Christmas shopping is can be a drag, but at least there's always the benefit of being able to do some serious people watching. Wherever you go, you can find frantic people just wishing they could get the heck out of where they are as quickly as possible. Some people just want others to do their shopping for them. At Target, I heard a a grandmotherly woman ask a college aged girl working there what the best toy was to give a four year old boy. The girl looked at the shelf in front of her, read the displayed recommended ages of the toys sitting there and told the woman, "these toys here are excellent for a four year old. I'm sure he'd like them." I believe she grabbed one and went on her way. It didn't look like anything a four year old boy would enjoy playing with, if you ask me. I was one once, but apparently, for grandma, the chick wearing the red shirt is an expert.
We struck out at Target ourselves, and so headed towards Toys R Us. I'm in Toys R Us once a year, always within a week of Christmas. We had no idea where anything was located, and so we muddled along, trying to locate the Playmobile toys, since we heard rumor that these would be major hits with some of the kids. I hate wasting time, so I grabbed the closest employee I could find to give us directions. She apparently didn't know where they were located, so she consulted with a bespectacled colleague, who chose to ignore her and just answered us directly by telling us they were in aisle two.
I looked around, and saw an "aisle 2" right behind us, an aisle I had already checked out. I looked back at him with a confused look and asked him if he meant this aisle. He looked perturbed, rolled his eyes, and said, "No...it's aisle two behind the Imaginarium."
Steve and I looked at each other, with amused confusion, and I asked him to repeat what he had said.
"The Imaginarium. Just over there." This was said in a tone that clearly showed that we should be cognizant of the existence of such a thing.
Turning to his colleague, he said, "why don't you just show them." I'm convinced I heard a dismissive "tst...uh" as we walked away.
I chuckled at his assumption that we would have a clue what the "Imaginarium" was, and that he believed this was a useful direction to give two middle-aged guys in his store the week before Christmas.
I mentioned to the helpful tour guide that perhaps Toys R Us needed a map for their different "lands," and she thought it was a good idea. I mused openly about the source for the coining of this neologism--I decided it must be an Aquarium for the Imagination, where the creative minds of little children swim like fish through the aisles of the wondrous Imaginarium. It turns out that the Imaginarium is where they keep all their arts and crafts junk. It's a glorified Back To School aisle. Need some crayons? Swing by the Imaginarium. Glue sticks? You know where to go. You can also find pirate toys there. I guess that confirms my supposition that this has something to do with Aqua. Where there's water, there's gonna be pirates.We didn't find any Playmobile, but I did enjoy mocking the Imaginarium, so it wasn't a wasted trip.
Later that day, we took a spin through a Christian bookstore, and as I meandered through the aisles there, I stumbled upon a couple of items that I think would fit well with Sherry's very amusing list of the Twelve Days of Christmas, over at her blog. If you haven't been over to her site to see these, it's worth a look--pretty funny stuff.
Here's something sure to please the young Christian soldier of faith in the family, the Armor of God Teddy Bear. He's cute, cuddly, and the righteousness rubs off on your child while he sleeps!
For the teen set, try this DVD on for size. Look up in the sky...is it a bird? Is it a plane? No...it's BIBLEMAN! This DVD is jampacked with action and special FX that Hollywood can only hope to imitate! Scene after scene sucks the viewer into the suspenseful tale of Bibleman's newest adventure, Terminating the Toxic Tonic of Disrespect. If your young teen is suffering from a mocking spirit and a disrespectful attitude, well, giving him this DVD will make you cool in his book, and teach him how toxic dissin' you really is! Pop some popcorn and get ready for the fun to begin!
3 comments:
christians are so dorky. pass the bibleman please.
I love the Lo-ward!
I'm a few days behind on the blog scene, taking a break for Christmas and all.
I like days 13 and 14 very much and am honored that you've added them to my list.
Bibleman was a big hit with my son and his buddies when they were between the ages of five and seven. He had two of the videos, the official Bibleman Bible and the cape and mask set. Nice. Did you see who plays Bibleman himself? None other than Willie Aames, of Eight is Enough and Charles in Charge. That was some of the corniest stuff we'd ever seen, but oddly amusing, too. It reminded us very much of the original Batman series, complete with the BIFFs, POWs and ZOWIEs and a little Robin-ish sidekick.
Cornball, yes, but very manly, action-heroish (not much different really than the cheesy grown-up action flicks, if you ask me) and my five year old son could quote, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might," like nobody's business.
I think we still have the cape down in the costume trunk.
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