A year ago, the building for my town's first Whole Foods was completed. It was going into the brand new shopping center that replaced the old run-down mall that was torn down a few years ago. At the time, about half of the stores had tenants. There were several places to eat, a nice new movie theater (the only one in town, and after the mall was torn down, there was none within ten miles for years), a Sam's Club still under construction, and a doomed Sports Authority. There are other natural and organic markets in town, but as South Park so effectively pointed out, Whole Foods has a certain cachet that the other's don't convey. (Besides, it is my very favorite place to eat lunch, at the salad bar.) So we all watched expectantly as the construction wrapped up at the new store, the signage went up, and the lights stayed on while they installed the fixtures. They told us there was a little delay, and it would be January when they opened. And when January came and went, they told us it would be December. People all over town were disappointed at the delay. There were angry letters to the editor of the paper. There were Debby Downers who said it would never open, and along with the bankrupt Sports Authority, it would pull down the new shopping center that the city had invested so much time and tax money in.
A few weeks ago, they gave us a hard date. They said it would open December 14th. They tied in promotions. The Can'd Aid Foundation (of the Oskar Blues brewery) held a bike-building event on Saturday, and this morning a large group of disadvantaged children (I think it was said there were 113?) showed up to tour the grand opening of the store, and each received a donated bicycle. The paper said there would be drawings for gift cards and free stuff around the store, but apparently that was all over by the time we showed up for shopping and lunch at the salad bar. All that was left was a gigantic crowd of locals who all had the same idea we did. I never saw the "bargains" that we were told would be there, except a pretty nice cheese for five bucks a pound. I bought two bags of stuff and two salad bar plates, and spent 90 dollars. I'm not surprised. Still, I'm happy that after all this wait, the store is finally open.
I don't know whether it was the cold, the fact that I was out in it, wearing red and green, or the sound of seasonal music being piped through loudspeakers in a parking lot. Something got me a little more in the spirit. Yesterday we finally acquired a tree (and procrastinating saved us 35%). Today I cued up the holiday music station and started draping lights all over it. I'm starting to feel it. And I'm starting to spread the cheer, it seems. After dinner, I heard the TV come on downstairs, loudly through the surround sound. It was time for our annual tradition. We used to watch Muppet Christmas Carol with the kids every year. This time it was just for us, but we each texted a picture of the screen to one of the kids. Mine was just of the rooftops of the model London from the opening credits, with no accompanying explanation. Younger child knew exactly what I was watching. Here we were, two middle-aged empty nesters, singing along with Muppets. If that isn't the true spirit of Christmas, I don't know what is.
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