The Corelle Store

The day after Christmas shopping is always a big fun adventure for the Sheas, and this Christmas we hit pay dirt! We started out going to Walmart and Target but the real find was when we went to the Super Mall. Now the Super Mall is huge, in fact my sister-in-law was a pilot for United Air Lines and she told me that pilots use it as a point of reference from the air because it is so big. They call it "The Mall Approach".


The Super Mall is shapped in a big oval, so you can go around the whole thing and end up where you started. We started at Burlington Coat Factory, we particularly liked the millinary shop where we had to all try on hats. After that little adventure, we made our way to The Childrens Place, The Game Store, and Dress Barn. We finally made it to the food court where we saw THE CORELLE STORE. Now Kati had wanted some dishes from that store for months so I told her to go and see if they were on sale. She rushed back with the grand news that EVERYTHING in the store was 50% off because they were closing that store. Fifty percent off was just too good of a deal to pass on so we all marched into THE STORE.We felt like we were little kids in a candy store. After about a half of an hour Kati had to be taken back home to a party, so I bought the few things that I had picked out and told everyone that I would take her home and come back and meet them wherever they ended up and we would finish going through The Mall. So 45 minutes later I arrived back and called them to find out where they were. Yes they were still at the Corelle Store. Kimmie had finished purchasing what she wanted and was sitting outside the store with Mazie, Aftynn and Anna. I looked at what she had purchased and found something else I wanted that she had found so I went back into the store searching for more treasures, which of course I found. Lolly then found Kimmie and I outside the store and found that we had something else that she wanted and Lolly had found something Kimmie wanted. This was when I stayed outside with the girls and Lolly and Kimmie went back in to scope out all of the other things that they had missed. Scott and Mickelle had found a cart and piled it high with many wonderful things and were sitting in a corner trying to decide just what they had to have, so Betsy came out to play with the girls.

At this time we had been at the Corelle Store for over 4 hours. We were all hungry and tired and had only made it a fourth of the way around the Mall. We decided to go home and come back the next day. That was a great plan until we all got home and saw what everyone else had picked out and realized that we all had to have something else from the wonderful Corelle Store. We had to send Kati back to pick us all up something that we had forgotten that we desperately needed to have. Kati was a sport and returned with many more treasures for us all and a few that we had missed for herself. Of course, when we saw what she had found we knew that we had to go back the next day.

We all had our lists of what we just had to have as we marched back into the Mall the following day, and low and behold they had even more stuff, yes things that we had missed and things that they had brought out from the back room. It was Christmas Morning all over again. I don't even remember how long we stayed in that stupid store, but we all left with several and I mean several bags of goodies. Lolly told me she was not allowed to go back into that store, in fact I was to keep her out of all of the stores at the Mall altogether.

Scott and Mickelle had spent the day in Seattle and when they called to see where we were and I told them we were back at the Mall they were excited to join us. At this time Kimmie had gone back to Portland and Lolly and Kati were ready to go home, so I met Scott and Mickelle and we then made our way back to, you guessed it, The Corelle Store. I was sure that there was not a thing in that store that I had not looked at and that I was safe in going back with them. Oh how I was wrong. Again I left with more stuff and was tempted to tell Scott and Mickelle that I was not allowed to go into anymore stores in the Mall, but Victoria Secret and giving away free lip gloss and how could you not take advantage of that.

I have to say that I was rather pleased with all of my purchases, and yet as I am sitting here in San Diego, they are all in Seattle. There was no room for them in my suit case. I was so sad to have to leave my wonderful found treasures behind. In fact I went to make some mini muffins the other day thinking I could use my new pans and remembered that I didn't have them with me. Lolly had better not try to steal my mini muffin pans.

Now the thing that made me laugh about this whole adventure is when we all got back to our various homes, Mickelle wrote a comment on her Facebook that I absolutely loved and still smile at as I think about it. She wrote, "How many of you got home and realized that you needed something else from The Corelle Store, and how is that even possible?" The real Kicker is that we all replied with "I totally remembered something else I should have looked for", and to quote Mickelle, "How is that even Possible?"

The truly funny thing is that we never did get all the way through the Mall. We got stuck in that one little corner and I am sure that we missed many more great deals. How sad is that, who knows there could have been a 75% off sale going on somewhere else that we totally missed out on. Oh it breaks my heart to even think about that possiblity! But of course there is always Next Year!!!