A Surprise Three Day Weekend

We are still a little behind in our postings. This is for the weekend of December 12th through December 14th. We hope to be caught up soon!  

Months ago, we both requested a vacation day for Friday, December 12th. There was no special reason to have this date off from work. It was simply to extend a random weekend. Monica's vacation days carry over. Rob's do not. Use them or lose them. Friday, December 12th sounded as good as any other day. Back in November when Monica's mom passed away, Rob had to use this day a little early. Friday, December 12th became a work day again. That would be okay. We both took Friday, December 26th as well. There was a four day weekend not too far ahead. We could wait.

A few weeks ago, both Monica's and Rob's jobs announced that they would be closed the day after Christmas. It would be an extra holiday for both of us. We both gained a vacation day. Use them or lose them. Friday, December 12th was, once again, a day off. We could use the time. We still had not finished our Christmas decorating. We got a late start this year...and we have a lot of Christmas decorations! 

Friday morning did not start off with Christmas decorating. It started off with Thrift Shops. Little by little, we are donating some of Monica's mom's clothing and other things as they are sorted out. A Friday off was a great opportunity to do some donating and, well, while we were there, it wouldn't hurt to look around a little, would it? 

Most of our donating is done at this thrift shop. The ladies who volunteer here are very nice and they are always anxious to receive donations. As mentioned before, we took the opportunity to do a little shopping too. Monica is posing with a small bag of items we found.

Of course, once you start thrifting, it is tough to stop. We went to a few more thrift shops and, as you can probably tell by the bag Monica is holding, we found a few more things

By the time we were done, it was early afternoon and we had missed breakfast. Since we were in the area, we decided to stop at a deli that has been around since 1964 and still run by the brothers who first opened it. There was a blow mold Santa sitting in the window behind the deli sign. That's always a good thing!

There was something about the "Watch Your Step" sign that we liked. It looked old. It looked like a serious warning. We watched our step.

We got our sandwiches and drove over to our lake to eat them by the water. Of course, it was cold and we ate the sandwiches INSIDE of the car. Still, it was nice to visit our lake again even if a windshield separated us from the actual lake.

We were a little tired when we got home from the day's adventures and Christmas decorating was delayed in favor of a nap. We had plans for the evening. We wanted to feel refreshed. 

On Friday evening, we walked through town with Monica's sister, brother-in-law, nephew and niece. They live just a few minutes from us and we were all anxious to see the town decorated for Christmas. So many of the stores and restaurants get into the spirit.

Every year, Santa can be seen coming down from the roof of one of the restaurants

My people were represented by this wooden Indian that stands outside of the town cigar shop all year long.

Monica's sister and her family were all bundled up. It was cold outside!

Monica had Rob to keep her warm. Rob had Monica and his Mike Nesmith hat! It really was cold but we all had a great time together!

Saturday morning arrived and our first course of action was, of course, saling. Although the house was not any more decorating than it had been Thursday night, we still had plenty of time for that. Well...maybe not that much time but we had some saling to do first! We complied a very short list on Friday evening and got a nice early start on Saturday. The first sale was 45 minutes away and we wanted to be fairly early. The tag sale company running this first sale told us two weeks earlier that it was our type of sale and that it would be a digger. We did not want to miss out!

We arrived fifteen minutes ahead of the opening to find no one around. That was unusual. With a limited number of sales this weekend, we thought we would encounter a long line. 

As it turned out, there was a line but it was hidden. Everyone who had been on line was now sitting comfortably in their car with a number. We got numbers 12 and 13. That really wasn't so bad. We expected the wait to be much longer.

No need to encourage us to join you! We were already here! 

We were ushered in pretty quickly. The people who run the tag sale like us and lengthened their usual "ten to start" to make sure numbers 12 and 13 did not have to wait! We went straight to the basement where a bar awaited us. Unfortunately, there was nothing of interest behind the bar. 

There were many cool things to see like this great light...

...and the kitchen sink area which was a starburst pattern!

Here is a closer look at the starburst pattern!

It was a fun house but, unfortunately, it was not a digger. We found out that the son of the decedent decided to clean up a week before the sale. Who knows what was thrown out? We don't know but we do know that he did not throw out some records, some cookbooks, an old Santa cake topper, a vintage tablecloth and a few other items of interest. We know this because they came home with us. 

Our next stop was for breakfast. We found a bagel shop next to this store.  Look how great these old signs are! 

 Sale #2 was about fifteen minutes away and was described as "60 years of vintage". That tag line was calling our name.

There were so many elements of this house that showed its 60 years. Look at this great pink bathroom!

Look at this great bathroom floor!

The house had three floors including this attic. This was the only floor that required any real digging but it was fun throughout and we found a tiki mug (made in Hawaii), some Christmas things, some records, an old hamper, an old waste paper basket and a few other great things.

Sale #3 was described as old and mentioned that there were bar items. Pay very close attention to this picture. It is the picture of a house that was a complete dud. We found nothing here at all!

Our fourth and final stop of the day was at a church that was having its holiday sale. We first stopped in the thrift shop which we have been to many times before. It was fill-a-bag day and we both came home with plenty of shirts and sweaters for ourselves. We also found some small popcorn Christmas wreaths and a record. The sale in the church did not have any worthwhile but Rob did buy some cookies from them. Rob has a weakness for cookies. 

Although there were only four sales on our list, we did find some good things. Here are some things that we brought home:

Some records

Some more records

A "Music To Strip By" record. It even has the original g-string still attached!

Some Christmas records

Some more Christmas records

A vintage tablecloth

An old plastic snack tray, an old thermometer wall hanging (from the local liquor store) and an old spoon with a boomerang pattern

A tiki mug (made in Hawaii), an old Fez and a pair of old crocheted poodles

A matching hamper and wastepaper basket

An old catalog for Christmas bows

An old creepy, glittery Santa and six Hazel Atlas mugs

A few more Christmas things

And there was one more thing we got. When we got home during the week, there was a package for us from a friend who lives across the country. We opened the package and...

...these great honeycomb Santas (marked Japan) were inside!!!!

We spent Saturfday evening and a good portion of Sunday decorating for Christmas. By the end of the weekend, we were almost done. In our house, it really, really, really is beginning to look a lot like Christmas!