Black Friday

Dishes are done. House is cleaned. Leftovers in the frig. I even have a pot of navy bean soup cooking in the crock pot for tonight. The turkey was good, my husband cooked it this year. I got the tree put up last evening but the lights didn't work so what's a girl to do? Toss them and shop for new ones. I went out to Wal-Mart last night looking for LCD lights for the tree and they had none. Imagine- not a LCD package in sight. So, I headed to Michaels. I got 2 packages of 100 lights each. We'll see if that's enough to make the tree glow!

I'm excited to decorate the tree this year- our first Christmas in this new house. I opened a box with my nativity set and found quite a surprise. Apparently, I haven't set up my nativity set for a few years, 6 years to be exact.

The last year I put it out was when we lived in Iowa and I moved from Iowa in 1994. I have been looking for our Christmas stockings for about 6 years and I found them in the box with the nativity set. I now have an additional son-in-law and daughter-in-law plus five grandchildren. I guess I have a few more stockings to make. I also found a great tree skirt I'd made and completely forgot about. Another duh moment for me! It's great though and I'll be using it from now on.

I hand painted the nativity set around 1985. I had a kiln and taught ceramics in those days and I love to paint. My husband went deer hunting that year and took my two small children to my mom's for the weekend. I was in Heaven! I painted all night long and never slept that weekend. I was determined to get it done before they returned and I did. A few years later I painted a second set for my mom. I've been moving the set around for these 25 years and it's held up pretty well. I am finally putting it out on display this year.

I'm headed out soon to do a bit of shopping. (I'm out of creamer so I can't have coffee until I shop anyway!) Starbucks, here I come! I'm looking forward to a little Christmas shopping. I've studied the ads, made my lists and checked them twice, so to speak. I'm headed to Penney's for a few more of those great blankets to start. Have a great Friday!