The Holiday Shopping Season Begins!

The centerpiece for the Thanksgiving table.

No sooner has the turkey come off the table, the emails begin with Black Friday deals. Truthfully, they started at the beginning of the week, but really hit hard on Thanksgiving itself and every day after through Sunday. So I guess it’s now Black Friday week? I understand that for most retailers this is the time of year that makes or breaks a business and I also appreciate some of the price reductions as well.

Our Thanksgiving was quite wonderful. We ended up with two more friends joining us, so that gave us three pies to choose from for dessert - cherry, pumpkin and apple. We made good dents in all three. Because of everyone pitching in, we had a more relaxed day than I have sometimes had. The best was having my brother smoke our turkey so that I wasn’t tending to the oven all day. A group went out to hunt for mushrooms, so I grabbed my mountain bike and rode around with them. I would ride for a while, find them, visit for a minute, then take off again, getting in a good five miles and about 45 minutes of riding time and enjoying the beautiful fall day. After that we all cleaned up and did the final preparations for the meal - mashed potatoes, gravy, table setting and decor and putting out the appetizers.

We still have some leftovers, mostly turkey. We split up the leftovers, which was good, but there is always a lot of food for that one meal. I had a couple of turkey sandwiches and we made soup from the carcass, so have been enjoying that on these crisp nights. I’m thinking of making something with the remainder of the turkey for our dinner tonight. Besides the leftovers, we made pesto and pasta one night and those who like mushrooms had a mushroom pasta as well.

Each afternoon my granddaughter and I would take a little walk and end up at the barn to feed my horses. She loves to help with that and feeding the barn cats and the dogs. She found a lot of time to draw and to put together a jigsaw puzzle with grandpa and I. I also found enough time to crochet a little blanket for one of her stuffed animals, a dog she calls Pluto. It was a great way to use up some leftover yarn.

I did take advantage of some of the Black Friday deals to pick up some Christmas presents. This includes one item I had been procrastinating on buying and just decided to go for it. I didn’t expect this particular retailer to have a Black Friday deal but they did - 20% off. That definitely sweetened the deal for me. The rest of the shopping will now happen over the coming weeks; last year I set a goal of all locally sourced gifts. That was easy for me to do with some on my list, but not everyone. This year I am trying for more of a mix. I’m looking forward to the local crafts fairs that are heading this way this weekend. Hope to see you there.