Christmas Caroling

Tonight these girls got to go do some Christmas caroling!  Sure, it started raining a little later on, but that threat of rain didn’t become the full-fledged promise of a downpour until after the girls were inside the house, safe and warm.  Until then, they got to go marauding the neighborhood, dressed in festive outfits and terrorizing other families with rollicking Christmas carols.  They had a splendid time!  They went to people’s houses they knew, and other houses of people they did not know, and in both cases, it was such a blessing for those who opened their doors.  Going Christmas caroling is such a fun thing for those who are doing it, and for those who are on the receiving end too.  It’s such a wonderful thing!

It was a birthday party celebration, and when the girls got back to the house, they were doing other Christmas-related activities, such as designing their own nutcrackers.  Madison had been painting her own nutcracker, and will probably finish up with that later on.  Also, she made her own miniature ugly Christmas sweater ornament, which turned out really good!  It’s currently hanging up on our tree right now.

Mommy, Daddy and our friend Clint were at a men’s clothing store today, one that used to be a Blockbuster Video.  Wow, what a difference!  The place was filled with suits and ties, whereas before it had nothing but VHS tapes and reminders for everyone to “Be kind, rewind.”  Madison has no idea about this culture, about Friday nights at Blockbuster and about going off to find out if that new movie is there or not, or if everyone else has one of the forty five copies of that movie taken.  You went from box to box, looking behind each one in hopes that there was an actual VHS of your movie there, and if you found one, it was like a treasure.  Yes, you’re watching Ernest tonight!  Or whatever.  Obviously, we were more into other movies at the time than Ernest, but back then for some reason there were a lot of folks that were very much wanting to watch Ernest VHS tapes the moment they were released.  There were the other movies too.  Daddy worked in this very spot, and once again walked the aisles that formerly had VHS tapes and now had nothing but suits and ties.  The structure of the place was largely the same, but it was so quiet there now.  Fridays in the past were so busy.  And cruisers would be driving by too, up and down this stretch of road in front of Lakeshore Mall.  For no apparent reason other than to look for girls or guys, people would drive from all over and congregate here in Gainesville, all in order to drive up and down this road.  Once you got to the end of the road, you’d turn around and go back along the road in the other direction.  It would take a long while to do this, because the traffic was so heavy with other people doing the same exact thing.  People who wanted to actually get anywhere had a miserable night.  Regulars who live here knew to drive elsewhere.  This main drag in front of the mall was a hot spot.  The cars that weren’t driving there were parked in the parking lot of the mall - now deserted, pretty much.  There was a movie theater in that mall, and things to do.  They had a chance to get another theater, and perhaps some things to actually do.  But that never materialized, and the mall is just a shell of what it once was.  Of course, back then, there were no other malls around.  The Mall of Georgia didn’t exist yet, and there was just this mall and the one in Gwinnett.  But once that other mall came, and once the internet made it easier to shop for things online, other options because available.  There was a Chick-Fil-A inside this mall, the first in Hall County.  There was a movie theater, a KB Toy store, a Hallmark, a Family Christian Store, and a whole lot of other chain stores.  But one by one, they bowed out, each replaced by some independent merchant, or in many cases a vacant spot.  The mall has been not too bad this Christmas season, with cars in the parking lot.  We may be dropping by there soon enough for a quick visit.  But the glory days of all this place have long since past.  Blockbuster was a kingdom, and they held everyone in the palm of their hands.  But like the mall, it couldn’t shift with the times so much.  It is all gone, except one last location I believe.  Lakeshore Mall is still here, a place of memories.  How often we walked up and down the mall, driving a considerable distance just to get here from White County.  We’d cruise in front of the mall, drop by for a meal in the food court, and catch a movie.  Or we’d come just to play games at that arcade that used to be there.  All that side of the mall has been demolished, replaced by an empty space that mysteriously sits there to separate it from the sporting goods store they built on that property.  I don’t know what they were thinking.

We got our suit taken care of, and we got things for Sunday set up at KidPak.  Madison is already studying for her midterms next week, but things are wrapping up as far as new material in school goes.  It’s been a lot of review.

This morning, Jingle Bell was some place where X-wings could be - some place that also had an “X” in it.  That happened to be the X-box, which when found, had a few rebel pilots and droids congregating around a few X-wings, ready to take off.  Madison caught Jingle Bell just in time before he made his escape.  She was able to get her next LEGO Advent calendar prize, and of course some Advent calendar chocolate too.

It was a decent day today, but we’ve got some pretty full days upcoming.  It’s a busy time of the year, but Madison and her friends are having a wonderful time of the year too.