Day 479, The Holiday Market Village opens.

The Son's of Norway kiosk at the Holiday Village Market.

It was back to work as usual, but this day was not your usual day of work.  Today the Village Market opens and there is always a million questions from vendors and we still had to make sure that each one of them has power and that all the cords were taped down to prevent tripping.

The kiosk at dusk

I had also talked the Son's of Norway Lodge into having a kiosk and selling Scandinavian items and promoting the Lodge.  Joy from the Lodge had agreed and I wanted to make sure she had a great experience and would want to come back.  As the incoming President I want to promote the Lodge help them get better exposure and new members.  Joy and Claudia from the Lodge arrived exactly on time and I helped get them get settled into the kiosk.  My brother who helped build the kiosk with the Redmond High School shop class put in shelves and lighting, so they would be all set.  I brought a CD player, space heater, and table with two chairs from my office. 

The Village Market at closing on the first day.

Both Joy and Claudia were very pleased with kiosk and as they set up their items to sell, they needed a few more things that I was able to help with; securing flag pole holders and attaching hooks to hang ornaments from.  When they were all done merchandising the kiosk look amazing and they were a huge draw with the visitors.

The village looked amazing in the new park and I was pleased with the crowd and so were the vendors.  Tomorrow is the parade and it always draws a large crowd.  The parade itself draws around 5,000 people and the tree lighting is immediately following the parade.  Many of the parade attendees walk over and watch Santa flip the switch and the vendors are crowed with curious shoppers.


We had really lucked out on the weather it was clear and no wind, but a little cold.  Tomorrow is supposed to be 10 degrees warmer but a few clouds.  We are all keeping our fingers crossed that the weather holds.