When Black Friday comes

I'm glad that the Black Friday sales that started right after dessert on Thanksgiving or the 3 a.m. special sales are (mostly) a thing of the past, I still plan to spend as little time as possible doing any shopping today. 

Each year we're guaranteed a day-long backup and slowdown on I-5 near the outlet mall, and parking lots everywhere are jammed with people who haven't been able to shop for almost 24 hours! It's a good day to spend at home!
 

Bargain hunting

This may be a bigger thing in the Pacific Northwest than it is elsewhere. After all, you are what you eat!
 

It's a dilemma we all face

If it were me, I'd stick with ordering through Amazon. You don't have to go out during the daylight and deal with all those weird people at Costco.

Fresh produce

Editor's note: No offense intended to Bob the Tomato, Larry the Cucumber and all our other Veggie Tales friends.

By the fruits ye shall know them

This would be super fun to try.
 

Sacrament entertainment

When I did the attendance count clerk I saw people doing all kinds of things on their phones. Not everything was gospel-related!
 

Seek ye the best gifts

I've made a lot of cool discoveries this way. A lot of gross ones, too! 
 

Taking charge of the call

Sometimes it seems like it's super expensive to get amissionary ready to go out into the field, with all the clothes and supplies and everything — especially when you include all the medical costs. I won't even mention the spiritual investment!

But it is so totally worth it!
 

Yea, even hidden treasures

During December, I like to see if I can tie my cartoons in to the suggestions given for Light the World. I think this one can easily fall under suggestion No. 48: Help a loved one clean their home.
 

Sketchbook: Healthy eating

One thing that most cartoonists would agree with is that drawing grocery carts is hard. 
 

Holly, with a phoenix feather core

There were suits I had that were perfect for missionary work — I wore out my gray, three-piece. There were others that came out in open rebellion, splitting at the seams at unfortunate times for no apparent good reason. I'm looking at you, brown Mr. Mac special!

Was it the same for you? 
 

'Tis the season to think about gift giving!

 It's the time of year when our thoughts turn to gift-giving. In a shameless pitch, I have a few suggestions for you!

Tastes Good with Giblets and Gravy Blues

Traveling somewhere for Thanksgiving? Are you in need of a hostess gift — or a diversion from family drama? Tastes Good with Giblets and Gravy Blues is a fun collection of Thanksgiving-related cartoons! It makes a great stocking stuffer (better than a turkey stuffer, anyway). And it easily fits into a carry-on.

Available on Amazon as a paperback; Kindle edition is available as well.

That's One Small Step for a Mom, One Giant Leap for Missionarykind

A perfect gift for a missionary, a soon-to-be missionary, returned missionary, or a missionary family. And wasn't it Pres. Kimball who said, "Every member a missionary."? Winner of the 2019 Association for Mormon Letters award for comics, this collection looks at missionary life from all sorts of angles! 

Available on Amazon.

The Sis. Kerry Jo Missionary Blog Collection

These three volumes cover the best eighteen months of Sis. Kerry Jo's life as a missionary. This series spans the time from when Kerry Jo first got her call to the time she returned home. Anyone who served a mission can relate to her experiences — from the first days in the MTC, going through a variety of companions, and then returning home. Based on real experiences of several missionaries, sisters and elders, these books are relatable, amusing and occasionally poignant.

Volumes 1, 2 and 3 available on Amazon.

Check out my author page and see other books that are available!

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Note: If you want to add a little variety to your holiday book buying, I also highly recommend you visit Ward Cartoonist Arie Van De Graaff's page. Not only does he have cartoon collections, he has puzzles and game as well!

I'd buy that

Ever notice how certain rooms in the church have their own, individual scent? 
 

A voice from above

Wrong or right, as a missionary I think this would have been fun to try!
 

That face seems so familiar...

I tried a new technique with this drawing, mixing lines drawn in ink and drawn in pencil. It didn't work quite the way I had hoped, but it came out OK. And I have a better idea of what to do next time I try this.
 

Light the World: Shop With Care

 

We have a tradition in our family that on the first Saturday of December we deliver wreaths to widows and shut-ins in our area, we go to a Christmas tree farm and get a tree, and then we get treats at the local bakery. If we have time we go down to the bookstore on the corner and do some gift shopping. We had to make a few adjustments this year — but we made sure to grab a box of donuts before putting up the tree!

By their masks ye shall know them

A member of our ward popped up in my Facebook feed as a friend suggestion the other day. I looked and looked, and I thought: "I used to go to church with their family, but I haven't seen any of them for a long time!"

And then I remembered that I haven't seen anybody — in person — for a long time. Weird.

Just one more little thing

Forget historical sites, cultural gems or national treasures. One of the most important things to do when you travel is to buy souvenirs and trinkets for everyone back home.

We did a good job at this part of the trip. No less than three stores gave Mme B parting gifts because of what she bought!

And yes, we did need to buy an extra suitcase to bring everything back home!

An important travel tip

We stayed in a suburb south of Paris,  Vélizy-Villacoublay. We chose it because it's close to the Paris Temple, it's not far from the tourist sites, it came at a really good rate AND it has air conditioning!

Not far from where we stayed is a giant supermarket, Auchan. It's kind of like the European equivalent of Walmart. We went shopping there one night — and I got into trouble!

When you buy fruits or vegetables at Auchan (as I learned the hard way), you are supposed to bag your produce, weigh the bag on a special scale, print out a sticker and place the sticker on the bag for ease at checkout.

I held up an entire line of Saturday night shoppers because I didn't know about the whole sticker thing — and I got chewed out for that! (Not to mention the dirty looks from the shoppers behind me!).

I ran the bag back to produce, found a scale, but I couldn't figure out how to print out the sticker! Instead, I grabbed my phone and took a photo and ran back to the checkout line. The checkout gal rolled her eyes at me, made up a price, and sent me on my way.

That's not the way we do it at our local Safeway back home!

Editor's note: Ask about getting a shopping cart. It was almost as embarrassing!

When the chips are down

You've got to get a foot in the door in order to make that connection, right?