Oh Sweet Sadie

So, despite the fact that I thought there was zero chance of me feeling well enough to do the Christmas gift show, a week before the show I convinced myself and Ryan that it was doable. I figured he could load in and out and I could simply set up. Easy enough, right? Well, not really. The truth is, after a week of being on my own with the car pools and the errands, I was pretty exhausted even before set up. I never found a sitter for set up night so I ended up leaving Ryan at home and roping Candace Brunstetter into helping me unload. I took her home, fed Tiago, and went back to finish setting up. All the bending and reaching, even though the stuff wasn't heavy, really did me in. After a day of lifting Tiago's carseat in and out of the van several times, my incision was pretty sore.

It turned out that Ryan had a really busy week with his boss in town and a big end of year presentation to give. Thus, on opening night, the boys hung out at Leta's for the first time in forever and I took Tiago to the show for an hour or so. I was definitely underwhelmed with the crowd and hoped it would pick up.

Sadly, for my booth, it never did. The show in general struggled at first until a major online push to promote an 11/11/11 gift basket worth $1100. It recovered, but I don't think I did. Not sure if the location of my booth had anything to do win it or if it was just a different crowd, but I think I made less than half of what I made at last year's show :(

After I packed up the stuff, Dave Bunnell helped Ryan load and unload. I ended up feeling bad that I hadn't stuck with the original decision to not do it. I felt like it just complicated a week that was already busy for Ryan and just didn't have the sales I'd hoped for. Oh well. Knowing me, I would've regretted NOT doing the show if I hadn't done it. When the profit comes in, maybe it will be better than I estimated and I'll be happy I did it...

Raquel Lubbers
Http://www.BusyBumbleBeePhotography.com
Sent from my iPhone