Annual Christmas Shopping Trip....Revised

Most of you know that I was in public education in the States, serving in the various roles of teacher, counselor, principal throughout my 19 years of service.  Each year I received at least two days of personal leave that were for just that - personal time off of your choice.  So around holiday time I would take one personal day, and Gaylord and I would go Christmas shopping.  We would choose a city and spend the whole day just shopping, eating out, and taking in the sights, smells, and sounds of the Christmas season.  What great memories!

Well, this year it seems that I have missed all of the festivities of Christmas more than I have in years past.  I haven't given in to the temptation to turn "Scrooge".  Instead, I have decorated our home and even decided to re-institute the annual Christmas shopping trip.  Gaylord must sense that I am struggling a bit because he got up bright and early and cheerfully went from spot to spot with no grumbling or complaining and even asked if there was anywhere else I wanted to go at the end of the morning.

That was a great offer, but considering that we had gone to almost every possible location for viable shopping alternatives short of the open market, he was pretty safe.  But I must say that I had a fun day.  I even documented it so that you could enjoy with me.  So get ready - we're going Christmas shopping in Lilongwe, Malawi.

(1)  SHOPRITE is a local grocery store that is a South African chain store.  My main priority for the day was to fill some food baskets for distribution, so this was a perfect choice.

  

From the photos you can see that SHOPRITE offers more than just food.  This could actually serve as one-stop shopping for many.  But not for these elves.  It was on to...

(2) FOUR SEASONS NURSERY COMPLEX - Four Seasons is a local nursery that is housed in a mini- shopping mall.  There are several little shops and a couple of restaurants.  After browsing the shops and looking at the creative nativity sets, we enjoyed a tasty chicken salad with iced tea at BUCHANAN'S GRILL.  The falling precipitation and cooler temperatures made it feel like many December shopping trips in Texas.

 

(3) NATIONAL BANK - what shopping trip would be complete without refurbishing the cash fund?  That was our purpose in stopping at the ATM, but it was raining so hard that Gaylord didn't get a snapshot.

(4) SUNBIRD CAPITAL HOTEL at City Center has two or three gift shops that I wanted to check out.  While I browsed, Gaylord got a snapshot of the outdoor lounge area.

(5) FOODWORTH - With limited success we made the final stop of the day at another of our grocery shops.  This store tends to carry certain food items that Americans are accustomed to.  With an additional item here and there, we were headed for home.

Fortunately for me, I got everything I needed,  compiled the food baskets I wanted to make, and even played Santa's helper and put them under the tree.

 

 

I determined a long time ago in my life that I could choose to bemoan the fact that there were certain things that I did not have, or I could make the best of the wonderful things that I did.  That proved a very wise choice for me today.  So let the annual Christmas shopping trips continue!