IKEA HERE WE COME

Earlier than usual alarm this morning as hubbie and I are up early to do chores and get ready to make a trip to Charlotte,NC to the Ikea store down there.
I have been searching for an extendable dining room table for several months and they have exactly what I want so off we go.
We have a list from daughter and I went on their website and made a list of things I want also so shopping will be quicker.  We have always went down on Sunday and the crowds were always huge so we are hoping on a Monday workday there will be less other shoppers there.
We decided to take the van since it is so much cheaper on gas than hubbie's truck and hope we can fit all the packages in the back of the van.
We left here about 8:20 and headed south on a beautiful sunny day. There was frost this morning and a thin skim of ice on the water buckets after the 31 degree early morning temp.
We didn't have any traffic hang-ups all the way there and arrived just as they opened at 10am.
The crowds were definitely less than we had ever seen before and as we started our shopping it was a leisurely experience instead of the hurrying along when you are being pushed by a crowd of other shoppers.
We managed to locate all the items on both list and then went to look for the table and chairs I wanted.
We found them and they were really nice.
 I love looking around in this store because they have room after room set up with all kinds of decorating ideas. Like this flower pot stand used in the bathroom to hold toiletries and the old t-shirt decorating ideas.

 Or this great idea for a child's room wall of their art work .

 I spent some time in the Christmas part of the store looking at all the different lights they have that I had never seen anywhere else . As I looked at this picture tonight I was sorry I didn't get at least one of these large lighted stars.

 Yea, I see you with the camera over there !!  You can see by the looks of my shopping cart I had plenty.

We had lunch in the cafeteria in Ikea , I had chicken tenders and hubbie had the swedish meatballs.

The food is always good in there and they give you more than you can eat.  Those little chocolate, coconut covered desserts you see in the top left were filled with oats and were very good. We had never had anything like these before. It's a good thing we only got 1 each because they were certainly very rich.  Hubbie and I both ate for $14 dollars which I thought was very good for a sit down meal.

We ate by the window with a view of the parking lot.
We were in the van with all our treasures loaded and headed back up the mountain by 2:30.
After another event free trip home we made it here at 4:15, ahhh, always so thankful to pull back into our safe driveway after any trip !!!
We unloaded and hubbie went up to the shop to help #1 son and g-son make some stilts for cub scouts tonight.
I did the chores with the help of little EL who was walking with her mom this evening.
I got laundry started and hubbie worked on putting together some of the dining room chairs we bought. He got 3 of the 8 chairs put together before his back gave out on him.

They have replaceable seat covers which I love.

  Daughter came by after her basketball practice to pick up her purchases.
I finished 3 loads of laundry and even ordered some Christmas gifts online tonight.
Tomorrow is going to be another busy day that starts off early also.
We are going to be getting colder this week with even some snow mix in the forecast for the weekend.

Better enjoy tomorrow !!

Very thankful tonight for the traveling mercies God gave me today and everyday that I get behind the wheel of a vehicle and get out on the busy highways.
Good Night and God Bless