The Mall

Day 15: Caramel

Very nice! I love caramel, even more than I love chocolate, and I love chocolate, so I enjoyed this puffy confection.

Day 16: Strawberry Cheesecake

Also very nice! The strawberry tasted very natural in this cloud of sweetness.

I braved the mall today. I have not shopped at a mall during holiday season for years and years and years. But I waited just a tad too long this year to get appropriate presents for my loved ones, so today was The Day.

Now, keep in mind that this is King of Prussia mall, which is actually two full-size malls connected by a very fancypants wing that includes Tiffany, Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Jimmy Choo, David Yurman, Hermes... you get the idea. The sort of shops that have guards at the door and lines to keep the crowds down.

And you know what? It wasn't bad at all. In fact, it was downright easy. Here are ten reasons why.

1. I went before lunch. Not a lot before lunch, but enough.
2. There was plenty of parking. I found a space quite close to one of the main doors of the mall. I chose this area because I thought that it was close to both of the shops I wanted to visit.
3. There were no crowds! It wasn't empty by any means, but it was more like a typical weekday rather than a Saturday before Christmas.
4. Even the line for Santa Claus was pretty short!
5. The first shop had an almost equal number of associates and shoppers. Wow.
6. Alas, the second shop I was interested in was nowhere near the first. But the lovely associate looked up the second shop on the mall map for me and told me how to get there. Thank you ma'am! I doubt if that would have happened in a typical Christmas crush.
7. So, up two escalators, traverse the fancypants wing, check an interactive info board to make sure I was on the right track, down one escalator, and boom. I didn't get run into even once! A couple close calls, but they were easy to dodge.
8. The second shop was similarly uncrowded, although it had more shoppers than the first. Even so, there was no line at the register and the associate had time to package my purchase properly.
9. The parking lot was a little bit fuller, but there was no traffic prowling the aisles and no one followed me back to my parking spot.
10. I was home within an hour and a half, after finding everything I wanted to find, and without getting frazzled and fried.

It's a Christmas miracle!