"Oh, wonderful, wonderful, and most wonderful! and yet again wonderful! and after that, out of all whooping!"

. . . . . Celia, As You Like It

Yesterday was rainy, and following the wet came the cold front! (I stood in front of the television at one point while the weather map was onscreen, cheering the front on.) We woke this morning to cold air coming through the fan in the window, which made it a lovely morning for curling up in blankets and snoozing.

After breakfast we were off on a day of shopping and walking. It was a bright blue-skied day, chill and crisp with occasional gusts of wind, one that made one want to dance and call out, "It's fall! It's fall! It's fall at last!" If I could have swooped up the whole world today and given it a hug, I would have. During the day we were constantly driving through swirls of golden leaves hustled from their branches by the wind.

We started out at Hallmark, this being the last of the ornament premieres (boy, they really drag these things out...LOL). The Canadian Santa was released this weekend: he's lovely, with a birchbark robe marked in holly, snowshoes slung over his back, and carrying a basket with evergreens in it. I got that and the Marjolein Bastin bird ornament. Because I bought two ornaments, I got a third, a little Santa. I also bought a Webkinz cardinal and the new Yankee Candle gingerbread candle (oh, Lord, do these smell of gingerbread—you don't even have to burn it). I had a $5 off coupon and a $2 credit coupon, and because I spent a certain amount, I was entitled to a "free gift bag" worth $50.

Now usually these freebies are pretty lame, but this one was quite neat. It contained a booklet of recipes/decorating ideas, a singing card, a white porcelain dated bell, a small serving plate that says "Merry" with a snowman on it, a magnetic round photo frame with a snowman hat on it with the legend "Snow much fun," a Christmas-theme packet of tissues, and a dated keepsake ornament of a glove with toys in it. And it came in a nice gift bag, too!

We ducked into Publix to take advantage of the twofers, then went to the hobby shop for a while. From there we headed up to Books-a-Million, which was having a 20 percent off everything in the store sale today only. Bought a Charles Wysocki calendar, a copy of Country Woman, a copy of a North Carolina magazine, Our State with a big section of autumn photos, the December Cross-Stitcher, and a book for a gift.

From there we had lunch at Longhorn, which is right across the parking lot. As always, we both only ate half our steaks and brought the rest home for a lunch. Thus fortified, we went to Dollar Tree and then to Michaels. James bought a small pre-lighted silver tree which he is going to use for his airplane ornaments. They tend to get lost on the big tree anyway. This is made out of that holographic material, so it will set off the ornaments quite nicely.

We decided to stop at Walmart to see if they possibly had the Hood's Calorie Countdown chocolate milk. Ah, well, no miracle here. We did pick up some things we needed, then drove home via Kennesaw National Battlefield Park. It was approaching sunset, but no darkening could quench the brightest of the trees, which stood out like small lanterns in the growing darkness: fire orange here, golden yellow there, purply scarlet brush. James saw three deer standing in the meadow near the park headquarters building, but by the time I turned, I had missed them.

We had to make one more stop at Kroger for prescriptions, chicken broth, and other odds and ends before arriving home with our treasures and having soup for supper. Schuyler was chirping so plaintively that I sat her cage near me and she is now contentedly preening.

Labels: autumn, Christmas, shopping

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 8:10:00 PM

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