Variety is the spice of life.

Every year, for the last several years, I have treated each of my four grandchildren out for a day of shopping and lunch. The agreement is that I will give each of them a set amount of cash and I also treat to lunch. They can shop where ever, and for whatever they want (as long as it's legal and moral) and they may choose where we lunch. I will never say "Hurry up." or "Make up your mind." we shop at their pace.  The only restriction these days is that we need to be home before dark because I don't drive after dark. Of course, these days are great fun for me too. Over the years we have shopped for antiques, roamed all around Glenbrook Mall, built bears, played games at Chuckie Cheese and spent a lot of time at Target. This year, so far, I have taken two granddaughters out for their shopping sprees, one Tuesday and one today. The first thing I noticed this year is that, at the ages of 12 and 14, these two girls have become much more decisive. They each knew exactly where they wanted to go and what they were looking for. I also appreciated how different the shopping experiences were. One granddaughter spent a lot of time at "Pink" (a part of Victoria's Secret) and the clothing department at Meijers. We lunched at Penn Station. Today the second granddaughter also headed for the mall but her focus was the book store, two shops that sell graphic tees and a shop where she could buy Japanese candy. We lunched at Olive Garden. I can't wait to see what the other two want to do. Talk about "the gift that keeps on giving" (to me that is).