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And so our Christmas vacation begins!

To kick off our holiday vacay, we decided to get in some last minute shopping.
Did I mention we have a new mall in Cartagena?
Like, a real mall, with a department store that is two levels!
It's kind of a big deal around here and since Matt hadn't had to opportunity to experience it, we thought it was only appropriate to spend the afternoon there.

We browsed through all the new stores and ohh-ed and ahh-ed over things that we've been searching for the last 20 months and are now only a cab ride away.
Unlike the States, there wasn't much of a last minute Christmas rush, which made me a much merrier shopper.
{Can you imagine the line etiquette in a rush situation?}

After making a few purchases, we sauntered over to a store that is not on my nice list. Mostly because I'm pretty sure they don't have air conditioning and each time I purchase something there, I stand in line for a ridiculous amount of time, sweating.
I digress.
We were looking for a yoga mat.
Not an easy find here in Colombia.
I've only been hunting for 6 months.
I digress. again.

While not finding said yoga mat, we did find something else that felt like a bit of a Christmas miracle.
Matt likes to drink Jameson. Thankfully we've always been able to find it at our local grocery store.
Until a few weeks ago.
Christmas vacay with no Jameson is not what Sr. McQuinn had in mind.
So when we discovered a full liquor aisle with several bottles of Jameson,
someone's Christmas wish had been granted.

I'm sure you can guess how the rest of the story goes.
The liquor bottle is not actually in the box, so the checkout girl has to send someone to retrieve the bottles. After about 16 minutes, a different man returns with 4 bottles of Jameson.
Now there is only 3 boxes for the 4 bottles since the box was given to the original retriever. We then wait approximately 9 minutes for the box to be found.
The best part was Matt wore an easy-going grin the whole time...
full of good will and cheer after that little miracle.


The rest of our afternoon was spent baking scones while sipping mulled wine,
watching Christmas movies,
and enjoying the beginning of our holiday together.