Breakfast wasn’t bad, but Nina and I were more concerned with the shopping ahead, than stocking up on grub! Today was the day we hit the fun places and en route, we saw a freakish amount of (I assume wild) cats…

We started in Yankee Candle, where Col informed the lady that we were going to be there a while, to which she replied, ‘we’re open til 10’ LOL!  We both (Helena and I, not Col and I!) did a LOT of shopping in there, I finished Christmas presents and re-stocked my own personal supply of Yankee Candles that had dwindled to ‘holiday’ candles only – and, since we’re almost past Christmas, I *needed* a new candle or two (and for $15 who could complain?!).

Next up, it was off to Bath and Body works to pick up a few bits for Magz – that was all either of us picked up as the deals weren’t particularly great at all – disappointing!  We moved on to Columbia sportswear where we were in the market for a warm coat to take with us Skiing in February.

We each found one (Col’s is like this only black with a red stripe if memory serves me right!)  Columbia was having a sale, RRP was over $200, it was down to $100 and they had a 30% off sale so we got them for $70 a piece – not bad at all, and they’ll definitely come in handy when I go and visit Amber in Iowa during winter again!!!

Lastly, but by no means least, we hit up Aeropostale, a shop that, in theory, *should* be way too cool for people like me, however, I love it in there.  I have bought a few shirts in the past, last time I bought a purple zippy hoody and some gloves/scarves for skiing and this time, I picked up a grey zippy, and Col picked up a couple of hoodies and a pair of $8 trousers – score!

Stopping for a quick (and yum, as always) Chick-fil-A lunch, we headed back on our merry way to Houston.  Back at home, we unloaded the car…

Helena spent a while packing, unpacking, re-packing, stressing, panicking, unpacking and re-packing her cases to try and fit everything that she’d bought in.  I wish I could have filmed it, it was kind of funny…though pretty stressful.  In the end, we told her to leave a bunch of stuff and we’d take it home for her in our luggage in the new year.

For dinner, we headed to our local Mexican restaurant Lupe Tortillas for some fajitas (and perhaps a sneaky margarita for me too!)  Helena liked it, it wasn’t her favourite place to eat here in Houston, but it was a nice experience.

After dinner, we took a wee spin around our subdivision, to look at everyone’s Christmas lights around the local neighbourhoods.

We decided to drop in to Garden Ridge to have a nosy for some Christmas ornaments and spent an unplanned amount of time there!

I managed to pick up half a dozen Halloween tombstones for less than $1 (most less than 50c) a piece – my house is gonna be class next Halloween! LOL!

En route home, we may or may not have stopped off for ice cream at Marble Slab – but that, I cannot confirm or deny 😉

Friday was a sad day, drop off at the airport went quickly, smoothly (we even got to ride in an inter-terminal train!) and Helena got her luggage through without a hitch, which was, lets face it, the main concern!

We really enjoyed having her here for the week, neither of us wanted her to leave! 🙁