Finally, Christmas Eve showed in front of the door. My dad's appointment was set in this morning, so I drove him to Virginia Mason. It went pretty smoothly and my dad was very healthy. He is 83 years old but when he was asked to draw a clock to tell the time of 10 past 11, he did it instantly. Even on my mind, I still had to think about it for several seconds. It might be because I tell the time by numbers. It was even more amazing that he repeated three words "Orange, Shoe and Flag" instantly as well. After several minutes, when he was asked to repeat again suddenly, he did it perfectly. His memory is still great at this age.
As planned, I drove my son to Seattle Premium Outlet to buy new clothes and shoes.
He had complained that he didn't have enough pants and shirts and he needed a light but thick winter coat too. He sticked with sporty clothes, so I targeted Nike and Adidas. However, he wanted to try other brands since we had been buying those two every year, he wanted a change. First, we headed to Puma, which offered good deals today.
Eventually, I bought a pair of pants, a long sleeve shirt and a sport jacket at Puma:
Then, we walked to Reebok to see if we could find a pair of shoes he liked. He caught a blue one. Though he is 6'2 1/2'' tall, his foot size is only 10 and there was only one pair of this size on the shelf. I wear size 10 as well but mine may be a little bit larger. Oh, a couple of weeks ago, when I measured his height, I asked him to do it for me to check. I can no longer claim 6' any more. It drops to 5'11 1/2" now. I heard when people get older, the height may be shorten. When I was at his age, I was 182.5 cm, which is barely equivalent to 6', and just back in 2005, I was 6'1/2". Just like my mom, her height drops from 5'5" to 5'3" now. We can't reject agings. I feel a little bit disappointed that my son doesn't play sports. With his height and size, I would play college football. He needs larger feet though. The most talented soccer player, Maradona, is pretty short but his feet are super large. My son should go for a tryout at Peterson's Huskies. It's a joke, he is already in sophomore and isn't very athletic. He actually could run very fast but never developed on it.
In addition to the shoes, I bought him another pair of pants with Reebok's logo on and a light blue sweatshirt. He preferred a dark blue one to fit the color of that pair of pants but couldn't find one.
We came to the outlet very early, there weren't many people there during that period of time. According to the saleswoman at Puma, it might become very crowded after lunchtime. They would close at 6:00 PM on Christmas Eve.
Approaching the parking lot, I viewed the nearby Casino and suggested to my son that we might come to stay over a night here during this break. He wasn't very interested in Casino because he isn't allowed to sit in the gambling area at age of 20. What I thought was that we could go to the restaurants inside the casino to eat while watching shows if the artists don't take break.
As I shared, I bought the tickets at Costco a week ago, so decided to use them for The Hunger Games at Regal attached to Everett Mall. It's still one hour earlier before the show would start, so we planned to have a lunch at nearby Olive Garden first. While approaching it, I noticed another restaurant we had never tried. It's Famous Dave's of which I had seen another one at Alderwood Mall. We walked into it and were seated. While waiting for the drinks, I was excited in catching Bahamas Bowl on TV. By the way, I ordered draft beer because we would hang around the Mall for three hours, I wouldn't need to drive very soon.
I heard my son to order Ribs, which seemed signature dishes at this barbecue restaurant but he eventually ordered Georgia Chopped Pork I hadn't paid attention to until he almost finished it. My focus was on Bahamas Bowl then. I ordered Sweetwater Fish Tacos, which was so delicious.
We got out of the Famous Dave's and walked toward to Regal under the typical cloudy Seattle's winter. I feel lucky that I could breath such fresh air.
It's just several minutes away from starting when we sat into the auditorium in which many audiences had occupied the seats. It's a bit surprise given The Hunger Games having been released for almost a month. It's a very small auditorium anyway.
The two parts of Mcokingjay were not really big makes. However, my son said that the stories of The Hunger Games were not for extraordinary special effects anyway. It's so popular because of so many fans of the novels. Jennifer Lawrence became a lovely wife and mother at the end of the movie.
Finally, we stopped by Sears inside Everett Mall to buy a coat. It fit all of my son's requirements: Thick, Light and Hoody. Shopping all of the clothes and shoes for my son today reminded me my mom doing this every year for me right before Spring Festivals when I was a kid and teen in Beijing, we almost always went to Wanfujing Shopping District, though it was very modest back in 70s and 80s. However, I was often criticized by my high school advisor who was very traditional that I dressed oddly. Wanfujing is very magnificent today as I heard.
This is the coat my son really likes, he will dress it during this break wherever we go to entertain. While taking this photo, I just noticed that its brand name is NordicTrack and made in China. The world is fully connected.
Coming back home fruitfully, I started getting into celebrating mood of Christmas. My plan was to watch movies non-stop through the night. Starting with a traveling movie named Land Ho, I was impressed by the road trip in Iceland.
It reminds me our road trip in Scandinavia this summer. However, I have to say roads in summer are more beautiful. Going back to watch this clip I filmed on E-4 to Uppsala as soon as we drove out of Arlanda, I just realized how hyper I was at that moment. I was probably too excited then.
Actually, it's been a very busy day for me, so I was so tired. After watching this first movie, I moved back to my bedroom and fell into sleep though I kept TV on ESPN on which Hawaii Bowl was being televised. Thursday Night Football on NFL Network also had California Civil War presented but I didn't have a chance to watch either. Both of San Diego and Oakland performed pretty badly anyway in this season.
Ok, it's 3:30 in the morning on Christmas now. Merry Christmas!
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