Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Three Beautiful Things 12/15/14: Retired Educators' Christmas Gala, Saving Money, Everything's on the Table

1.  Mom and I piled in to the Malibu and jetted to Post Falls for the Christmas meeting of the North Idaho Retired Educators luncheon.  While we wolfed down our Senior Citizen meal consisting of hot beef sandwich, canned corn, mashed potatoes and gravy, and marshmallow something dessert (we were told it would taste like cheesecake), the girls ensemble from Post Falls High School presented a superb mix of Christmas songs.  I remembered being in the Cardinal Chorale at North Idaho College and how we gave Christmas programs out in the community of Coeur d' Alene and how much fun it was to make people happy with our singing.  This is what happened at the Post Falls Senior Center:  the girls made all of us happy with their energy and the beauty of their songs and their singing.

2.  After the luncheon, it was time to go save money.  Mom and I went to J. C. Penney.  Mom brought a fistful of coupons and found a few items for herself and some Christmas gifts and she found a cooperative cashier who helped her divide her purchases into piles, one where she could used this coupon and another where she could use that one, and after about ten minutes of sorting and scanning, Mom's purchase was completed and she walked proudly out of the store, having saved about 350,000 dollars.  The people in the line backing up behind her while she saved every possible penny were patient and seemed to be filled with the Christmas spirit of peace and goodwill toward Mom.  (Me, too!)  We made another money saving trip, this time to Shopko where, unknown to Mom, but ready to make her day, were some half price discounts on things she wanted to buy.  As we left the store, I imagined Katrina and the Waves playing "Walking on Sunshine" as the soundtrack to our shopping safari in Coeur d'Alene.

3.  The Deke called me while Mom and I were eating dinner and discussed what might be next for us in the upcoming year and we agreed that we will continue to live with the motto that got us to Greenbelt, MD:  everything is on the table.

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