The day before Christmas Eve, I wended my way to Tesco to get in the food, drinks, and last minute bits for the next few day's festivities.
Regular readers will have gathered that Tesco, or indeed any supermarket, is my idea of hell on earth, and I only venture to such places under duress, and in times of need.
I had a feeling that this visit was going to be even worse than usual when I spotted a worker wearing a Santa hat stopping, or rather trying to stop, cars as they entered the car park.
Most cars were ignoring the chap and zooming off to try and find a space, but I decided to stop and see what was going on.
I was informed that there were no spaces in the car park at all, but I was welcome to use the underground staff car park if I'd like.
Being keen on a little variation in life at times, I did so, and found a space straight away, right by the stairs to the store, hurrah!
My mini-elation continued when upon entering the store, I was offered a chocolate and a mince pie by more staff wearing Santa hats. I grabbed a mince pie and a trolley, and scampered over to the pharmacy department in the hope they might be giving out Valium as well, but no such luck.
And so, fortified by my sugary treat, I steadied my nerve and threw myself into the shopping, clutching my list in my paw.
I managed to find a turkey, sprouts, and the rest of the trimmings for the big day, and went to try and find a neck pillow that I was after in the gifts area. After ten minutes of staring at shelves and being bumped by badly driven trolleys, I gave up and asked another Santa-hatted member of staff if she knew of their whereabouts.
She explained that they didn't stock them in that particular branch, and apologized to me for their lacking. I gave her a smile and said 'No need to apologize, it's not your fault'.
Her eyes glistened with tears of happiness, and I thought she was going to hug me for not shouting or screaming at her for not having the pillow.
I ventured off to the fruit & veg area with her parting cry of 'God bless you, and have a wonderful Christmas!' ringing in my ears.
After what felt like an eon, but was more likely an hour, I had filled my trolley and decided I'd had enough of other shoppers stamping on me and trying to run their trolleys into me, so I joined one of the very long queues at the tills, and waited patiently for my turn to hand over too much money.
I unloaded my turkey and so, and went to grab a bag, when the cashier chap (also wearing a Santa hat) hello'ed me, and gave a small smile before apologizing for the long queues and the wait.
He burst into fits of giggles when I replied, 'It's not your fault it's so busy, blame Jesus!'
Next year, I'm going to take advantage of the 24 hour opening and do the shopping at 3am.
Either that, or get someone else to do the shopping.

Anyway, now it's nearly all over now, and I'm sharing the last of the turkey with Pudsey, and enjoying my pressies, being:

A new mobile phone, which takes piccies and records stuff*
The money to go and buy me a neck pillow
A bottle of my favourite bath oil and a candle
Three Bonios**
A food parcel from Germany

What did you lot get? Anything exciting, or a lump of coal?

*Second hand, but new to me.
**You can guess who that's from.