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It’s that time of year again: buying lots of stuff, eating lots of holiday goodies, and dealing with lots of stupid people.

There once was a time that I looked forward to Christmas shopping. The pleasure I got out of weaving in and out of holiday traffic (both on the road and in the mall) has long since been replaced by the feeling of dread about the holiday traffic. I was reminded of this the other day as we ventured into Woodfield. The floors were crowded with kiosks where kids were hocking the wares of shady vendors. People stopped in the middle of the walkways to talk on their cellphones, despite the foot traffic obviously inconvenienced by their social exercise. I did find it humorous that Woodfield has replaced their normally ginormous lighted tree with a much smaller one and an inflated snow globe advertising Fred Clause. Last year, the mall had a little problem when some decorations caught fire near the tree.

On Penny Arcade today was this comic about Gabe’s stolen deer. This is more of what I was expecting to see happen to the six teenagers who were caught after vandalizing a Hoffman Estates man’s Christmas decorations. They didn’t just steal his lights, they caused about $1,000 in damages and dragged the man from their car. Instead of death by holiday spirit, the man chose to not press charges against the teens.