Shopping For Alison

Last night Alison and I were out looking for a winter coat and snowpants, which has not been that easy to find. There are lots of snowsuits, but not a lot of two piece sets in the size we need. I saw one I really liked at Walmart, early last month, and of course, now, when I'm ready to buy it, they have almost no winter coats at all, let alone the coat and snowpants I had wanted to buy. Anyway, during our shopping trip, I came across the most beautiful little dress coats. They were all wool with faux fur around the cuffs and hood. They had them in red, pink, and navy blue. I've really been wanting to get Alison a dress coat (after all, what fun is it to have a little girl if you can’t buy her all that girly stuff), and the red coat was just what I had in mind. And then I saw the price tag.....$118. That’s right, one hundred and eighteen dollars. And then I saw the sale sign....40% off. Oh, I wanted that coat so badly. They even had one in Alison’s size. I stood there for a good five minutes talking to Alison about the coat and even held it up in front of her to see what it would look like. She would be adorable in it. In the end, though, I put it back. Even though I know that my own dress coat was somewhere in the $200 range (don’t know the exact price....it was a Christmas gift from my parents), I just couldn’t justify spending $75 dollars on a coat for a 15 month old that she would only wear to church for one winter. But I love that coat!