Shopping

Christmas is coming.  Hallowe’en is over; about 60 trick-or-treaters knocked on our door.  It was fun!  Our two Japanese homestay students took turns answering the door and giving out the candy.  Their glowing jack-o-lanterns welcomed the kids to the porch.

Here in Nanaimo we have had a long beautiful fall, with yellow and red leaves lasting on the trees for two months now.  But today there was lots of snow mixed in with the rain, and leaves mixed in with it blowing around in the yard.  Nice to be inside looking out!

When I was young, in the 50s and 60s, at this time of year I used to pour through the Sears Christmas Catalogue, a long-time Canadian tradition for many.  I loved to choose my favourite doll to wish for, for Christmas.  Then my mother would take me downtown window shopping in the department stores.  There was Simpsons Sears, Eaton’s, Woodward’s, and The Bay.  We looked at the big display windows with animated toys and animals and Christmas scenes.  So magical!  Then we went upstairs to the big toy floor at Eaton’s.  I got to sit on Santa’s knee and tell him what I wanted for Christmas, and he gave me a candy cane.  We looked at the animated displays, and mom let me look at the toys and dolls and tell her which ones I liked the best.  We didn’t buy anything that day, but later she would go back and try to get something I liked to surprise me with on Christmas morning.

Nowadays those big old department stores are all closing down.  Nanaimo has Sears and The Bay, but Sears is currently in the process of selling everything off in order to close for good.  The end of an era.

The new way is to shop online, and have the goods delivered to your door.  A bit like going back to the old Sears catalogue, except instead of holding a book and flipping through pages, we scroll on the internet.

Amazon seems to be the new Sears.  I have decided I might as well go with the flow, and get in on the new ways.  I always thought it would be fun to have my own little gift shop, and now I actually can do that online.  I can find items that I would like to carry in my shop, which I think my readers might like to buy, and set up a link to that item on Amazon.  A virtual store!  I hope you will like it!  Try the link below for starters.

Click Here!  http://amzn.to/2FNihup