Prior to today, I was an Ikea virgin. I’d heard how great Ikea is, I’d seen other’s purchases, I’d browsed the website, but I’d never been there myself. I have now experienced Ikea in all it’s glory.

We chose a day with the worst possible weather to schlep the four of us 90 minutes up the highway for this adventure. It rained all. day. long. We left the house about 8:30 AM and arrived just after the 10 AM opening.

We had a loose plan in place. We needed to retrieve an Expedit entertainment center for my mother and a large quantity of blue shopping bags to use at the sale. Outside of that, we just wanted to see what there was to see.

Once we passed through the sacred blue and yellow entrance, we were greeted with a huge Christmas tree decorated with stuffed animals. As we rode up the escalator, always a harrowing experience ever since that unfortunate incident at Sears last summer that ended with a sobbing Thing One at the top of the escalator and Thing One’s right shoe at the bottom of the escalator, we realized we were woefully unprepared for this adventure.

Thing Two could have spent hours hugging all the stuffed animals in the children’s department, but we finally convinced them to spend a little time in the play area so DH and I could wander the showroom, dutifully following the arrows on the floor, not wanting to miss a single Mysa or Detolf.

Nearly four hours later, full of meatballs and lingonberries, we loaded up our Expedit, Hajdeby, Mixa, Iris, Bygga, Kalas, Pyssla, Mula, and 150 of the 59 cent tote bags in the back of the truck and pulled out of the crowded parking lot. I’ve already gone through the catalog trying to decide how many pieces of Billy we need for the basement.