A s with other years, this was no different, Sharon and I planned to go Christmas shopping together, then separate for an hour or two to go our separate ways and shop.

I began the plans for the shopping trip almost a week or so before the actual date. Since the last few trips out with Rob I always wanted to wear something short and sexy in public and to show off my best assets. So, as I started to go through my wardrobe I started pulling out all of the pieces that would make not only a sexy look, but a business one at that, as I always liked blending into public as a woman from the office. One of the other things I love to do on these yearly shopping trips, and all of the other trips out that I take, is to try to wear something new, something that I have not worn before. So after several blouses, skirts, heels, and hose were tried on, I decided to wear exactly what I wore last year during the shopping trip, except instead of wearing a turtleneck, I wore a sheer sexy white blouse. So my look to go shopping consisted of a red single- breasted silk jacket, the sheer white blouse underneath, my little black suede skirt, sheer nearly black stockings, and 3 inch heels.

Sharon and I planned for a complete day, firstly, shopping at my favorite mall, then to lunch, then to two more stops, one was a bridal shop (of course), to "fantasy" shop for a holiday formal, and to check on Sharon's bridesmaids dress for a wedding next year, and finally a trip to a value discount shopping mall, and finally home.

The day was a Friday, and after Sharon left early in the morning to take our children to the baby-sitters, and left me to get ready for the day. I went through the normal routine of getting ready, i.e., shaving close and watching as my body was transformed into a woman that I always loved to see. I applied my makeup, as per my "business usual", and that entailed, purple and pink eyeshadows, black eyeliner, light pink blush and darker than normal pinkish red lipstick. I did my makeup after changing into my lingerie for the day, which was a satin red pair of panties, padded bra, padded girdle, and a pure white camisole. Over my lingerie, I slipped on my satin pink makeup coat and went through the makeup routine.

I found myself rushing at the last minute as the time flew by faster than I thought, and I found myself slipping into my clothes for the day. The skirt felt fantastic as I slipped up my legs and loved the look of the see-through blouse as I slipped on my jacket for the day. After quickly packing my purse, slipping a pair of nude colored pantyhose in case I had a problem with my sheer nearly-black pantyhose, and making sure my lipstick was packed, I was ready and left the bedroom and met Sharon.

Sharon looked me over, and when I asked her how she thought I looked, she smiled and said "well, a lot better than me!", And I felt special as I knew what she meant, as I looked like the perfect business woman. Sharon helped me into my spring coat, and we headed down to the garage in our townhouse to leave for the day. On the way tot he shopping mall, Sharon and I talked and discussed what we were going to do for the day.

Once at the mall Sharon and I made our way into the Bay and walked through the isles together, seeing all of the wonderful clothes and sights. I mentioned to Sharon that I had to use the ladies room and as we walked towards the entrance through the main mall through the Bay Sharon and I separated for the hour and a half we talked about.

I entered the ladies room by myself I felt all of the emotions that I usually feel when I enter a "woman's" domain. I made my way to the long row of stalls that lined the ladies room, and entered one stall. I sat down and did my "business", and proceeded to fix myself up, when it happened, for the third time in a row, I put a run in my ultra sheer and sexy black pantyhose, and I was so disappointed. I had planned the recovery from this event, and reached in my purse and pulled out the pair of alternate nude colored pantyhose. After slipping them on, on fixed myself up and left the stall and disposed of the pantyhose in the garbage before leaving the ladies room for the fun of the day.

Normally when I leave the washroom, I cannot help but stop at the lingerie department of the large department store, but this trip was different, I really had no need for more panties, or camisoles, etc., so I browsed a little over a couple of really pretty merry widows, and saw the price and simply moved on!.

The first store I entered was a clothing store that catered mainly to women, Stitches, and the clothes were for the most part for younger women. I started looking over the clothes in the store, when almost immediately I spotted an outfit that I fell in love with immediately, it was a black jump-dress that had a top of pink angora with a length that sat just about "navel" length, and was so sexy and pretty that I had to try it on. I made my way to the back of the store with the outfit in my hands, and on the way, I was greeted by a salesgirl that asked me if I was trying the outfit on, to which I responded yes, and she showed me to the change rooms.

I tried on the outfit, but found that the jumper portion of the outfit was too tight, and realized that I chose a size 11/12 of the jumper and 13/14 of the short top, and I poked my head out of the change area and signaled the salesgirl to come and give me a hand. I asked her to get another jumper, and when she came back, I tried it on and it was perfect. I left the change area and was modeling it in front of the mirrors by the change areas, and I noticed that the other girls in the area were looking at the outfit and me, and that made me feel so special. The salesgirl then came over and looked at me, and commented that it looked great on me, and asked if I was going to take it, well!, when she commented on the outfit, I was sold from that point on. I changed back into my skirt and jacket and took the ensemble to the front, and for the first time ever, I used a credit card, one with my name on it!, and it was a small but wonderful thrill.

I left the store with my new ensemble and started down a route that I have done year after year, I started seeing all of the stores that I have seen before, and was noticing all of the other women that were dressed for business, and I was thrilled.

One of the stores that I always stop in was an accessory shop, and as I started walking towards the store, I realized that I had gotten dressed and had forgotten to put on some earrings, and so, I usually pick up some long dangly earrings every year, and decided that I would pick up some to wear for the day!. I found two pair of earrings and they were perfect, long and just my style, clip-on. This time when I paid for them, it was by cash, and not credit card.

I started walking through the mall, browsing in a few stores, and then a store that the year before I bought a lovely pink angora sweater, I saw and decided that I would go into again. The store was a woman's clothing store, and basically caters to the more sophisticated woman, and is rather pricy. I started browsing and was noticing that they had stocked a large number of holiday party dresses. The dresses were wonderful, mainly the selection was velvet and very pretty, and after looking at the dresses carefully, I noticed that the designer was NU-Mode, a manufacturer that I had several dresses of already. The store was broken into two parts, one for regular women sized, and the other for petites. I left the regular sized part of the store and went back into the mall and started walking, and were I walked past was the petite side of the store.

I glanced into the petite part of the store, and like some of the movies that show an angelic vision shining down on and object, I saw that same thing, and this time it was shining down on a dress. A sparkly dress, one that not only caught my eye, but almost drew me to its beauty. I went into the store and took the dress off the rack, and it was stunning. A blue silk dress, designed for the petite woman, with thousands, and thousands of tiny sequins attached to it, making the dress stunning to even look at. I was approached by a saleslady when I was studying the dress, and she asked if I would like to try the dress on, to which I replied yes!. She showed me the way to the very classy mirrored change rooms and change area.

I slipped out of the clothes that I was wearing and tried slipping into the dress, and noticed the way the shoulders were padded and the way the dress was very form fitting and I could not imagine how elegant and sexy the dress made me look. Unfortunately, the dress was a little too tight, and I could not get the zipper done up. Well, I decided to venture out of the stall and look for the saleslady that served me the first time, and I finally flagged her down and I asked her to get me another size. She came back with the next size up and informed me that she hoped it would fit as that was the largest size in the petite size. I slipped the dress on and it fit like a glove and I loved the way it looked and ventured out into the viewing area of the change rooms and started modeling the dress back and forth. I was in absolute heaven as I saw how the dress looked on me, and I did not even hesitate when the saleslady startled and asked if I was going to take the dress. I of course told her yes, and she told me that I looked "stunning" and "elegant" in the dress and it was perfect for me, and flattered my figure.

I was estatic and new that I hadf to have the dress, this woman was good and she had just made a sale of a very expensive and elegant dress.

I changed back into my skirt and blouse and made my way to the cash desk, and I was greeted by an attractive salesgirl who loved the dress and asked what the dress was for and I told her it was for a Christmas party, and she told me it was one of the most stunning dresses in the store. For the second time in my life, out came the credit card, and $220 later, I had another dream dress to wear, and another major debit to cover!.

I left the store with my purchase and started walking down the mall again and finally decided to look at my watch, and lone behold, I had spent my hour and a half in just the two stores and had to make my way back to meet Sharon. The trip down the rest of the mall was uneventful, and as I met Sharon, I kind of felt bad, as I had spent over an hour and a half purchasing things for myself.

Sharon was waiting for me at the place we had chosen, and after seeing me, she asked me if I was all finished, and I told her that I was finished as far as I wanted to for the day. Sharon and I then left for the day and head back out to the van.

Sharon then drove us to the next stop on our day of shopping and that was to the restaurant that was in Burlington. As we pulled into the restaurant it was so special, as it was the actual restaurant that Rob and I had gone to for that special dinner several months ago. It was so different being with Sharon, but it was real nice and it felt great walking back into the hotel. Sharon and I had chosen this restaurant, as it was just down the road from the bridal shop, and we decided on going to it after the lunch, as I wanted to make sure that I could see the most people when we arrived. When we walked in the door, we almost walked out, as we found the restaurant was a "fish" house and that is somehting we are not either fond of, but after finding that they served other foods, we decided to stay.

Lunch was not really anything exciting, but one of the highlights was going to the washroom, and this washroom was one that was one I used when I was attending a formal function as a male, and could see all of the girls formally dressed going into the washroom, and I loved the thoughts as I entered the washroom.

Sharon and I left the restaurant and got into the van and drove us a block or two to the bridal shop, and after taking a few minutes to find a parking space we headed towards the entrance to the store. We entered the store, and it was the same store owners as the ones when I bought my wedding dress, and I was a little bit disappointed at the demeanor of the store. The store had moved a few blocks away from their quaint location of a few years ago and it was a little different. It was wonderful walking in, but something was different and was missing, the mood of the store was not as romantic as before, the look of the store was very "corporate", and in my opinion had lost its romantic look.

Sharon allowed me to take the lead in the store, and in the front part of the store was the dresses for the bridesmaid's and the mother's of the brides, and in the back, in a very well mirrored area was for the brides and there were mirrors everywhere. In the brides area was a girl and what looked like her mother and sister looking at a girl that was in a stunning white gown, and loved the feeling of being in the store at that time. I spoke first and told the woman that I was looking for a holiday formal, and that Sharon, my friend was going to be checking on the status of her bridesmaid dress for her sisters wedding. Sharon and I stood at the counter as the woman checked the shipping logs and informed Sharon that her dress was due in a few weeks. I then looked at Sharon and asked her to show me her dress if it was in the racks.

Sharon and I then scanned the racks of bridesmaid dresses and finally found her dress, and when we did, she looked at me and whispered, "remember, please don't try it on", and I smiled and said OK, I wouldn't, besides it was not my size, it was my favorite dress manufacturer, but not my size. Before Sharon and I visited the store, we talked and I agreed to not try on the dress, out of respect for her sister's wedding, and thus I started scanning other racks for dresses.

With Sharon with me, the saleslady left us alone to scan the racks, and after finding three dresses to try on, Sharon whispered in a teasing fashion, "Jennifer, you have almost $600 dollars in dresses, I think that is enough for now". The saleslady then lead me to a change area at the front of the store and hung the dresses up in the change cubical, and smiled at me as she left. I closed the door to the rather large change area and changed out of my clothes and started trying on the dresses. The first dress was a classic bridesmaid's dress, in satin, with large puffy shoulders, a skirt that gathered high on the waist, and a low back "V" cut. Unfortunately, the dress was a size 11, and in a manufacturer I was not used to, and did not even come close to fitting, so I decided to change into the second, and this one was not even worth changing into, as it was way too small. The last dress was the most memorable, as it was a dress that was ankle length, red velvet in the top, and satin from the bottom of the bodice to the ankles. The dress was off the shoulders in the same style as my green velvet off the shoulder dress, but the skirt was ankle length, and the skirt had a slit in it that went up to my thigh, and it looked rather elegant. I slipped into my heels, and since the dress was Nu-Mode and my size 13/14, I decided that I would venture outside of the change area and showed Sharon and the saleslady the dress.

It was quite comical, as I started to look at myself in the dress, and I was not sincerely pleased with the dress, and I voiced my opinion saying that I wanted something sexier, but the saleslady started saying how pretty and elegant the dress looked started pushing the dress on me, and I eventually looked over at Sharon and said that I was done, and that I was going to change. The saleslady then looked over and gave her attention to the new bride that was coming out of the change area.

I then changed out of the dress and slipped back into my clothes for the day, and left the change room, and met Sharon outside, and the bridal party was still standing at the main desk, and the saleslady was busy with them, so she did not pay attention to me as I left the change room. Sharon then look at me and asked if I did not really see anything that I was thrilled with, and she asked if I was ready to go, and I told her I was and we left.

The last stop of the day was a "Thrift" department store, and basically these shops operate like this, they buy good off charitable organizations that gather it, and sell it for next to nothing, i.e., formal gowns for $18, skirts, and blouses for $3, and shoes for $3, it is quite the place and I was looking forward to shopping at this store. Once in the store Sharon and I separated, and she went one way and I the other. I started scanning all of the dress and skirt racks for the perfect dress, I actually was trying to find bridesmaid dresses and I initially had no luck. I found a lovely denim and lace miniskirt, but unfortunately did not fit, it was way to small. I then made my way into the shoe department and finally found something that fit. I first ran into a a pair of pink heels with a height of about 3 inches, perfect for me, and a number of the outfits that I own. Then in the same area, a pair of 4" pair of white pumps, something I have needed for quite some time, and finally I found a Christmas present for Sharon, and pair of heels that she has been looking for in her size. I left the shoe department and ran into an area of the store that I was surprised to find, it was an area called, "evening dresses", and basically there were bridesmaids dresses there and all sorts of evening styles, but after scanning the racks, I could not find anything in my size. After leaving that area, I ran into another area that was all lingerie, and found a couple of new camisoles that I needed. It was in the lingerie department that I ran into Sharon who asked if I was finished and I told her I was, and she said that she had one more thing to get, and she would meet me at the checkout.

I made my way to the checkout, and paid for my items, and waited for Sharon to get through the checkout. Once Sharon was done we headed back to the car and then home, after a long and wonderful day of shopping.