O'Tis Getting to Be the Season

It looks like the last of the sort-of summer weather is now in the rearview mirror so If you've been struggling to get your holiday season started, there's no time like the present (that's both a hint and a play on words, btw), because the festive occasions are coming thick and fast and nearly non-stop between now and the beginning of the next year. 

The autumn days continue to grow shorter giving way to darker skies with hints of snow in every brisk(er) breeze; the newspapers get a little plumper as merchants boost their advertising hoping to catch a shopper's eye while halls and other stationary objects find themselves bedecked in holly and garland.

And dashing all the way, it's the fifteenth annual O'tis a Festival this Saturday from nine until three (with visits by both the Grinch and Santa (though logically not at the same time)). Contrary to all the pronouncements of armchair experts who rarely go downtown, there's plenty of free parking and (yet) again this year helpers to help guide you to the best parking spots. 

There will be music, merriment, and (m)entertainment (I really wanted three M's) for the whole family as well as two floors of handmade arts and crafts from dozens of regional vendors with ideas and offerings to help jump-start your annual gift-gathering and giving. If you haven't attended in previous years, you've picked a good time to come and enjoy.  

One of the bonuses, I believe, to the O'tis a Festival is all the added hustle and bustle it brings to downtown, not to mention the extra feet in the street (and on the sidewalks) to check out not just the fest but what to look around throughout downtown and find something new to you. There's more, a lot more than you think so come early with the intention to stay late.

Speaking of downtown, if you haven't already done so, you can find five minutes and go online to take a short survey with a long title, "Chelsea Harbor and Downtown Norwich Mobility Study Public Survey." it's a chance to be a light instead of a horn. 

And while the O'Tis a Festival is a terrific time (and reason) to get started on just-right gifts for loved ones and others on your list there are opportunities to give and share the spirit of the season, especially with those in need right here in our backyard.

With Thanksgiving a week from tomorrow, your Connecticut Food Share will also put to good use any donation of food or cash you’d like to offer. It's been another tough year for those struggling to make ends meet (as the ends seem to get farther and farther and farther away from each other) and even donations are hard to come by, so if you can help, please consider donating to their "Thanksgiving for All." 

And if you want to get even more helpful locally, look no further than Saint Vincent de Paul Place who would welcome your help for this holiday, or any day for that matter.

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This is the holiday season and we can make it happier for friends and for friends we’ve yet to meet. An attitude of gratitude makes what we have enough, and enough is all anyone can ask for. 
-bill kenny