Friday After Thanksgiving

We got up a little after 7 a.m. this morning so we could be ready to go to a couple of stores for Black Friday specials. While many of the stores opened at 4 a.m., the store I wanted to visit didn't open until 8 a.m., which satisfied us just fine. We have no desire to get in a long line in the wee hours of the morning waiting for a store to open.



The book/video store we visited was already wall-to-wall with customers trying to pick up bargains. I wanted an advertised CD storage unit, but those were already sold out by the time we got there a few minutes after 8 a.m. But I did get a couple of Christmas CDs...a Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and an Il Divo, which, after I used coupons, cost $4. We stood in line for a short time to buy these, but not for long.

From there, we went to a farm supply store to get a kitty litter box and other supplies for the kitten that Mother has adopted. I planned to give these to her for Christmas, but she is talking about buying the items, so I might have to give them to her early.

At the farm supply store, we also picked up Shih Tzu's favorite canned dog food at a reduced price, and a dozen 50 cents each suet cakes for the birds who persist in visiting the feeders despite the cats.

Back home, we began the long process of Christmas decorating, starting with the mantel. It's a frustrating chore every year to get the 16 ceramic pieces of the Christmas village assembled and lighted on two levels. The biggest problem is the lighting. In past years, Hubbie used three electrical outlet bars to plug the pieces into. But the bars and thick wires were bulky, making it difficult to get the boxes I use for levels close enough to the brick wall. And it was difficult for Hubbie to maneuver behind the boxes to plug the pieces in without precariously rocking the village pieces. I held my breath each time, dreading that they would tumble and crash to the tile floor below.

Also, the board that Hubbie used to extend the space on the mantel didn't butt up against the wall, so I had trouble keeping the boxes, and the village pieces on top of them, from tilting awkwardly backwards.

So this year, Hubbie had a new board cut that exactly fits the area, and we also bought new quilt batting to use as snow, since the old batting has seen better days. We also decided to use only one electrical bar, with three extension cords. This was much more manageable, which lowered our level of frustration with each other.

Notice I said "lowered," not "eliminated" our level of frustration. There were still glitches, like houses that didn't light, and replacement bulbs that wouldn't light, either. And there was a debate between Hubbie and me as to the best way to cut the new batting to make it fit across the new board. There was also two trips to town before we could get started...one to the home supply store to get the new board, and one to the WDCS to get cotton batting.

"I think we've lost our touch putting the village up," Hubbie commented in the middle of the process.

"Lost our touch!?" I asked. "We can't lose what we've never found," I laughed.

Putting the village up is so much work that we leave it up through January.

About an hour into the project, we realized that our favorite football team was scheduled to play this afternoon. The game was already underway by the time we turned on the radio to find our team trailing in the first half. But in the second half, the game got very exciting, and our team came from behind to win by a heart-stopping touchdown in the last 20 seconds of the game.

We were disappointed, though, when we turned on the TV to watch the news and found a delayed broadcast of the game we'd just heard on the radio. If we'd known the game was to be televised, we'd have much preferred to watch it, rather than listen to it on radio. In fact, we went ahead and watched the last quarter anyway, so we could see that exciting final 20 seconds that led to a win.