Less Light and More

My friend Jack suggested that I should get some pictures of the Mesa Market Swap Meet since it was hard to imagine how large it is.  It was difficult to get a picture that gave the real scale of the place but I did take a couple outside and a couple inside so you can see it.  First here is the outside or at least one side of it.

This is what it looks like inside:

 

All the vendors are here now so the market is busier and will get even more so after Christmas when all the Snowbirds are here.  Many do not arrive until Januray although most of the Americans come after their Thanksgiving.

We observed their Thanksgiving with a semi-potluck at our park centre.  The park provides the turkey and a large can of gravy (which wasn't bad with the drippings in it) and then everyone at the table (12 to a table) provide everything else.  Six of us who are friends joined with six others so we had a good mix.  There was tons of food and all of it was very good.

Thanksgiving here seems to be more of the start of the shopping season than the family/religious time it is at home. Of course, Black Friday is after Thansgiving Day so I guess shopping is on people's minds.  Black Friday seemed to last all weekend and many people not in the retail sector seemed to have the Friday off work as well as Thursday.  My only foray into the sales was to the local fabric/craft store and it was nuts.  Lines to get fabric cut and then a separate long line to pay.  At least I didn't camp out all night as some did at Best Buy and places like that.

The weather is a bit cooler than it was (70s F now) and the days are shorter though not so much as for those of you further north.  Our friends are beginning to nake their ways home for the holidays.  We went to Organ Pizza last Thursday before we all go our separate ways.  You may remember the pictures of it from last year where we ate pizza and listened to amazing pipe organ music.  The organiist was female this time and took more time to explain how things worked but was not as flamboyant with the special effects.

 

At intermission, Norm brought up that the Mormon Church does a wonderful light display.  Since we were all interested, he went off and found out that it had started already.  So...when we finished our pizza, off we went to the Mormon church grounds. 

The display was amazing and the pictures cannot do justice to all the sights and colours.  Nevertheless, I will give you a few so you can get some idea of what they do.  They begin in September putting up the display and it is all done by volunteers.  There are also concerts every night (on the grounds) from Dec 1-25 by various churches and other groups and individuals.  We hope to go one night this week before everyone else goes home. 

 

You can't see it very clearly but the lights in the sky are actually in palm trees.

This is the Temple.  We went into the Visitors'  Center which is a separate building where they have displays.  One display was of many creches from around the world.  Another bulding houses their library.  I hope to go there and check out their genealogy centre.

 

We will be on our way home on the 12th and hope to be there about the 15th.  I hope the weather is not too bad so that we can make it in that timeframe.  Looking forward to seeing many of you!