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Issue: # 16
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November 2009
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Can it really be November? This time of year is so filled with preparations and Stress! An artist called the other day to find out when I would like her to deliver her ornaments. Sandy makes wonderful ceramic bells that are each inscribed with holiday wishes in one of thirty different languages. She is going to bring quite a few, and we've talked about display options, and I had told her we'd like them before Thanksgiving. We like to have pretty much everything in the store by then so we can price and process everything, have it displayed and back-stocked. I like the store to be ready - stocked, staffed, decorated and ready to go - the day after Thanksgiving. Anyway, I'm talking to Sandy and looking at the calendar, and just about having a panic attack - Thanksgiving is almost here, and I'm not ready!!!
So that was last week. This week I feel more ready after some focused list making and doing. I never feel completely ready. Does anyone?
The store is filling up. At one point I fear all the doors are going to blow off the cupboards! Then we have a few busy days and the tension eases. We have shipments arriving daily, many with new artists' lines, many with new work by favorite, familiar artists.
One artist whose work we've carried for a long time is Phil Shelton. I received a letter the other day from Phil. He is
one of the artists whose work we've carried for over twenty years - probably
twenty-three, in fact! He makes those fantastic hoop earrings, in both sterling
and gold-filled, that are a wardrobe essential! They come in a variety of sizes, from small enough to just skirt the earlobe, to big statement size hoops. Anyway, I always enjoy Phil's
letters. He is a great marketer, always keeping in touch, making sure we have
current price lists, and photos, reminding us that no order is too small. Many
of his missives contain his latest rant or ponderings on anything from the
price of gold to the state of the Union, not in a preachy way, but with humor
and wit. But this most recent letter I found particularly entertaining, so
called to ask Phil if I could include it in our newsletter. It's the first Turtle Story below.
A lot of people have been in doing some "pre-holiday looking". And there are those few who are almost finished with their holiday shopping. For the rest of us, this season signals the beginning of the process.
Remember that at Crackerjack we have always offered
Lay-Away, and now is a great time to use it. You make your selection now, put a
25% deposit on it, and you have sixty days to finish paying for it and pick it up! Some customers make regular
payments throughout that time period, others just pay the balance when they
need the gift and pick it up then. We're easy, and we want to help make life
easy for you, and assist with your holiday shopping, and ensure you get the
items you want!
And speaking of easy, don't forget to shop online with us.
We are always expanding our website, and it's a convenient way to shop for your
out-of-town friends and relatives, or for them to shop for you! We have just added Gift Certificates to the website, both those to be used online and those which are sent to the recipient to be used in the store. So if you haven't checked in for awhile, now is a
good time to take a look, and get your shopping juices flowing!
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Saturdays - now open until 8 p.m.!
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Upcoming Events
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Please Join Us
Holiday Open House at Wallingford Center
Saturday December 5, 5 to 8 p.m.
Help us kick off the Holidays with an evening of Food, Shopping, Fashion and Fun!
Fashion Show Extravaganza begins at 6p.m.
Create a Magical Memory! Pictures with Santa and Family Portraits
Bookings available through December 31.
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Things to Celebrate!
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Nov. 2 - National Authors Day
Daniel Boone's Birthday
Nov.3 - Sandwich Day
First Dog in Space - 1957
Nov. 4 - King Tut Tomb discovered 1922
First Wagon Train reached California
National Candy Day
Nov. 5 - National Donut Day
Nov. 6 - National Nachos Day
Saxophone Day
Basketball Day
Nov. 7 - Hug a Bear Day - I would suggest a Stuffed Bear!
Nov. 9 - Berlin Wall Opened 1989
Nov. 10 - Marine Corps Birthday - Uh Rah!
Sesame Street Premiere 1969
Nov. 11 - Veteran's Day - buy a Paper Poppy!
Washington State Admission Day
Nov. 13 - International Day of Kindness
Sadie Hawkins Day - it's funny how things are celebrated differently in other parts of the country. Sadie Hawkins Day was celebrated by having a dance where the girls asked the boys. Here it's called a Tolo. Can anyone tell me where that comes from?
Nov. 14 - Claude Monet's BirthdayNational
Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day
Nov. 17 - National Homemade Bread Day
Take a Hike Day
Nov. 20 - Traffic Light Patented 1923
Nov. 23 - National Cashew Day - hey, Carole Anne!
Celebrate Your Unique Talent Day
Nov. 24 - Celebrate Your Unique Talent Day
Nov. 25 - Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer released 1946
Nov. 26 - Thanksgiving
King Tut's Tomb Opened 1922 (Ewa is in Egypt right now!)
Nov. 30 - Mark Twain's birthday 1835
Mason Jars Patented 1958
November is Peanut Butter Lovers Month
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Turtle Stories
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My friend Jennifer found a turtle. It was just walking down
the center of the street and she "rescued" it! The turtle is a large "pet shop"
turtle, the kind found in lakes and ponds all over the United States. It is one
of those that has a red stripe on its face and will grow to be as big as eight
inches across. This one (ours) is a bout six inches across. We took it to the
Botanical Gardens where there is a pond with other turtles of the same kind
residing in it. "Our" turtle may have come from there, as they almost never
grow big in captivity. In fact, every kid who ever had one from a pet shop
probably buried his departed turtle in a matchbox. Some people call these
turtles by the name "matchbox turtle" because of the high mortality rate. "Our"
turtle would have a much better fate in store and with luck a much longer
life....a very long life as that is how it is with turtles!
I put the turtle in a Danish Butter Cookie tin. I emptied
out the center compartment of my camera bag, and hid the cookie tin, with the
turtle enclosed, inside the bag. Then Jennifer and I drove up to the Botanical
Gardens. I flashed my membership card, smiled broadly, then we walked right in.
I didn't even break a sweat! While I have been to the Botanical Gardens many
times, I was stressed about smuggling the turtle. There were some new paths and
it took me awhile to find the right path to the right part of the pond.
Jennifer put "our" turtle about three feet from the pond and I "thought" I
would take a photo...that is what I thought. The turtle knew where the water was
and in a flash...he ran to the edge and dived right in. He hit the water
swimming. He surfaced to look around (we like to think it was to say thanks and
good-bye) and then ducked under the surface of the water and got on with his
new life! I haven't felt so good about anything for a long time!
I didn't know turtles could run....They can really turn it on
when necessary. I didn't get a photo, in fact, I didn't even cock the shutter.
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Phil's story reminded me of my own turtle experience when I
was about eight. I had awakened early on a Saturday morning, and gone over to
my best friend, Melinda's house. Unlike our house, hers was a one-story, so I
could tap at her bedroom window to wake her up, and she would quickly dress and
come outside to play. On this particular morning, she went back inside to get
some oranges for us to eat, and I was waiting on her front porch, occupying
myself by looking at the house across the street. After a while, I realized
that what had appeared to be a lost coat on one of the driveways was in a
different place than I had remembered. A while later I looked again, and the
"coat" had definitely moved! Melinda returned, oranges in hand, and after
consuming them while watching to see if my "coat" moved, we decided to cross
the street and have a look. It was not a coat. It was a huge turtle. It was
probably two feet or more long!
Well, the day before, my mom had announced that she'd met
our newest neighbors. They didn't have any kids, she told us, but they did have
a big turtle. Aha, I thought! I know who this turtle belongs to - it must have
escaped! And being full of eight-year-old certainty, we marched over to their
front door and rang the bell. By now, it is about eight a.m., these people
don't have kids, and two neighborhood kids are ringing their doorbell! Finally,
the woman comes to the door in her robe, and we breathlessly tell her that
we've found her escaped turtle. But, she tells us, she is not missing her
turtle. But have you checked on it lately, we ask? Because there's a big turtle
in the driveway down the street. She said she was sure that her turtle was
safely in its home in the upstairs study (Melinda and I looked at each other -
who has an upstairs study?), but she would check on it, and also ask her
husband to come take a look at the one we'd found.
Pretty soon her husband arrived, a turtle identification
book in hand. He figured it was a snapping turtle - good thing we hadn't gotten
too close!- and went to call the zoo to find out what to do with it. He
returned with one of those big cardboard tube drums, and tried to coax the
turtle into it. At last he was successful, wrestled the drum into the trunk of
his car, and asked us if we wanted to go with them to take it down to the zoo.
The zoo would identify it, quarantine it, and either return it to a habitat, or
include it in an appropriate display. Both Melinda and I ran off to get
parental permission. My parents were still in bed. "Mom, I said," Melinda and I
found a turtle, and we thought it was the new neighbors', but it wasn't, so now
they're going to take it down to the zoo, and can I go with them?" What can I
say - it was a different era! So we went to the zoo, and out to breakfast afterward.
When we'd go to the zoo after that, we always had to go see "our"
turtle. Melinda remembered a specific scar on its shell, so we would look for
that, and say Hi and Hope you're happy!. It wasn't until we were adults that
Melinda finally confessed to me that she hadn't remembered anything particular
about "our" turtle's shell, but had wanted to make sure to claim one of the
turtles as our very own.
I don't remember the names of the neighbors, and they didn't
live there very long, but what a magical memory they made for two little girls,
and one turtle very far from home!
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Thank You for your continued patronage of a local independent business and for supporting American handmade! Have a great and grateful Thanksgiving!
Kathleen Koch
Crackerjack Contemporary Crafts
Since November is Peanut Butter Lovers Month, I decided to include a recipe for Buckeyes given to me by Jill DeGreen, former employee and current owner of Bleu Papillon in Magnolia Village (a great shop to check out!). Buckeyes are an actual nut from an actual tree prevalent in Ohio. You've all heard the term before, I'm sure, if you're a sports fan. Now I don't know which sport, but I know the term from being a Mid-Westerner!
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Buckeyes
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2 (16 oz.) jars peanut butter
1 3/4 (16 oz.) packages confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
1 1/2 (12 oz.) packages semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 T. shortening
1. Blend together the peanut butter, sugar and melted butter. Allow to chill in the refrigerator.
2. Roll into 1 inch balls and return to the refrigerator.
3. In a double boiler over medium heat, melt the chocolate and shortening. Whisk together until smooth.
4. With a toothpick inserted in the balls, dip them into the chocolate so they look like buckeyes (about 3/4 of the way covered). Place on waxed paper and allow to set up in refrigerator.
Yield: 72
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