A Work in Progress

  Today is one of my favorite days of the year.  It's Black Friday and I'm not out shopping.  We live approximately three miles from the largest mall on the East Coast.  Said mall sits at the intersection of the PA Turnpike and two other major roads, one running north/south and the other running west. You can imagine the traffic.  We rarely venture out of our neighborhood on Black Friday.  Being "forced" to stay at home makes it feel like a snow day and I always get so much accomplished by staying in the house.  I'm looking forward to some extra stitching time and finally getting started on the exchange piece for my sampler guild's meeting on December 10. I'm a purist. I love Christmas, but not a single note of a holiday song or a Christmas decoration of any kind is allowed in my house until the day after Thanksgiving. We put the decorations up on the first Sunday in Advent and leave them up until Epiphany (January 6). I love the lights, the music

I live approximately 3.1 miles from the largest mall on the East Coast. It's huge--we have Macy's, Bloomingdales, Penneys, Sears, Nordstroms, Lord and Taylor and Nieman and Marcus plus Crate and Barrel, Tiffany's, Bath and Body Works, Victoria's Secret, Gap and just about any type of restaurant or specialty store you can think of. It's a destination and busloads of shoppers come in throughout the year. The hotels across from it offer Black Friday packages and there are no vacancies at these inns during Thanksgiving weekend. Let them enjoy their shopping today, and may they spend lots so my real estate taxes stay low. As a "native", I know how to duck in and duck out during the slow times in order to cross items off my gift list. No way, no how am I going to enter the fray today. But, my local quilt shop is having a sale and I know how to avoid the mall traffic to get there :)