To everything there is a season,

 

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. ~Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 King Solomon might have said it but nobody lives by it anymore.  I get seed catalogs before Christmas, two weeks after school is out they are filling the racks with back to school merchandise, before the end of December Valentines candy will flood the aisles.  This year before Thanksgiving I received the January/February issue of a magazine.  Homemade gifts need to be started early and I totally get not waiting until the last minute to shop but we don’t get to enjoy each holiday or season before we are rushed into the next.  I know I have to prepare for the future (holiday/season) but last I knew they all fell at approximately the same date/time without fail so why do I need to have Santa eyeballing me while choosing  little Johnny’s school uniform in August?  OK done with rant…I guess I must be getting old because I am so out of sync with this fast paced world.  So from the above you know I did not go shopping on black Friday but I did do some browsing and shopping at the Christkindlmarkt in Bethlehem when I went to visit the grandsons.  The site is beside the smokestacks of Bethlehem steel.    There are two tents the size of  a football field, one of which is mainly retail vendors and the other artisans/craftspeople.  Outside the tents there are booths for things such as the ice carver doing demonstrations  and the glass works where you can make your own glass blown ornaments.   I would have loved it but it was freezing and the wind was blowing at about 50 miles an hour so we did not linger outside long!     Inside the retail vendors one of the vendors I wanted to see was Kathe Wolfahrt.  My uncle use to carve pyramids.   I never got one and he has passed away so I wanted to see how much they were….suffice it to say more than I would spend on myself before Christmas.  The booth was full of beer steins,  nutcrackers,  incense burners and ornaments of all makes and sizes.    Ye Old Toffee shoppe operated by Heitmann’s Gourmet Nuts and Specialties greats you with one of the Royal Guard giving you free tastes of waistline busters!  Delicious!!  You can even get your picture taken with the Queen or Will and Kate (life size cardboard cutouts).  There is vendors of wine, pottery, and beautiful puzzle boxes by Turtle Creek Puzzles.   Then we had to venture out into the cold to get to tent number two which houses all the artisans, food court and stage where school groups and various musicians entertain you.  This was by far the favorite tent as I love to see unique items people create.  We stopped to listen to the music and scarf down some food.  I tried deep fried dill pickles for the first time… why have I not tried these before?  Yummy!!!! There was scherenschnitte,  jewelry made from forks,  gorgeous pottery,  soap that smelled good enough to eat,  woven rugs,  things made from gourds and bottles,  dog biscuits, must be time consuming ornaments made with seed beads, wheat weaving and more.    Vendors can sign on for a week (Th-Su) or the full five weeks that it is open.  Santa is there and I know they do a breakfast with Santa on weekends.  I have to go back next year as they do horse drawn carriage rides and I would like to check out down town Bethlehem aka Christmas City.  I didn't do the products justice as the picture quality  is bad due to lighting and it was the camera  phone.  And speaking of pictures...#1 daughter bought a wall hanging of alphabet art that spells wish.   Love looking at these on pinterest, so creative.  And during this holiday frenzy I wish that I can ...