And another thing ....

Something else to dislike about holiday shopping is the problems caused by the sheer volume of crap being bought.
Last week, Keith and I combed through all departments of Target, picking up a myriad of gifts and holiday-related items. To start, we didn't even have a basket. Then we broke down and got a basket halfway through ... and by the time we checked out, our merchandise was bursting out of the basket.

Leaving the store, both of us carried several bags of things that seemed important at the time, but whose contents I haven't a clue about today. (It's probably your present I'm so blase about.)

At home a few days later, I was going through the bags in search of one specific item, and I discovered a bag of stuff that wasn't ours. Several packages of batteries and a cheesy Christmas movie—the kind that's displayed for $5 right next to the register.

I felt terrible; obviously someone had paid for these things and left them on the check-out counter, and we scooped them up with our bags. But what can you do? I'm not making a special trip to return the items to the store. Previous experience tells me that when you try to be a good Samaritan to a large corporation, the counterperson thinks you're crazy, and just wishes you would have kept the free goods and not bothered them with returning it.

Really, I'd want to give the bag to the people who actually paid for it, but we have absolutely no idea who they might be. They did not helpfully leave a business card in the bag, or even a partial name or phone number that we could investigate.

So we kept the bag; it's sitting next to the other bags that we, presumably, purchased. I haven't actually checked them all, come to think of it .... but I feel like I should do something. Don't worry; I won't. Just another thing to annoy me during the holidays!