The great cranberry sauce escapade

Christmas Day started out pretty low-key. We just hung out, trying to stay out of the way while dinner preparations were begun. It was the first time in years that I wasn’t doing Christmas dinner, so it almost didn’t feel like Christmas. So when Katie asked us to run out for some cranberry sauce, we just jumped into the car and headed for the grocery store. Which was closed, of course. Down the road was an open store, which turned out to be an Asian market. It was a neat place, but not only did they not have cranberry sauce, I’m not sure they knew what we were asking for. We then came across a Walgreens. They have a small food section, so we tried our luck there. They had one can of the jellied version left, which we bought. We regarded this as only a partial victory, since we weren’t sure (a) one would be enough and (b) whether we were supposed to get this kind or the whole berry kind. So on we went. We found a Subway restaurant where two police cars were parked, so Jim did his “I’m from Cleveland, my daughter sent me out for some cranberry sauce, do you know where there’s an open grocery store?” routine. They sent us to an Albertson’s, which was closed. In the meantime, we found a Mexican grocery store which only had the jellied sauce in stock, so we bought one can, just in case the can we bought at Walgreen's wasn't enough. But we were still in search of the whole berry sauce. A few consultations with the rental car company map, and we wound our way to a retail district that I recognized, having already been there with Katie, where there was another grocery store. Not only was it open, but it had lots of both kinds of sauce. We grabbed two cans of the whole berry stuff and headed to the checkout. Then it got kind of weird. The clerk asked us if we had a preferred card. We said no, we’re from out-of-town. Do we have a Safeway Card (it was owned by Safeway)? No, we said, but we have an old Dominick’s card from when we lived in Chicago. She practically squealed when she told us that’ll work! So using our old phone number we got the sale price on our two cans of sauce. Off we went, feeling we had saved Christmas and relishing (ooh – sorry!) our little Christmas adventure.

The fruits of our labor! (pun definitely intended!).