Last night, after we had finished eating pumpkin pie, my youngest son noted “we have crossed the threshold of consumerism.” And so the day after Thanksgiving, the Christmas season begins.

For me, the day “Black Friday” is aptly named. I am not an intrepid shopper, despite having come from a long line of them. I avoid stores to the degree that is is possible between now and early January because the shoppers with whom I must compete for parking spaces and products are much better at it than I will ever be.

So today, I limited my shopping to what, for me, constitutes the bare essentials on a brisk day when I can feel the end of autumn and hints of winter on the way: a cup of coffee for me, and a hot chocolate for my son.

Instead of braving the weather and the crowds at the nearby malls, I spent most of the morning with my efforts focused on making more squares for the go-go granny dress I have wanted since the first time I saw it:

But as noon approached, I saw that I had finished 61 squares and had a 62nd nearly done. Only 32 squares shy of the 94 needed for the entire dress, it was enough (in theory) to piece together the front and the back panels of the dress, leaving me plenty of time to complete the squares necessary for the sleeves before the month officially ends.

The back deck which serves as my outdoor office was damp from overnight rain, so Clover chibi in hand, I set to work on the front porch. Protected from the rain, if not from leaves and squirrels, the front porch gave me a flat surface to work on and the light I needed to be able to more quickly determine which squares I wanted to use and where I wanted to use them.

Before it was time to take my son out for hot chocolate and a trumpet lesson, I had laid out the top half of the front panel. In the snippets of work time I was able to string together before, during, and after the trumpet lesson, I pieced together the top half of the front panel before sunset:

Tomorrow is a new day.

No doubt there will be energetic and enthusiastic shoppers winding their way through the aisles of the stores and finding any number and manner of wonderful gifts, but I will continue to focus my energy and enthusiasm on this dress which has so enchanted me, and maybe, just maybe, I will get it done before December begins, and I will need to turn my focus to the gifts I will be giving.