Extravagant Generosity

My husband and I have both been blessed to be born into such loving, generous families. And both of our families have managed to be generous with us, while never neglecting to teach us the value of good, old-fashioned hard work and diligence. Ok. Now that I've laid that foundation ... let me tell you about a wonderful, extravagant, splurge of generosity I get to experience annually:



Remember back-to-school clothes shopping back when you were a kid? After I graduated college, Mom and I just morphed that concept into the annual Nordstrom's Pre-Fall sale. And now that I'm a mature (??), grown-up, 40-something mom with kids of my own who need to be taken on their annual "back-to-school" shopping expeditions (which really should be a blog post of its own. shopping with boys is NOT like shopping with girls...) ... well, Mom and I still head out annually and I buy lunch for us, and Mom buys everything else. :-)

Here are a few photos from our delightful afternoon last week:

We start with yummy lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. We've gotta have some sustenance to build our shopping stamina, after all...


And we're off. Such a pretty mall this is. See, here's the skylight I photographed right as the security guard came over and told me to stop.


Here's my Mom (isn't she cute?) out on the bridge over to the other gigantic part of the mall (the designer part, where you're supposed to dress the part. I don't ever go there. It's not my style. Or my spending preference. But, hey, we were on an adventure, eh?). Mr. Security Guard didn't tell me I couldn't take pictures outdoors; nonetheless, I snapped them fast and packed away the camera.


We finished our outing with fish and chips by the harbor. 'Twas a fine, fine afternoon.


Thanks, Mom (and Dad!) for a fun, fun tradition!