Happy Day After! Shopping, Anyone?

/ Marcia Meara

Hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving or Thursday, whichever works for where you are. Anyone heading out to the stores on Black Friday? They’d have to be giving away boxes of actual cash before I’d go anywhere near a store today. Nope. Nothing would be worth wading through crowds like this day generates, as far as I’m concerned. However, it’s our tradition to put up the Christmas lights the day after Thanksgiving, so Mark will be doing that shortly. 

Sad to say, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be able to handle our full Christmas House of A Thousand Decorations this year. The spirit is willing, but the flesh … well, you know what they say. Five Christmas trees (2 large, 3 small) and 300 Santas are more than I have the energy to deal with. We will definitely put up one of our big trees, and I’ll unpack enough Santas to fill the mantle. Probably. But I’m saving my energy for our upcoming trip to Denver, so I’ll really be able to enjoy our time with Erin & Crew.  I mean, who wouldn’t want to feel well enough to enjoy this?

By the time we return home, I plan to resume blogging, though I’ll start off slowly and work my way along. Blogging is one of the things that has enriched my life immensely, and I have hated being away so long! Lots to chat about, lots to share with you guys, and lots of blogging friends to visit, as well. *smiles at new blog header and whispers “Soon, my precious … sooooon.”*

In the meantime, hope you enjoy the start of the Christmas season, preferably someplace far from the madding crowd! 

36 thoughts on “Happy Day After! Shopping, Anyone?”

    • Yeah, I’m a bit OCD about my Christmas collections (and lots of other stuff, too). It takes me a week to 10 days of decorating to get everything all set up, but I love it so much, it’s worth it. We always start the Friday after Thanksgiving. While everyone else is shopping, we are unpacking and displaying treasures! 😀 But my energy level is still a bit low, so I’m conserving it for our trip. We’ll just do smaller this year. 🙂

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  3. I usually wait until after Thanksgiving to put up my Christmas decorations, but as I’m moving to a new apartment in a couple of weeks (move in Dec 20), I’ll be waiting until MUCH closer to Christmas to decorate. As for Black Friday shopping, I braved going into Walmart last night for a few things and also did some online shopping.

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  5. I’m with you on Black Friday shopping. My fingers have been active on the computer this morning, but I wouldn’t go near a shopping center. Enjoy the decorating today (that’s our tradition, too) and have a wonderful Christmas in Denver! We head north, too, first to Ohio for Christmas and then to New Jersey for New Year’s. I always say I’m probably the only one in Cleveland who’s praying for snow on Christmas Eve.

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    • Black Friday crowds are one of my worst nightmares! Eeeeek. I’m normally buried under boxes of ornaments and Santas about now, but not quite ready to tackle the full production yet. We won’t be in Denver for Christmas, so I may add more to the decor after we get back. Or I may be whipped after our trip. I’m not a good flyer under the best of circumstances, so we’ll have to see how I feel upon return. But we’ll have enough out to be in the spirit for sure.

      Hope you have a wonderful Christmas in Ohio! And for your sake, I hope you get some snow. Not a blizzard, but just some pretty snow laying on the ground and decorating the evergreens. 🙂 ❤

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  6. You couldn’t pay me enough to be out shopping today! Then again, I hate to shop any day of the year. Looking forward to seeing you back on the blogging circuit. I’m finishing up NaNoWriMo and will resume blogging next week, although I will probably keep a lighter schedule until January.

    Hope you enjoy the trip to Denver. 300 Santas? I can’t imagine.

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    • Oh, believe it. I’ve been collecting Santas for about 60 years. I have them ranging in size from 1″ tall to 6′ or so, and in every style you can imagine. And I’ve already realized as Mark was pulling the outside lights out of the attic, I can’t help but put some of them out this year, too. But I’ll limit myself to what I can handle. Overdoing leaves me feeling lousy for a couple of days, and I hate that. Here are some photos I shared a couple of years ago. There are more posts, too, but one is enough to give you the idea, I suspect. 😀
      https://marciamearawrites.com/2014/12/23/more-christmas-at-the-house-of-1000-santas/

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      • That’s a lot of Santas! I love the Coca-Cola Santa. Somewhere I have a little pamphlet of “The Night Before Christmas” with that Santa on the front. It belonged to my mother and came on a six-pack of bottle coke long before I was born.

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        • I love Coca-Cola Santas! Have lots of ornaments with them. This big guy was a present from my daughter when she came home from California one Christmas. She didn’t have very much money at the time, and she batted her eyelashes at the manager of a local Publix grocery where it was on display. He caved. When she came marching in the door with it, crying “Merry Christmas!” I was flabbergasted. 😀 He sleeps under our bed during the off season, but I pull him out every year. 😀 It wouldn’t feel like Christmas without him! 😀

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  7. Fab picture – and snow! We rarely get snow here. A couple of years before we moved here, the weather took the village by surprise and snow cut it off for at least ten days. The army had to drop food and other supplies. This means that even a predicted 5mm is enough to send everyone into a panic and for comestibles to fly off the shelf. You have a great time but you are not, repeat NOT, to go sliding on any ice! ❤ 🙂 ❤

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    • Sounds like us around here at the very mention of a hurricane. But Denver is in the Rocky Mountains. They get snow. It’s not as bad as some areas out there, but they had 12″ in one night already.

      And don’t worry. I don’t own any shoes that are in any way waterproof, though I’m hoping to find something before I leave here. But I doubt I’ll be walking on any uncleared or icy paths. Not this trip. In the spring, we hope to get out into nature a bit more, but this time, I’ll be happy just to get to see Denver.

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  11. I’m a bit of a grinch, Marcia, so I’m impressed by anyone who does more than put up a single tree. I’m certain that cutting back for you is 20 times more than I’ll do. Adorable picture. What good helpers. 🙂 Have a lovely holiday season. 🙂

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    • At Christmas, I’m five-years old again, no matter what the calendar (or my body) tells me. 😀 I started giving away some of my collections a couple of years ago, but makes me very happy to have all my Santas around me again each year. We normally start decorating the day after Thanksgiving, and it takes me another week to ten days to get it all up. Happily, we were always taught it’s bad luck to take down your Christmas tree until after New Year’s Day, so I get to have them up at least five weeks, which makes it all worthwhile for me. I’m sad to only be putting out a fraction of my things this year, but I’m being realistic. I don’t have the energy this time around for the whole thing! 😦 We will have lights around the eaves of the house, one Christmas tree, and some mantel and shelf Santas here and there. That’ll have to do. 😀 But I’m going to enjoy every single bit of it until it has to come down.

      Hope you have a lovely holiday season, too, even if you don’t go crazy like I do. 😀 It’s what you feel in your heart that counts, after all.

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