Hard to believe but there is now less than a month until Christmas. With Thanksgiving coming so late this year, Christmas will be right around the corner. The shoppers look to be out in full force this year. Everybody that wants a job has one, which makes for a bunch of extra money being spent this year. The prediction is that shopping will be up over 4% this Christmas season compared to last year. The Thanksgiving night crowds and early morning Black Friday crowds looked pretty good. The online shopping is getting a little bigger, but still over 90% of shopping is still done at bricks and mortars. The biggest shopping day is yet to come with the Saturday before Christmas predicted to be the biggest shopping day of the year.
Parade
The annual Creston Lighted Christmas Parade is Thursday night. It looks like Mother Nature is going to cooperate and supply a nice evening for this time of year. There will be a lot of activities going on Thursday evening for all that attend.
SWCC Fundraiser
Friday Night is the annual SWCC Athletic dinner and auction. The event will be at the Supertel motel. The event always has a good auction with plenty of good things to bid on.
Birds
The blizzards up North have started to send a lot of waterfowl down our way. There have been wave after wave of geese flying overhead this week. I’ve also actually seen several rooster pheasants by the side of the highway on my way to and fro. The bird counts seem to be picking up from some of the years past.
Movies
Don’t forget the free movies this weekend at the Strand Theatre in Creston. There are two shows on Saturday and one on Sunday.
Speaking of movies. Last weekend was a big weekend with Frozen 2, Mr Rodgers and Ford vs. Ferrari leading the way at the box office.
The box office year-over-year is still behind last year, but last week helped to catch up the industry a percentage point. I would guess the up coming Star Wars movie will help out the industry some.
Bowling
Looks like all three Iowa football teams are in for extra football games this year. Sunday the bowl assignments will be announced to find out where Iowa and Iowa State will be headed. UNI is now in the second round of the playoffs and gets to take on South Dakota State. Who they lost to 38-7 earlier in the season. A good year for the three major colleges in Iowa this season.
Crops
It looks like all the soybeans are out around the area. There looks to be only a field or two of corn left out there to be harvested. The good weather the last couple of weeks has helped the cause on getting the crops in. Sounds like the yields have been pretty good. Now if the price would go up some.
Tators
I read where this years potato crop is one of the shortest on record. The early winter hurt the harvest in a lot of areas. So next time you get that order of french fries you may have to add a few cents to the ticket. There should be enough to get through the year but it is going to cost you a little more.
Casey’s
I hear the new Casey’s on Highway 34 will be opening up in January if all things go as planned. It looks like a nice building. It will probably add traffic to the highway and folks will have to be a little more careful around the area with trucks coming and going off the highway. They sure got that building up fast.
Thought for the week: The human race is in the best condition when it has the greatest degree of liberty. – Dante Alighieri