{"id":7423,"date":"2015-12-22T08:04:13","date_gmt":"2015-12-22T16:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/?p=7423"},"modified":"2021-08-26T18:38:17","modified_gmt":"2021-08-27T01:38:17","slug":"the-annual-shopping-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/2015\/12\/22\/the-annual-shopping-trip\/","title":{"rendered":"The annual shopping trip&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7463\" src=\"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/NG-183x300.jpg\" alt=\"NG\" width=\"183\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/NG-183x300.jpg 183w, https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/NG-92x150.jpg 92w, https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/NG-626x1024.jpg 626w, https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/NG.jpg 795w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 183px) 100vw, 183px\" \/>WOW I needed that!<\/p>\n<p>For many years now, a very good friend and I have been having an annual Christmas expedition. \u00a0This year getting away from the house was a welcome and much needed relief.<\/p>\n<p>Somehow our once a year trip always goes off without a hitch. \u00a0This year no exception. As in the past several expeditions, all our shopping is accomplished in a single day. The tradition is to fortify ourselves with a little alcohol, a good lunch then shop. Then snacks, then more shopping then yet more shopping and the whole time we&#8217;re laughing and enjoying our time together.<\/p>\n<p>This year my friend went above and beyond the call of duty and were it not for his expert driving I would probably have given up and gone home. \u00a0There were way too many cars, way too much busyness, and too dang few parking spots.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know if my friend knows how much I appreciate his efforts yesterday, but he and his other half deserve a round of applause and my profound and deep thanks for helping to make a wonderful Christmas for me.<\/p>\n<p>Driving home I had a smile on my face that couldn&#8217;t be jackhammered off my face. I&#8217;m still smiling and it&#8217;s not from Alcohol It&#8217;s from joy. \u00a0I had such a good time this year that\u00a0I&#8217;m looking forward to next year. My friend probably cringed at that, because it means putting up the Christmas tree. (<em>But you do such a beautiful tree, and I&#8217;ve got a couple of laser pointers that might help!<\/em>)<\/p>\n<p>I can tell you, absolutely nothing beats love, kindness, and having truly outstanding\u00a0friends. Except perhaps spending a day laughing your ass off with them.<\/p>\n<p>I hope each of you has equally awesome\u00a0people in your lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WOW I needed that! For many years now, a very good friend and I have been having an annual Christmas expedition. \u00a0This year getting away from the house was a welcome and much needed relief. Somehow our once a year trip always goes off without a hitch. \u00a0This year no exception. As in the past &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/2015\/12\/22\/the-annual-shopping-trip\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The annual shopping trip&#8230;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,3,43,87,89],"tags":[175],"class_list":["post-7423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-general","category-male-friendship","category-musings","category-smelling-the-roses","tag-male"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7423"}],"version-history":[{"count":42,"href":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7466,"href":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7423\/revisions\/7466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}