Day After Christmas Shopping Adventure

Christmas afternoon my brother, Andy, and his wife, Carol, returned from visiting with her sister, Sue and her husband, Mark. They had met for breakfast at the Double D Diner in Thorndale and returned to my home for more Christmas Day fun.

Patty and Nelson Nafzinger have a family dinner at the church hall and had included me this year.  We took desserts and enjoyed seeing the entire clan... brothers, sisters, children and grandchildren.  There was plenty of food and conversation and fun with a gift exchange.  We did not stay too late as it had been a long couple of days for the three of us and we headed home so we could kickback, relax and enjoy snacking on crackers and blue cheese ball (our mother's recipe and a holiday tradition).  Carol does a lovely job making it each Christmas and she really cannot stand Blue Cheese, so it is quite a labor of love on her part which we blue cheese lovers (my brother and I) appreciate from the tips of our tongues to the deliciousness in our bellies!

This morning we were up early and returned to the Double D for a really great breakfast.  I had Sausage Gravy on Biscuits and Hash Browns.  It was the best I have had in a long time.  We went that direction so we could just go down the road a short distance to the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store in Coatesville.  And and Carol volunteer at their local Re-Store in Fredericksburg, VA and when they travel tend to locate the Re-Stores in their areas to see how things are run there and bring back good ideas to their store.

We found the store less organized than it could have been (and it has been that way each time I have ventured inside) and overpriced (according to my brother) plus the volunteers were being supervised by a real Grinchy guy that was setting a less than pleasant tone for the shoppers.

From there we headed to Cedar Lane Dry Goods in New Holland.  It is a lovely store that my friend Patty had pointed out to me.  It is manned by some Amish ladies and has an interesting variety of dry goods (just as the sign implies) There are boxes of inspirational greeting cards, various office/school supplies and socks.  There are books, sewing notions and some really nice fabrics at some really nice prices.  I found three pieces of fabric that will make a nice quilt someday along with some cards.  As we went to our cars, my brother mentioned the second floor which I had missed completely.  So we went back in and found a second floor of more fabrics (some for dresses rather than just quilts) along with new Tupperware and another large selection of books.  They also had some patterns and I found 2.  I need to go back and look more upstairs!

From there we headed to the Lancaster Outlets.  On the 24th, Andy and Carol had stopped in the Rockvale Outlets and she had seen some shoes at the QVC Outlet but had not purchased them.  So we headed back.  On the 24th, they had the place to themselves.  Today it was mobbed.  The lines to check out wrapped around the store and the store was packed with shoppers.  I wandered around but had no desire to stand in line to check out.  I stood with Andy while Carol shopped.  She did not have the shoes in her hands but she kept looking.  They finally bought a microwave pressure cooker unit.  I will be curious to see if they use it and how it works for them.

Then we hit the road and headed for the last store, the Lancaster Re-Store.  It was just a short jaunt from QVC and a much nicer store than Coatesville.  It was also larger.  It was well organized, clean and well lighted.  Their merchandise was priced better but none of us found anything although I did find a small lamp I could have used in the sewing room.... but not exactly what I was looking for, so I passed.

We parted company in the parking lot and Andy & Carol headed home to Fredericksburg and I back to see Winston.  He seemed very happy to see me and wanted to play.  I found that my cameras were not broadcasting so I had to reboot the routers and decided to upgrade my software to the new version and got it up and running.  I still have to hard wire the sewing room camera, perhaps later.

So it is back to normal.  Winston is asleep on the couch and I am bringing you all up to date.  It is time to hunker down for the winter.  I will be helping to lead GriefShare starting January 6th.  When that ends I head back to Fancy Gap, VA for a month and then to Ashland, KY for my 50th High School Reunion, so busy times ahead.  All is well after a wonderful holiday!!