Black Friday Part Two

I returned home from the Boone Mall empty handed yesterday.

I appear to be a person who has forgotten how to shop.

I didn't see one single thing that looked like something any of the folks on my Christmas list would use/need/like.

Didn't see one single thing I couldn't live without either.

But I did have my picture taken with Santa.  

Wish I could post it here, but it probably won't arrive in my email until Monday, and I'll post it then.

And the crowds really were not too bad.  

Well, in Belk's they were, I guess, pretty bad.  

But the Mall itself wasn't overly crowded.

And T.J. Maxx wasn't too crowded at all.

I could have easily shopped, and there were some bargains to be had.

I just didn't see anything that spoke to me.

I'm meeting my friend Melissa for coffee Monday morning, I think I'll maybe go downtown Boone and visit some of the local businesses and see what I can find.

I really need to get some Christmas shopping done.

Donald and I don't exchange gifts at Christmas any more. We stopped doing that a few years back and now use that money to buy a couple gifts to put under an angel tree for a family less fortunate.  There are a lot of families going through tough times.  


Or, we may send it to Planned Parenthood after today's events in Colorado.  It is a crazy damned world we're living in and if people would actually do a little research into what Planned Parenthood actually "does" instead of what they "believe" Planned Parenthood does I think they might find themselves enlightened a little more than they want to be.  Some people enjoy being ignorant.  Makes it easier to hate, I think.

Back to what I was saying . . . 

An interesting thing.

Usually on Thanksgiving Day and the day after, we will see car after car after car with at least one Christmas tree tied to the top.

Yesterday when I went into town I took my camera in hopes of getting some pictures of all the trees leaving the local Christmas tree farms, a lot of which are usually heading down the mountain.

I saw an awful lot of cars driving into the tree farms, but I did not see a single car with a tree.  No idea what that means, but it is very unusual.

We have been seeing a lot of large flat bed trucks filled with trees leaving.  Everyone will soon be seeing their local businesses and parking lots setting up their Christmas trees for sale  -  many of them will be from right here in our neck of the woods.  

When I got home from the mall, I slipped into jammies and settled in with my coffee and a book.  

I thought we were in for the afternoon and evening.

Seems Donald had other plans and we ended up going back into town for a belated birthday dinner.

I did get out of my jammies before we did that.

We went to one of our favorite places - Bella's Italian Restaurant

And we noticed as soon as we walked in the door that all the waitresses and some of the patrons had their faces painted.

I swear.  Boone can be so much fun.

There was a face painter all set up in a corner.

But the painting wasn't being limited to kids only.

I ended up with a Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer face.

and it was a fun thing.

And dinner was delish!

 French Onion Soup and a crispy garden salad -  just right.  

It's been a fun couple of days.  

But then, sadly, I had to wash off the Rudolph face before turning in.  

Fun for awhile though!

Black Friday

Mornin', all!

I'm having coffee, Don Barley is taking today's on-line photography lesson and I'm going to go do something I haven't done in years.

ANOTHER one of those "I will never do that again" things where I'm, once again, eating my words.

I've almost decided that's how I gained so much weight a couple years ago - by eating my words so often.

Anyway.

My mom and I used to always shop the day after Thanksgiving.

For years and years we did that and we laughed and laughed and had lunch and came home with a few bargains. 

Some, quite significant.

Some, not so much.

But we had enjoyed the day.

We only did it once after we moved to Boone.

And, truth be told, for Black Friday, it wasn't so bad.

After having navigated the crowds in Atlanta malls, Boone was a piece of cake.

Maybe it was too easy since we never did it again? 

Who knows.

We do all know that if anything is too easy it tends to lose its appeal.

So. I'm going to finish this cup, throw on my boots and bluejeans and hit the Boone Mall.

Many of you have seen our mall, and I love it.

It's tiny.

It takes me longer to get there than it does to shop it.

And because I've never understood why there needs to be 36 shoe stores under one roof, it suits my needs to a T.

We'll see how I feel when I return . . .

Happy Day After Thanksgiving, my friends.

(note:  some of you have let me know your comments don't show up.  There are two reasons.  #1) I have enabled the "moderate comments" app due to a wild amount of spam showing up.  So, if Blogger allows you to leave a comment, it's there, it's just waiting for me to moderate and hit the "publish" button. Sometimes that happens quickly - sometimes, not so much.   However -  #2) Blogger is having issues.  If you get an "error on comment" message, that's Blogger.  Hopefully, this will get worked out soon.  Patience, my pretties, patience.  and yes - this is a case of "do as I say, not as I do . . . since patience is something I'm short of.  imagine that.)