Christmas Day Reflection

It was a great Christmas. Our family was together for the holiday and it was great watching the grandson open his goodies. Jane and I attended Christmas Day Mass and we were by ourselves. The daughter was on her way to Quincy. For what ever reason our son's family did not go to church. We sat there and saw other families sitting together in the pews. We felt empty, as we grow older I am sure this feeling will return again and again. Our children do have other things going on in their lives and I guess this is something we need to understand but it is still a hard pill to swallow.

Finally done

Today the last bunch of stuff left the mall in Hannibal and now all we need to get is the show cases moved. They are being moved in by someone else on this Wednesday. So Wednesday thru Friday will be getting the stuff on the shelves. We will go through some of the stuff and sent it to the auction.

I did have an unusual thing happen. Up on the upper shelf of on case there was a grape Westmorland panel vase. I took it down and placed it in one tub and our came a liquid. Someone had peed or urniated in it. So now I have half a tub of pottery that needs to be cleaned. So tommorow I will hand wash the stuff. Some people are just unreal.

As we were looking through the other stuff we realized someone took the lid to a Bobwhite Red Wing cookie jar. Also there was another california pottery cookie jar lid missing. Jane and I decided that this is the last mall move. If something goes wrong with this we will leave the malls. Moving all that inventory is too much work.

Years ago the mall booth always did a great business. Now we are tickled if we make more than 4 times our rent.

Dealers are now offering up to 20% off at the new mall. This really goes against our ideas. If you give the customer 20% the mall gets 5% commision, and my rent is $175.00 a month you have to sell a lot of stuff to make it worth your while. I don't think it is so much online selling that has hurt the business that much. We will see what happens in the new place we told each other that we would give the new booth one year.

Andy

busy Sunday

Today was a busy one for Jane and I. We took another load from the mall in Hannibal to the new mall in Palmyra. When you back is hurting lifting heavy tubs or glass and pottery hard. I think that tommorow we will have all the inventory in the new place. The only thing we need know is our cases to be moved in. The owner of the new mall has agreed to move these for us. Pictures will be coming in the next couple of days. Jane and I both think that the new mall will have a different type of consumer. The Hannibal mall was down town and mostly we dealt with tourist. The new mall location is right on Highway 61 which is known as the Avenue of the Saints.

We had no idea that so much stuff was in the booth in Hannibal. We thought that some of this stuff was breeding. Hopefully I can get my back rested before school starts.

Time does fly as this is my 19th year of teaching. The secound half of the school year will fly by.

The Weather

Can the weather get any more crazy? There was maybe a tornado not far from Quincy. There was some damage out towards Libery, where our antique store it located. It rained buckets. We are in the process of putting our some of our enventory in a different antique mall as the one in Hannibal is closing. If you are in Palmyra, Missouri check out our stuff. The mall is located right on Highway 61. Christmas break so far in great, as we don't have to be back at school until the 5th of Jan. This blogging is new to us and we are just getting the hang of it all.

Christmas was great here at the house as our grandson is really getting into the Christmas stuff. He will be two in February. We had the family here including my Mom and Dad.

More later
Andy

First Blog

Well here is our first attempt at blogging. All we have to say it is darn cold. In fact too cold.

We will be blogging about anything and everything. We do enjoy collecting Fiesta and traveling.

Andy and Jane