It's starting already...Part Deux...

So we did some running around today (when, granted, we shoulda been picking up the leaves, but hey, whaddya gonna do?).  We went on over to Parkway South High School, because they have this big ol' sale every year on Nike athletic clothing to see if there were any good deals we could take advantage of for possible Christmas presents.  There were lots and lots of Mizzou things, Cardinals, Blues, and Rams stuff, as well as clothing for a bunch of college teams: Arizona State, Penn State, Connecticut, Texas (boo!) and, of course, my beloved Oklahoma! 

They really didn't have much of a selection of any of the stuff by the time we got there, though - it was definitely well picked over.  We should've gone yesterday!  They still have one more day to go with the sale, too - maybe they'll get some more stuff in.  Dunno. 

Anyway, after we left that friggin' mess, we decided to go up to Old St. Charles to see if we could find a couple of Christmas tree ornaments - we always get certain things for a couple of family members, and since they don't usually run that much, we figured we might be able to scrape up some jack if we happened to find something.  Man, was Main Street hopping!  Yeah, yeah, I know: it's a sunny, somewhat warm day in November, the start of the big Christmas season, especially in Old St. Charles, but I didn't expect it to be that bad!  We didn't stay all that long there - not a big fan of the crowds up there.  The old shops are too small to begin with, without having all those people trying to shove their outdated-sweater-and-hairdo-wearin' butts in there, too!

We spent the rest of the afternoon down at a big Southern Fried Chicken Dinner and just general Fun Fall Festival at St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church in South St. Louis (at Arsenal and Oregon).  It was the most fun-filled carnival atmosphere I've ever seen in a church dinner!  We walked in, and it sounded like Ernie Hays on the organ - in fact he was even playing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame"!  As if that wasn't enough, who was up by the stage dancing around?  Fred Bird, thats' who!  I got to give him a high five - made me feel like I was 5 years old again!  Woo Hoo!

Anyway, for the second day in a row, Christmas seemed to be everywhere, already - in fact, on the way home, we saw a house down on Watson, which already had all of their Christmas lights, including light-up reindeer, all up and shinin' bright!  Therefore, tonight's stroke is also Christmas related - a crimson, for old King Wenceslas himself.