Friday, 12/1

Tomorrow's one of my favorite days of the year.

Tomorrow is what Loraine and I jokingly call “church bazaar” day, but it's so much more than that. Tomorrow, the Greek Orthodox Church in Marquette is holding their amazing annual Greek bake sale, filled with some of the yummiest food you'll ever taste. Meanwhile, St. Paul's Church is holding an international craft fair (and bake sale), while the First Presbyterian Church is holding their annual holiday bake sale. Tomorrow afternoon, Peter White Public Library's holding their annual holiday open house & cookie fest (where you can see Loraine's usual Gold Star tree). Then Sunday I get to celebrate a day early by eating birthday pumpkin bars and mint chocolate chip ice cream.

By Sunday night, I'll be uttering those infamous words--”I'm never gonna eat again”.

I don't know what it is about the confluence of all those events that makes Loraine and me celebrate like we do when it rolls around, although you may have noticed that food probably plays quite a huge role. But there is something else to it, too. All of those events that I described? The bake sales, the open houses, everything? They all occur within a four block radius of where we live. We hop out of our apartment Saturday morning and just wander through all of these really cool events before strolling home with whatever we've picked up. For some people, picking out a Christmas tree or visiting Santa or singing carols is how they get into the holiday spirit.

For us, it's spending the weekend walking to all of these events and just seeing what there is to see. And that's not even counting some of the other events that occur within that four blocks radius—performances of “The Nutcracker”, visits with Santa, and much, much more. Remember a few days ago when I wrote about how lucky I realized we are living where we live? Well, this is just another example of how it's true. Sure, this time it doesn't involve a beach. It just involves Greek food, baked goods, and birthday ice cream.

What more could you want?

On that note, I hope you all have a great weekend. If you're in Marquette, I hope you get the chance to check out some of those events I mentioned. If not, I hope that your community gives YOU something to help get you into the holiday spirit!

(jim@wmqt.com)