A different Monday

On Monday Mr. T had the day off unexpectedly. In addition to my usual laundry and other Monday tasks, I was able to take some time to work on Christmas preparations with him. In the morning we looked for some specific items at Walmart and Dollar Tree.

One thing I was particularly looking for was some plastic holiday placemats. The only placemats I have that work with my Christmas tablecloths are green fabric ones I sewed a few years back. But I don't have enough of those to wash them every time there's a spill. Since it's much easier to just wipe down plastic ones after a meal, I was looking for plastic placemats in either red, green or gold. I didn't find any -- the only ones I found were fabric. But what I did find, in the clearance aisle at Walmart, was some red/white checked vinyl placemats for only 30¢ each! They look super with my Christmas tablecloths and other decorations too. I bought ten!


After we got back and had lunch, Mr. T put up the Christmas tree. We have an older, but very high-quality artificial tree given us a few years back by friends who were downsizing. It looks almost real... and it even sheds its needles! This will probably be its last year, and we'll look for a new one on clearance after Christmas. We have always had real trees, many from our own land, but the past couple years have used this artificial one. We like it because it doesn't need watering and can be safely left up as long as we like.

Later, we headed out again. Mr. T had an errand to do in a nearby town, so I decided to go along and we could check out a favorite bookstore in a quaint shopping center for some Christmas gifts. Sadly, they had only one of the books I was looking for (I found the rest online later) but it was worth the trip. When we came out of the bookstore, snow was drifting down on the charming brick paths and it was just like a Christmas card come to life.

It was a different Monday, but a pleasantly productive one for our Christmas preparations. It really put us in the Christmas spirit!