I am a merchandiser for 3 companies & Wal-Mart is one of the stores I work in. The vendors have to be through by 5 a.m. - meaning some of them will be in at 3 a.m. or be off that day - or wait until after 3 or 4 p.m. Today, the day before Thanksgiving, has been crowded & tomorrow until about 11 will be as crowded. Workers & customers constantly getting in each other's way. Whew!!!! And, I'll have to go "pull up" a couple of more times today! I made the mistake of going to the day after sale & never again! First, you have to park 10 miles from the store. Then you get all the way to the door & find out that everyone's already taken all the shopping carts. Then, you have to inch around shoulder-to-shoulder crowds. When I went, I was buying 3 boys' bikes & a smaller girls' bike. They were in boxes & I liked to not have gotten them in my cart - so good luck finding someone to help you. Then, I had to fight through the crowds again to the cash registers, where I stood in line for an hour. Then, getting them through the parking lot - keep in mind people are constantly backing up & moving - & into the car. Again, never again! Last year, I made the mistake of having to go in for toilet paper or something - one item - & it took forever because of the long lines at the check outs (why don't they ever have all the registers going? is it just me?).

Thanks, you guys... I put the leaves in moist vermiculite, in just a simple plastic tray... I use a large syringe, minus the needle, to re-moisten the medium. I just suck up some water with it, and then expel the water between the rows and around the edge... I do hope that works good enough, but I suspect it will. It's very helpful having veterinary supplies at hand... a lot of the tools are useful for working with seeds, cuttings and seedlings... such as syringes! I used rooting hormone powder on half of the leaf stems, and left the other half plain... Rachel's Reflections recommends not using any for speed of baby development vs. using the powder and getting mainly roots. I figured half and half should get me what I'm after... I've had African Violets on and off over the years... they've alway been a nice addition to my plant collection, but they've never done well for very long, and so I've never been bitten by that particular bug... this is the very first AV that has ever bloomed for me for any length of time... and has managed to stay alive for this long, and through a few moves! I probably won't collect too many of them until I have more space to do so... I'd rather save the space for bulbs! Hehe!

I love Autumn and I love Thanksgiving and so I can't imagine ruining it (for me) by putting up Christmas decs beforehand. Thanks AWM for posting the words to my favorite Thanksgiving song, "Over The River and Through The Woods". It makes me happy every time I hear it. If it were up to me, I'd wait and put up our Christmas decs the first weekend in December, so that we could really enjoy a long weekend, leisurely, holiday weekend after Thanksgiving. But, I "shot myself in the foot" years ago by letting my kiddos talk me into starting the day after Tday. It's now become "the tradition" and my sweet 16 y/o DD tells me it would "ruin everything" to not decorate for Christmas the entire long weekend after Thanksgiving (sigh!). So, younger parents, be careful of the traditions you start early on, as they may turn around and bite you in the butt later ;^D Wishing everyone who's celebrating, a very Happy Thanksgiving!!! Lynn

We camped. It was GREAT! We haven't been in a while. We hosted Thanksgiving, but ate early (noon) as my brother and SIL were going back to her parents to eat again that evening. Worked out well as we left late afternoon. We're within an hour of The Great Smoky Mts. national park and Cades Cove is one of our most favorite placess. Hubby had taken the camper up on Wednesday, so it was all set up. We took Thanksgiving dinner leftovers and had it all again Friday night. Took breakfast foods and snack type stuff (cheese/crackers, fruit, sliced ham, etc.) so other than warming everything Friday evening, I did no cooking. Temps were 60's in the daytime but quite chilly at night. Stars were amazing. We have heat in the camper and I had a set of flannel sheets and a warm blanket - so we were snug. We took lots of long walks/hikes,so hopefully worked off the extra calories. It was so nice to relax and enjoy the beautiful outdoors after a week of prepping and also dealing with a situation with my grandmother and her assisted living. Her roommate passed away and is has caused a bit of regression on her part. But anyway, it was just what we needed. Came home today and I'm in my jammies, taking it easy. House is clean, laundry is going and I'm just enjoying! We will decorate later in the week. Had thought to maybe put out the wreaths, greenery, etc. outside this afternoon but it rained earlier and still damp. Ann - I know you will enjoy tomorrow - have fun!! tina