Friday’s Fave Five

Susanne at Living to Tell the Story hosts a “Friday Fave Five” in which we share our five favorite things from the past week. Click on the button to read more of the details.

1. My thermostat. We forget what a luxury it is to be able to heat our homes with the push of a button. I’ve been sp grateful for that this week!

2. My nice warm winter coat. It really came in handy this week for…

3. “Dickens of a Christmas.” An annual holiday event where Main Street downtown is blocked from traffic, there are store window displays of people acting out scenes from Dickens’ era (including one ballet group who performs “The Nutcracker” every year) — not from his books necessarily, but just from those times. There are different groups who sing or play instruments, anyone who wants to can dress in in period attire. Then there is a carol sing and lighting of the downtown Christmas tree. There’s a food court and one group who gives out free apple cider. It’s just a fun time to get out and about and even run into people you know. Here are a few scenes as recorded by my oldest son.

A choir:

A dance group:

This is my favorite musical group. I wish we had recorded them. Good, fun music, and they were just off the main sidewalk where everyone could still see and hear them, but there was room to gather around.

Christmas lights downtown:

4. Goodies. I had ordered some things from Hydrangea Home through the weekly Pink Friday sales event from the Make Mine Pink shops (which I could list an another favorite thing. They have a theme every Friday for kind of an online sidewalk sale — kitchen things, tea things, beach things, etc. This week it’s “last minute Christmas gifts.”), and they came in this week.

I am borrowing her pictures since I haven’t had a chance to take any, and hers are so much better than mine would be anyway, but I don’t think she’ll mind since I am linking back to her. 🙂 Everything was packaged so beautifully. and she added in a free ornament and some pretty notecards.

5. Krispy Kreme donuts, especially when the “Hot Donuts Now” sign is one. We went there after the Dickens event.

Krispy Kreme

6. If I could add a sixth “bonus” one, it would be the encouragement of friends. Thanks to those who commented on yesterday’s post. That first incident mentioned happened at church — where you’d expect people to smile and greet everyone. I do agree with what everyone said about shyness. I so want to write a post about that — I used to be painfully shy, so much that I would panic if someone spoke to me in a group. The Lord has helped me with that a lot. It’s still my default setting, but by His grace I can extend myself. But that will have to wait probably til early next week — I have a deadline today for another responsibility. I’ll be around to visit later on!

Happy Friday!

17 thoughts on “Friday’s Fave Five”

Your evening out sounds like such a good Christmas tradition. I love the icicle ornaments.

Would love to experience that Dickens street tradition. It really looks great. Enjoyed your 5 Barbara. Blessings on your weekend…

Dickens of a Christmas sounds wonderful! I’d love an event like that … especially if hot Krispy Kreme doughnuts were part of the evening.

Your new ornaments are beautiful.

I loved your list. The evening sounds like so much fun. Yum! I love the chocolate glazed, cream filled donuts.

I love those dove ornaments. They are just beautiful. I want to start getting some bird ornaments for my tree. I’m really drawn to them in the last couple of years.

That Dicken’s Christmas looks like so much fun. I would love to do that. And Krispy Kreme is in my city. You have to go to the big city for them. The school behind us brings them in as a fund raiser once a year, but we missed it this year. :v(

What a beautiful and fun event to attend! That would put a person in the Christmas spirit for sure!

Krispy Kreme donuts! I love those pictures you took, really puts us in the Christmas mood!

Krispy Kreme…ours closed! No one around here knows why as it was always busy!
Now we go back to Dunkin Donuts but I only get the coffee – which is way better than starbucks.

Tuning in a day late, but I just read your “frustrations and forbearance” post. Almost every morning on my walk, I have similar conversations, with myself and with God… not necessarily the same issues, but people-related stuff. It’s good to know I’m not the only one, so thanks for being honest.

Ohhhhhh I am so jealous of your Dickens Christmas! Your son took fabulous pictures! And how he got that LAST great one of the lit trees is amazing! Every time I try they come out blurry! Was he using a tripod? I’m sO impressed! LOL! That is JUST the kind of thing I would love to attend this time of year — and we have nothing like that….

You’re new ornaments are beautiful too.
(I’m ignoring the krispie kremes… turning my head… looking the other way…)

Hey, melli! I got those pictures by taking *lots* of pictures. (I’ve got nearly a hundred blurry or too-dark photos from the event on my computer.)

I also changed my camera’s settings to keep the exposure time as short as possible; the longer the camera’s shutter is open, the more motion blur you’ll get. It also helps to keep camera as zoomed-out as possible, and if, your camera supports it, to open the aperture to the widest possible setting, since doing both of those things lets more light into the camera.

A tripod would have been really nice, but I don’t think there would have been room for one in the crowds.

Oh! Almost forgot. The other thing I did was to use bracketed shooting. When I held down the shutter button, the camera took 3 photos right in a row, one at normal exposure, one with a slightly darker exposure, and one with a slightly lighter exposure. At least one of these photos usually turned out OK, and I could brighten it up if needed on my computer.

Thanks J.D.! Now I understand! That’s how I manage to OCCASIONALLY get a good one myself! My camera doesn’t have the bracketed shooting… although it does have another similar feature I might try next time. It takes a 3 second video, and then you can choose from all the frames which one(s) to keep. You’re so right about tripods! I rarely take mine anywhere where I really wished I had it — just because they are inconvenient! I use it at home the most. LOL!