It's the end of the year as we know it

And I feel fine!

Relieved, actually. It was grey and cloudy, but surprisingly warm at the park blocks. Ditched all my layers except sweater and hat, and actually had to skin out of the sweater and don the jacket, packing out. Rain threatened all day, but didn't actually materialize until 4:15, at which point I had everything in the van except for the last display bench and the canopy itself, so I count that as a win. Dreaming of sun, though, so today's theme wound up being Africa, though I forgot to get out the hippo dessert plate.

Everybody was a little giddy, today. Rachell, my neighbor, declared that five successive dry Saturdays was too much to ask for, we'd have payback: floods, earthquakes, zombie uprising. I refrained from pointing out we'd already had the zombies. They wore red hats and drove enormous trucks with flags flapping off the back.

Tremendously busy day. I had a family waiting at the curb while I dealt with customers in the booth, only to see someone else swoop in after them, and after them another group. Finally, I walked out and said, It's their turn now, let 'em in to the booth.

Lots of familiar eyes--can you say faces, when they're wearing a mask?--stocking up on their presents. At one point a family, father, mother and pre-teen son stop in, looking for the possum tall mug son had seen several weeks back. I'm sorry, I said, Someone else snapped that up already; the only possum I have left is on this dessert plate. Mom is sympathetic, suggests we contact me in March about ordering one special, while Very Tall Dad (I remember him because he had to duck to get into the booth) is grinning at me over son's head, because we both know he came back later that same day to buy the mug. He throws me a wink as they leave the booth.

Less fortunate is the woman who comes in asking about a butter dish with a cow on it; her sister saw it last week and really liked it. Unfortunately, I only had one left, and someone else bought it half an hour previously. I say I think I have one at the Club Mud Sale at Maude Kerns Art Center. Today's the last day, but they're open 'til 5. As it happens, she's from Pleasant Hill, so 15th and Villard is more or less on her way home.

I also get a visit from a mom whose daughter's favorite running rooster/Jungle fowl pie plate got broken. I don't have a replacement, but she orders one for January, and meanwhile buys a rooster watercolor card from Denise to give as a promissory note.

I also sell a card to a young woman whose grandmother loves red birds. She picks out a cardinal mug, after considering the bowl and stew mug, and when I show her a card with cardinal and oriole at my mom's bird feeder, she takes that too.

I sell three serving bowls--small, medium and large--in quick succession, to two different customers. Sell two gravy boats, after selling none all summer and only one at Holiday Market. 'Tis the season for mashed potatoes, I guess. Sell a teapot, two different baking dishes, a lot of mugs and bowls. Run out of butterfly and hummingbird bowls, so get out a roadrunner and cactus wren that are left over from a special order.

It was a day for cute boys holding hands. One couple bought a stegosaur bank, then one of them came back a little later to buy the peacock serving bowl. I forget what the other pair bought--soup bowl for a grandmother? But I like that they feel safe at Holiday Market.

At three o'clock, when JJ--in red sweater and Santa hat--rings the bell signaling the end of Market, you can hear the cheers from all across the Park Blocks.

When I total up Sunday morning, I'm two dollars short of $1800 for the day, another new record. I also forgot to record $51 in sales, probably a plate and a painted mug. We'll be doing a complete physical count inventory for the end of the year, so maybe I can figure it out then.

One more day of Off Center Ceramics tomorrow, collecting work at Maude Kerns and delivering some tall mugs and pies to Tsunami Books, where they continue to sell well. Then we're done until after Christmas (barring surprise orders), when I box up and ship all the family presents cluttering up my studio, so I can go in and get my fingers in clay again.

A perfectly appropriate sentiment

Got a nice little Christmas gift from Robin Russell at the end of the day Saturday. Seems about right to me.