Making Room For Retirement

Time for another update.  
I believe my last post mentioned "Black Friday"  strange name, but it means shopping extravaganza or shopping nightmare depending on your viewpoint.  I would go with the latter description.  

Alf walked over to Walmart at 8 pm on Thursday evening - Walmart started their Black Friday early - as did many retailers - Walmart didn't close for the Thanksgiving holiday, they are open 24/7, so there were not lineups - but the store was super crowded.  Alf walked in the doors, took a pic and left.  It was a zoo and if you bought anything you probably would have spent hours in the check out line.  Most people, when they go in, has someone who gets in the checkout line and holds a place for them, while they shop. 

He said this pic doesn't really show the crowds, and this was right near the doors, as he looked down the aisle it got more and more crowded.  This was as far as he would venture.  The parking lot was full, and it is a big one, and they were parking of the grass.  Crazy.  



We went out Friday afternoon to see what the sales were like, the crowds had pretty much all gone home, and there were not a lot of big bargains left.   

I thought I would post some of my pics of quilts I have been working on.  I have finished two quilt tops  

 

a baby quilt for my grandson (it is about time I got around to doing it, he was born last February) 

and a Christmas lap quilt which I was hoping to have done to help decorate our little place.  

The problem now is the limited space -  I can store my supplies under the couch in slide out tubs, 

(it looks a little messy, I had been rooting through looking for something) 

and I have a fairly good setup for sewing, cutting and trimming, but where oh where am I going to find the space to assemble the backing, batting and quilt top and spray them with adhesive so I can begin the quilting.   

I will figure something out, I might ask if I can use the rec hall.  And see what they say.  



Now that Thanksgiving is here, folks are starting to put up their decorations.  

Here is one place, not sure where he stores them in the off season, but they look pretty cool.  Santa's balloon went up first and then Santa on the bike appeared about a week later.    I wanted to buy a 20 foot blow up reindeer but Alf put a foot down on that idea.  
 

Right now the evenings are quite cool, it got down to about 8 C last night, and it was quite cool in the early morning, long sleeves, and a sweater, with slacks for church. But by late morning it warmed right up and we wore short sleeves and shorts for our afternoon game of golf.   

Reading through the Sunday paper, I see that there are lots of events going on in the area.  We want to go to Bok Tower and take the tour through the Christmas house they have.  The first Friday of the month is coming and apparently there is an event in downtown Lakeland called "First Friday"  The have a car show, music, and hand out lots of freebies.        

One of the malls in Lakeland gets all gussied up for Christmas and has strolling carolers and a large Christmas tree that has swirling snow once every hour for ten minutes.  Real snow by the way, they must have a snowmaking machine, just like the ski hills.  (Darn, I didn't bring my skis) 

One of the Lakeland churches, has a large Christmas event with a "Road to Bethlehem" plus secular Christmas scenes, we might check that out as well.       

I was greeted by a Salvation Army kettle person with the words "Merry Christmas" for the first time on Friday, and it struck me as odd, it seemed out of place.  And then I realized it was a warm, sunny day and it didn't feel at all like late November.   But for folks down here the Thanksgiving holiday is the start of the Christmas season.  So I figure we will go to some of those Christmas events and it will feel like Christmas.  

So everyone, it is one month to Christmas, may your holiday season be as peaceful and calm as ours, and may you be blessed by the Christmas spirit.