Beginning of the Holiday Festivities

Hello readers. We're now in the countdown to Christmas and the end of the year festivities and a hectic time for all. I have really been trying to get things done earlier this year but I swear, Christmas is coming sooner than it has in the past.

Last year I remember I was still decorating things on Christmas Eve and just trying to catch up. Now it's over two weeks until the day and I already feel like time is running out. Maybe it's because Christmas day falls during the week, I feel like I'm being cheated out of some weekends. Who knows. I've just decided that no matter how early I start, I'll never feel like I'm ahead at this time of year.

I have 2/3's of the trees up (still need to get the basement tree up). I have most of my shopping done (thank God for online shopping), and I started my cards last night in a panic that they won't get sent on time. But I still feel like I'm scurrying to catch up. Deep breaths.....

And I decided that I want to have fun this year and enjoy the holiday instead of being overwhelmed by stress. That's the big goal this year. Deep breaths....

Friday night we did something different. A small village close to the country home has a Christmas Candlelight Walk every year on the first two Friday's in December. Every year, I try to go to this but every year, we have a snowstorm, an ice storm, frigid temps, or some other weather calamity that stops me from going. But this year, the weather cooperated (in the 30's and dry) and me, Papa, and Tiny Sun all met in one of the village parks to go on the Candlelight Walk.

We weren't sure what to expect and so we walked around a bit and started going in some of the small shops/antique stores to look around and then we went to a historic church where they were serving hot chocolate, chili, and roast beef sandwiches.

We believe this walk is a ruse to get people shopping and buying in these stores which is partly true but while we were taking a break in the church, we read a flyer and discovered they were having a scavenger hunt. Two wineries, a brewery, a restaurant, and 12 of the shops were participating. You had to answer their respective Christmas question thereby getting an item to prove you were at the store and answered their question.

A game to play!! What fun, and off we went. Along the way, we did buy some things but that wasn't the sole purpose of going to the shops, we now had a mission. Every place we went offered hot chocoloate, wine, cider, wine, cookies, wine, candy, cheese, etc., so we ate and drank our way through the Village and really had a fun time.

Papa left after about an hour (he had eaten enough for his dinner and was tired and not so fond of boutique shopping) and that was fine. Tiny and I continued on until the bitter end answering questions and drinking and eating. And we were actually the first and second to turn in the completed scavenger sheet. (and Polly and Cracker, you will be happy to hear that we only had to cheat for one question...asking someone else but we traded an answer to them so it all worked out...we knew all the others on our own!!)

Now we have to wait another week to see what prize (if any) we may have won. They had a whole list of various prizes but the hunt continues this coming Friday before they start doling out prizes. Wish us luck.

Grammy