We Did It!

Charli, my book character and I ventured to our first holiday craft show.We found the venue, pulled in and parked at the back. Then we gathered our books and pink flamingo and traversed afar to the hall. We wove our way through the ladies pushing carts and rolling bags on the busy sidewalks, city sidewalks. We were all dressed in holiday style.

Charli and I pushed open the wreathed double doors, and an elegant display of boughs of holly, snow villages and twinkling trees guided us to a festive ball room, filled with white linen draped tables. I let Charli unpack and spruce up our display while I searched for the promised complimentary mimosas. Bring us a figgy pudding, too!

When I returned to our place, Charli and our display had vanished. That clever Charli- she had heard that the table closest to the entrance was still vacant because the vendor was a no-show. Adhering to the “better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission” rule of engagement, she had moved the wooden wine box of our books and had upgraded our location. Well played, Charli!

After laughing all the way though three hours of selling, we unplugged the flamingo and celebrated. According to our metrics, our day was a success: we measured the number of smiles viewed, plus jokes that clicked, times the inverse of the number of chatting engagements and added that to the tally of The Golden Age of Charli- RSVP we signed and sold!

Charli and I send glad tidings of joy and thanks to:

• the elf-like jewelry maker next to us, who helped us with our Square payment crisis and became a good friend,
• the customers who joked with us about the pitfalls of retirement, and may be cast as future book characters,
• the folks who didn’t buy, but asked questions and were enthusiastic about my writing journey, and
• the other vendors for their creativity!

I managed to talk Charli out of buying a candle with a ring hidden at the bottom, so we would leave with a small profit. She said, “Bah! Humbug!” But I reminded her to enjoy our treasure chest brimming with the warmth and camaraderie that we had acquired at our first show.