Unamerican

I made sure to pack two things for our trip to KC last week - my Kohl's and JC Penney's gift cards from last Christmas. There are no JC Penney's out in these parts, and the only Kohl's I found was not close or convenient. When I told my mom there weren't JC Penney's out here, she replied in disbelief, "What!?? That is unamerican!!"

Hilarious.

And true.

We didn't make it to Penney's on our trip, but we just bought a 4ft Christmas tree on their site - super discounted plus a coupon code from retailmenot.com and the gift card = yes.

We did make it to Kohl's (along with some other stores) and ended up flying back to DC with our bags brimming full of:

• 6 pack of men's socks
• 7 pack of men's undershirts
• underwear
• new slippers (for Mr. Perfect and I both)
• an angel food cake pan - not. kidding. Apparently Mr. Perfect has been searching for one. He carried it on, along with the advent candle holder my mom gave me and the Sequence game I took back from GDSean (I left it behind in the move).

As if that collection isn't random enough, Mr. Perfect also picked up some must-haves from one of the best shops in KC, The New Old Dime Store in Brookside. His loot included:

• spatula - it was very thin and flexible, he actually got it for me. Thinner = better for flipping eggs
• zester - it's actually kinda cool. it has a ring on it so the zester part rests in your palm. It includes a little compartment that collects your zestings.
• butter spreader - I didn't even know these things existed.
• shot glass measurer - in the words of Mr. Perfect, "It does ounces! and teaspoons! and tablespoons!"

When I told Shea and Carly about all of our shopping, their joint reply was basically something along the lines of why are you doing all this shopping in KC? Aren't there better options in DC?

Well.

Yes and no.

The lack of WalMart really does make things like angel food cake pans hard to find - and when you do find them it's at Williams-Sonoma. Nothanks!

So we did some really random shopping and gathering in KC.

And yes Shell, we were able to fit all of our 'Thanksgiving gifts' back in our suitcases.

Barely.

And my carry-on might have gotten stuck in the overhead bin after we crammed it in.