Our Adventures Amongst The Ducks: Flashback: The Second And Third Weekends In December, 2016

We are back with another "flashback" post. In the middle of September, 2016, we took a break from blogging but not from adventuring together. We ended that break in March, 2017, and have been attempting to share the missing weeks. To date, we have recaptured the remainder of September, the entire months of October and November and the first week in December, 2016. We still have several more "flashback" posts to go but we are getting ever closer to filling in the gap. This post covers the second and third weekends in December, 2016.

December brings a big slowdown to estate sales as people just don't to be bothered running sales during a very busy month. Many of the tag sale companies take a break during this month as well. Of course, it is the primary season for church holiday sales but they have declined in value greatly in the last few years. We hoped to find a couple of worthwhile sales each weekend. On the second Saturday in December, we found three of them. It was a great break from the workweek and a change in pace for what seemed like the never ending Christmas decorating! With a list in hand and hope in our hearts, off we went!

Our first sale was in our town. It was described as "contents of home". There were no pictures in the ad but Christmas stuff and a twin hospital bed was listed amongst the items there. We are not in the market for a twin hospital bed but that is usually an indication that the things here might be older. That is what we want.

The house was a converted garage and there weren't many places to search but that doesn't mean that we came away empty-handed! We left with two old Christmas items and a 1970's New York Mets button.

Our second sale was run by a tag sale company and even though there wasn't that much of interest in the pictures, it made our list. There were some baseball cards here and the ones that Rob saw were from the 1960's. Rob loves old baseball cards. Unfortunately, when we drove up to the sale, the line was way too long for us to consider waiting. On to sale #3.

Our final sale was about thirty minutes away and was described as an elderly woman's estate. That was all. Nothing more. No pictures. It still intrigued us.

It had a basement bar which was no longer used for that purpose but it probably had some great stories it could tell!

The basement also had this mounted pencil sharpener and that is usually a good sign. There wasn't all that much to see here but it was a worthwhile trip as we did manage to bring home a record and two old boxes of birthday candles.

After finishing the saling day early, we stopped at Monica's childhood house to visit her dad and then went home to continue the Christmas decorating, a process that continued on Sunday. We did take breaks to relax and to look at the few things we found. This is what we saw:

A Lawrence Welk St. Patrick's Day record.

A 1970's New York Mets button (our second since Rob still has his from the early 1970's) and two old boxes of birthday candles.

A knee hugger elf (marked Japan) and an old blow mold Santa.

We got this, too, but not at a sale. Monica's dad found it in a box and gave it to us knowing how much we would appreciate this old bank promotional item.

The following weekend, the third weekend in December, once again had a very limited selection of sales and the only one we found the entire weekend was on Friday. It was a three-day weekend for us and we began it by going to this sale.

The sale was described as "Grandma's house" with "vintage collectibles and Christmas". The sale was run by one of the busiest tag sale companies in our area but whose sales we frequent a bit less than most simply because the number of vintage sales they hold are fewer than most.

The first room we entered was very bright and very colorful. It clearly had some old things and that gave us hope.

The second room we entered was just as colorful and just as bright.

The upstairs was where the best things were and we definitely had some digging to do. This room was the music room. The wallpaper was a big giveaway.

Here's a close-up of that cool wallpaper. It was pretty crowded in the rooms we dug through and we did not get any pictures of those rooms. It wound up being a good sale!

The garage had this great 1966 Ford Cortina!

Another view of the Cortina.

The front of the Corina. It did not come home with us but look what did come home with us:

Cookbooks

Books

More books

Christmas records

A small, old Mets patch

A vintage record rack

Another view of the record rack

St. Patrick's Day figurines. All marked Japan.

An old Christmas door chime in its box

More Christmas things

Even more Christmas things

Two early 1960's blow mold soldiers in their boxes

We weren't done for the day. After our Friday sale, we made our way to Hicks Nurseries. When we were kids, we would always go every December with our families to visit the Christmas magic of Hicks Nurseries. It has become our tradition now.

Hicks Nurseries...since 1853!

A couple of Santa's reindeer are here every Christmastime. This year, it was Donner and Blitzen.

One of the reindeer posing for a picture.

Donner and Blitzen.

Christmas blow molds everywhere!

Nothing says "Christmas" quite like a Darth Vader balloon with a candy cane!

More Christmas blow molds!

Look at that goofy one in the back! Oops...that's Monica!

There's always a small Christmas village at Hick's. This year's was a little smaller than in the past. There is a Dairy Queen and an old-fashioned Chinese restaurant called Panda Palace.

The Griswolds are represented in the Christmas village.

The Fisher-Price Fun Factory was in the Christmas village.

Every year, there is an animatronic Christmas story. It is different every year.

This year's animatronic Christmas display wasn't as good as those in year's past but it did have Winter Warlock which definitely gave it extra points!