What. A. Day

32 this morning, dropping from 35 in the middle of the night. But no frost. Warmed to the mid 50's, bright and sunny. 

I knew it would be a busy day. I needed to go to town and had several things to do there, including grocery shopping. So I tried for an early start, but as usual life intervened. Tbe van needed to be unloaded from yesterday's sourcing pickup, and I had noticed the tires needed air so that had to be taken care of. Still, I was on the road before 10am, so not too bad.

Most of my errands were simple enough, but grocery shopping, oh my. I haven't done a major shopping since the end of September so there were a lot of things on my list, some of which proved to be unavailable at my usual store---things like Olde English lemon oil and any kind of copper cleaner. I guess these are old-fashioned cleaning supplies? 

In the store, I ran into so many people trying to find things for Thanksgiving. One lady wanted German chocolate icing but the clerk said the store no longer carried it. What??? Why not?? A young girl was hopelessly looking for pumpkin pie spice. This was to be her first attempt at making anything for the holiday. She was shopping with her boyfriend's sister and they both were not yet 20. I helped them find the spice and they were so grateful. A man wandered around with a list,  muttering to himself. I myself was back and forth, trying to find what I needed, not for Thanksgiving but just to restock basic supplies like butter, baking powder, flour, etc. 

I spent nearly $200, but that included 2 big sliced hams @ about $20 each. These were on sale, and when I got home I repackaged them into 25 smaller vacuum sealed bags---enough ham to last us all year, plus 2 nice hambones for soup-making. If I had bought ham lunch meat, I would have only been able to buy 4 one-pound packages for that amount of money. I will be using some of the ham in place of bacon, since bacon has gotten so expensive. 

I also bought 4 pounds of butter because it was on sale for 2.99 a pound. With holiday baking coming up it seemed wise to get the butter now. 

So that big job is behind me, and I will not have to do another trip like that until next year. Unlike my English friends, shops are not close by and I don't go very often. Instead, we stock up for longer periods of time and only run in for milk and a few other things in between. It saves us both time and money, and should we be snowed in or whatever, we are well set. 

I also did some Christmas shopping, stopping at a local artisans market to buy a lot of my gift list. Prices were reasonable and I got some lovely pottery and locally made lotions. I still have a few more gifts to pick up, mostly for the little great-grands, but I have made a good start. 

I was glad to finally sit down around 7pm and watch a movie. Tonight it was a foreign film called Italian for Beginners. I loved it, and plan to watch it again tomorrow night. It is about a group of people who all take an Italian language class, and follows the development of their relationships. I believe it is set in Denmark. 

Bedtime for me! See you tomorrow!

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