Flashback: The First Weekend In December, 2016

We continue with our "flashback" posts as we continue to recapture those weeks when we took a break from blogging (midway in September, 2016 until the beginning of March) but not a break from adventuring together! So far, we have posted the remainder of September, 2016 and all of October and November, 2016. Now, we move on to the first week of December. We have more flashback posts after this and we will continue to post them in "flashback" posts until we are caught up. Once again, we apologize for the poor quality pictures. Rob's camera broke in October and we had to use a lower quality camera until we replaced it at Christmas.

The first week following Thanksgiving found us deeply involved with our Christmas decorating which is a full three week process. Obviously, our time was limited during the week as we are working folks but we worked hard for a few hours each evening. We would continue with that hard week over the weekend but we wouldn't skip the other things that we wanted to do. Saling was, of course, on the "must do" list and we were lucky enough to find worthy sales both Saturday and Sunday. First, though, there was Friday night and, as is the tradition in town, the first Friday was the village's old fashioned Christmas and we never miss it.

Many of the businesses in town decorate for Christmas and that is just one of the things that brings out the crowds on this annual event.

This restaurant always looks festive at Christmastime.

Santa likes the decorations on this building, too! 

The Nathaniel Conklin House always opens their doors for a tour on this night.

Outside, there are carolers. Inside, there are free cookies. At the exit, there is free hot cocoa! 

Inside the town hall, there is a great model train set with lots of cool buildings and signs. Some of the buildings are replicas of buildings in town. Some are not.

We would love to eat at this cool diner! 

An Esso gas station.

A drive-in movie theatre.

Monica's favorite supermarket of all time...Bohack! 

Every year, we spend this evening with Monica's brother-in-law and sister.

Of course, our nephew and niece are with us, too! 

Would it be Christmastime without Santa? We think not! It was a great evening and one we look forward to every year. It was a pretty great start to the weekend.

On Saturday, we had three sales on our list and this was our first stop. "Everything goes" and "Hidden treasures" sounded good to us especially since this sale was only one town over from us. The pictures supporting the ad showed that it had some old stuff.

Yes, this was definitely an older basement though not as cluttered as we had hoped.

Many of this bathroom's original elements were still there though the toilet, the vanity and the door were newer.

We really liked this bathroom cabinet with the built-in hamper. We already have one like this in turquoise though ours does not have the side cabinet. It did not come home with us but lots of vintage greeting cards and an old Hawaiian menu did.

Our second sale was what we used to call "The ultimate sale". It is a church sale that Monica has gone to since she was a kid. For years, we would get there early, wait on line for over an hour and then, when the doors opened, rush in to go find treasures...and we always found something. Last year, they changed the format and it was no longer a sale filled with parishioners' donations. It became a sale where tables were bought and vendors came in to sell their wares. We were very disappointed. We came back on this day to see if they had reverted back to the way it had been. They did not. We did not wait until the doors were open. It seemed pointless. On to the next sale.

Our third and final sale of the day was run by a tag sale company that we like a lot but runs very few sales anymore. In fact, this was their first sale in nearly a year. It was the second day of the sale but we had to see what was here.

It had a great old screen door and that was a good start.

The cabinets in the basement were amazing! 

Here is better view of one of the sets of cabinets. Great turquoise color. Great handles! 

This is the other set of cabinets in the basement. We would have loved to take these home but we had to settle for taking home some records and some books.

Sunday gave us one more opportunity to go saling and, of course, we went. It was run by a great tag sale company and it was located in Monica's hometown which meant an easy visit to see her dad when we were done. The sale was described as "entire house contents" and books, records and 1970's toys were listed among the items there.

There were some great wood cabinets in that kitchen and Monica was happy to be amongst them. There really wasn't a lot to see in this house but we enjoyed the visit and brought home a few books, records, a pocketbook for Monica, a pair of ceramic figurines, some vintage glasses and an old box of Pan Am matches.

A nice visit with Monica's dad followed the sale and then a trip home to catch up on household chores and to do some decorating. Before the decorating, though, we took some time to look at what we found over the weekend and here is what we saw:

Records

More records

A 7-inch record

Books

A Hawaiian Christmas menu from 1938, a holiday decorating book from 1962 and A Little Golden Book from 1946. The menu had pictures of servicemen stationed in Hawaii. Since this menu is from Christmas, 1938, it is very possible that many of these servicemen were at Pearl Harbor during the attack on December 7, 1941 and that is very sad.

Vintage birthday cards.

More vintage birthday cards.

Vintage baby cards.

More vintage baby cards.

Some more vintage baby cards

A few more vintage baby cards

A box of Pan Am matches.

Vintage glasses

A vintage pocketbook for Monica.

A Holt Howard ceramic angel marked Japan (which we have since cleaned up)

A ceramic Valentine angel (marked Japan)

There was no rest for the weary and we went back to our Christmas decorating the rest of the day. No sneak previews! We will share those pictures in a future flshback post.