Working jewelry alone on Christmas eve is madness. And training someone? Forget it. Did your manager think the trainee would be able to pitch in and help? Please. Trainees only slow you down! My favorite “working alone in jewelry” moment was when a shopper came in with an ad and asked for some specific piece of…

Oh yeah, NOBODY was open on Thanksgiving day back then. I absolutely refuse to shop on Thanksgiving, no matter how good the sales are, since even lowly retail workers should be able to enjoy holidays with their families. Here is my shameful secret: one day a couple of years ago, I was zoned out in my own little world…

It’s been about 10 years since I worked there, and one development that I really don’t like is how they’ve been eroding holiday time off. When I worked there, we closed at 6 on Christmas eve, which was still too late for my church’s Christmas eve service, but at least it wasn’t 10! Who is still shopping at 10:00 on…

It really is a terrible way to spend the Christmas season. For every person who just needed a little help and politely asked for it, there were 100 assholes. And the hours were a killer, not to mention being understaffed so you never quite got all the breaks you were entitled to . . . my feet never stopped hurting.…

Could be. They only played it a few times that season, so apparently someone at corporate realized that it was a terrible choice. Anyway, I only heard it a few times and never really heard all the lyrics, so the only part that stuck with me was the “It’s Christmas and I want everything” chorus, which, while being…

I worked at Kohl’s for a while. One Christmas season (Christmas at Kohl’s is a complete nightmare, if you were wondering), I literally stopped at looked up at the speakers in disgust the first time I heard this:

I’m so frustrated by women who think that you can’t be strong and feminine at the same time! I bake cookies like a BAMF, OK?

Seriously. A lot of people don’t live in McMansions and don’t have the space for a giant dollhouse. The other bonus is that it’s small enough to take with you. My mom was a genius, so the dollhouse lived in her trunk and I only got to play with it at the sitter’s house. Apparently, that was the only way to reconcile…

When my cousins bring their kids over to my parents’ house, Mom drags out my Little People house for the kids to play with. They love it (nearly) as much as I did!

The original is a pretty good design, really. Simple, has everything you need except for a refrigerator, and with a drop-leaf table to save space.

I forgot about this toy! My brother had it—he was sooooo cute bouncing his way across the living room.

I never bothered asking for an American Girl doll because I knew they were too expensive, but I wanted Kirsten SO BAD. Glad you got to enjoy Addie!

Are you me?

Goldeneye and Mario Kart were and are the only two video games I ever learned to play, mostly because my 3 little brothers desperately wanted a 4th player, and their big sis is a sucker. I kept getting stuck in corners though :( You could see me flailing away on one of my brothers’ screens as he snuck up behind me to…

That chart idea is adorable. I love it!

We got pinched so many times! And my dad (SAFETY MAN! TO THE RESCUE!) Was very concerned that somebody was going to be seriously injured. Even after 4 kids, he never really chilled out about getting hurt.

We inherited that horse from an older cousin. Good times. My middle brother in particular came near to killing himself on that a few times.

Ethel? Ethel! Look at the birdy! LOOK AT THE BIRDY!

Well, my mom keeps the stack of them in her desk drawer so we can enjoy the retrospective gallery every year, so they are still around. Maybe I can get them from her. I’d also have to include the one year when they all just wore khakis and matching sweaters. We were all SO DISAPPOINTED.

Every year, my family looks forward to getting the Christmas card from my dad’s cousin who lives in Beverly Hills. She married a Greek millionaire (like a Harlequin romance novel!) and has adorable blonde children. They wear costumes (really, one year they were all wearing costumes straight out of the court of Louis…