It will be just my mom and sister having the holiday meal. I went to Bob Evan's restaurant to get precooked turkey dinners & we will just warm them up in the oven. Hopefully there won't be any arguments this year.
I won't set foot out of the house on Friday, when all the mobs descend upon the stores for the big shopping day. Crowds scare me anyways & that day people seem more frantic than usual. Ugh. Why would people get into that, even for low prices? I've already gotten some gifts and will do the rest after the craft show on Dec. 1st. I'm still getting ready for that, even though I've made great progress.

Because of my leg & hip hurting worse this year, I reduced my holiday craft shows down to two. The first was Friday evening Nov. 2nd/Saturday Nov. 3rd at St. Bernadette's. Last year it was my best show, but this year I didn't even make my table fee. The school it was held at had been closed all week because of power loss from Frankenstorm and there were still some nearby areas without electricity. So I don't think anyone thought the show would go on & even if they did, people were understandably not in a holiday or shopping mood. I did sell one painting, the little strawberry dart frogs which you see at left. It's a small painting (8x10 in.), so it didn't cost much and a middle-aged lady bought it after spending some time studying my display.
While I was disappointed in the slow sales, it was still an enjoyable event, mainly due to the crafters surrounding me. Some I knew from previous shows & others were new to me, but they were all super friendly & generous people.I had such fun chatting and joking with them. It really underscored the feeling that there are more nice people in the world than we think.
There were only 2 sour notes; on Saturday afternoon a group of 3 ladies of various ages came past & the first one picked up one of my squirrel note cards & waved it at the last lady & they all started laughing. I asked the last lady if she liked squirrels & she said she hated them. When I asked why, she said it was because "they are rats". I was startled & said that though they were distantly related, squirrels belonged to another category altogether(I resisted spewing the Latin names to her). She shook her head vehemently & kept insisting "they are rats" as the group of ladies walked away. I thought she was going to say she didn't like them because they raided her bird feeder or something like that. But to blindly hate them because of a preconceived notion which isn't even true, struck me as celebrating ignorance. Other than that and the argument with another crafter about keeping the gym doors closed to keep the cold air out(she jabbed her sewing needle at me throughout the encounter), it was 2 fun days full of camaraderie. Thankfully, my sister helped me take my display down, doing her usual excellent job of folding all the cloths and covers and she joined our mom and I for a pizza dinner to celebrate.
My next show, "Christmas in the Barn" is on Dec. 1st. Hopefully sales will be better, since that's my last show of the year.