An Invitation to Deliciousness (Oh, Yeah, and Please Buy Stuff)

As the holidays draw near, Newburyport has what are called "Invitation Nights."  On these two nights -- two consecutive Fridays this December -- local businesses stay open late and invite customers to visit and browse and buy.  In addition, most of them offer something special, like drinks or snacks or little gifts.

It's quite a spectacle!  The stores were packed.  In some a person could barely move at all!  And the snacks were much better than I expected.

I am currently very poor (buy my condo in Seattle, please!), so I went to experience it and to eat and drink; not to buy.  Two of the stores I visited had delicious champagne punch, one of which had a big, plump blackberry in the bottom of each cup.  (I don't like blackberries, but I was impressed with the effort!)  Several of the stores had cookies, and the local bookstore had wine.

However, the place I was most impressed with wasn't even a store!  A local insurance company, Chase & Lunt, displayed an artist's work in each employee's cubicle, and outside had hot chocolate and kettle corn (being made in actual kettles!) for everyone.  (I have to admit, my friends and I were sort of laughing about the poor employees who probably frantically cleaned their desks that morning, knowing that every citizen of Newburyport and the surrounding area were going to be walking by.  I can't even imagine!  I don't think I could clean my desk that well even if I tried.  I wonder if the insurance company has a closet filled to overflowing with everyone's stuff.)

Here's a picture.  Hot chocolate under the tent to the right, kettle corn to the left.  Also at the right, my two friends and coworkers: Diane in the white coat, and Jessica to her right.

As we meandered down the streets, we came to the town square.  Jessica hadn't seen it yet, so we crossed over to take a look.  Since I had attended the tree-lighting ceremony, the town had added red bows to the tree.  There were also several local citizen/volunteer bands playing.  Little kids were dancing with their parents, and Jessica and I broke into song once.  Here's a shot:

For the first time, I saw that the town square sported a menorah, since Chanukah began this weekend.  Poor Chanukah.  I know it's not one of the more important Jewish holidays, but it's always relegated to the background.  In the town square, the Christmas tree must be (I'm a terrible estimator), perhaps, 20-25 feet tall.  Here's the menorah, barely taller than me:

But it does have electric candles for each night of Chanukah which is fun.  I'll probably go down several times to take a look.

Strangely, the menorah is plugged into a tree.  If you click on the picture so that it's bigger, you'll notice that the tree behind the menorah has the menorah cord wrapped around it, and plugged into a socket that has been strangely set on the tree.  I'm not sure what's going on there.  It's very odd.  I think that socket is there somewhat permanently.  I'll take a closer picture for you later, but if you notice, there is a black tube that goes from the socket down into the ground.  I think that connects the socket to the town square power source.  Weird.

One of the stores Jessica and I visited was the local toy store.  It was very fun, and downstairs I spied this!

The good news?  Sterling is not that big any more!  Anyway, I kind of love that stuffed animal.

Next Friday is another Invitation Night, and I'll definitely go again.  There are tons of stores I didn't go into, which means there is tons of food and drink I didn't get.  Seriously, Invitation Night is as good as Sunday at Costco, except with more cookies.  I won't miss it!