they sell all the different store gift cards, and you find one for everybody on your list.   An aisle or so over, you find the gift card holders in the greeting card aisle, and you are done.

Mother Hen:  when you get to the mall, kids in tow, you manage to keep an eye on them and get everyone crossed off your list in one trip, as well as get the kids pictures with Santa, because you are not about to stage a second outing.  This while also having to take several trips to "go potty" and change diapers.

Frugal Fran/Frank:  with your smart phone deal finding skill, no one, but no one, will pay less than you for any item on your list.

Grumpy Gus/Gussie:  if there's one thing you can't stand, it's shopping.  Unless it's parking at the mall, or standing in line, or...well, everything makes you grumpy.  Everyone tells you to go home and drink some egg nog, strong on the nog, and stay there!

Perfect Planner:  you have your lists,  you check them multiple times, and everything is planned out, including what to do if any one of your myriad plans goes awry.

Scatterbrain:  the opposite of the Planner, you haven't a clue where you are going, what you are doing, or why.  It's the reason you come home with one of everything shiny you see, and then have to figure out why you bought each item and for whom.

Last Minute Max/Maxine:  everyone knows you by your glaze-eyed look on Christmas Eve.  Although you promised yourself it wouldn't happen again, it did, and everyone better get out of the way, because you are frantic and desperate.


Today is:

Beetle Banquet and Badger Ball -- Fairy Calendar

Chipmunks Day -- the date, in 1958, when Alvin, Simon, and Theodore hit #1 with "The Chipmunk Song"

Day Sacred to the Lares -- Ancient Roman Calendar (household gods)

Fourth Sunday of Advent -- Christian
     Lighting the Candle of Love

Hari Ibu -- Indonesia (Mother's Day)

Icelandic Yuletide Lad of the Day, Gattapefur -- Sniffer, who uses his big nose on hlakkandi ("looking forward" day, when you begin to look forward to Christmas) to sniff out a cake or two to snatch

Khoiak Ceremony for Raising the Djed Pillar -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (Osiris festival, the pillar represented his spine, and so stability and strength; date approximate)

National Date Nut Bread Day

Santa Claus Flight Clearance Day -- US FAA (they make sure he's cleared to fly, with his de-icing system, Terrain Avoidance Warning System for low-altitude flight, and special seat belt extension in good working order)

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini's Day (Mother Cabrini, the first US citizen canonized; Patron saint of emigrants, hospital administrators, immigrants, orphans; against malaria)

Unity Day -- Zimbabwe


Birthdays Today:

Jordin Sparks, 1989
Ralph Fiennes, 1962
Maurice Gibb, 1949
Robin Gibb, 1949
Steve Garvey, 1948
Diane Sawyer, 1945
Hector Elizondo, 1936
Joe Pyne, 1925
Barbara Billingsley, 1922
Gene Rayburn, 1917
Claudia Taylor "Lady Bird" Johnson, 1912
Dame Edith Margaret Emily "Peggy" Ashcroft, 1907
Edwin Arlington Robinson, 1869
Giacomo Puccini, 1858
James Edward Oglethorpe, 1696


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"The Graduate"(Film), 1972
"Ding Dong School"(TV), 1952


Today in History:

A serious earthquake strikes Innsbruck, 1689
The Turkish fortress of Izmail is stormed and captured by Suvorov and his Russian armies, 1790
The first freight train is operated in Roorkee, India, 1851
Jules Janssen flies in a balloon in order to study a solar eclipse, 1870
The first string of Christmas tree lights is created by Thomas Edison, 1882
Ito Hirobumi, a samurai, becomes the first Prime Minister of Japan, 1885
French officer Alfred Dreyfus court-martialed for treason, triggers worldwide charges of anti-Semitism (Dreyfus later vindicated), 1894
Colo is born, the first gorilla to be bred in captivity, 1956
Berlin's Brandenburg Gate re-opens after nearly 30 years, effectively ending the division of East and West Germany, 1989
Richard Reid attempts to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes aboard American Airlines Flight 63, 2001
An important peer-reviewed study of the spatial memory of bumblebees is published in the Biology Letters journal of the Royal Society by a class of 25 8- to 10-year-old children at Blackawton Primary School, 2010