Post-Christmas Run Down

I was really pleased with how the Christmas cards turned out!  I'm sure I'll be doing this again next year.

I finally got the last of my wrapping down Christmas Eve morning and Angel and I finally got around to packing / showering and such around 1.  Randy was SUPPOSED to get off work at 2 but that never happens.  We ended up leaving for Laurie's without him at 4 and he finally texted me around 5:15 that he was shutting down and heading that way.

Yeah, there's no doubt that Linda & I are related! 

We both have naughty hats while Laurie has a "nice" one - PPPPBTH!

Christmas was really nice.  Randy got himself a 24 inch smart TV to put in the bedroom so he can watch Netflix on that instead of using my Kindle. Angel and I gave Randy a Bacon Man Crate.  It was hilarious!  It was a bunch of bacon jerky, bacon popcorn, bacon salt, bacon peanut brittle, bacon sunflower seeds all packed in a wooden crate that came with a crowbar.  I selected the option of having a "diabolical duct tape cocoon" wrapping, too. (you seriously need to poke around that site - it's funny!!)  We got Angel a laptop and a giant box of Nerds. I got a book on the American History of Halloween, and Adrenalized, the autobiography of Phil Collen from Def Leppard and I also got a FitBit One, which I can clip on my bra. So Randy did get me the things I asked for!!  Of course there's also the usual boxes of clothes / undergarmets / etc.  It was a good day. 

Christmas Day afternoon, we went to Frankenmuth like we've been doing since Dad passed away. We got there shortly after check in at 3 and hung out and browsed a few stores before having dinner at Zehnders.  Once we finished & went back to the hotel, it was time to hit the pool! It's nice to stay at a hotel with a multiple pools, hot tubs and water slides!  There was also a mini-golf course and arcade.

Dinner at Zehnders.

The pools closed at midnight, and that's when Linda & Dave discovered the shower didn't work in their room.  The maintenance guy was in there for a good 2 hours working on it before deciding he couldn't fix it.  So we decided to do look at lights - Dave, Linda, Laurie & I. At 2am!  We didn't realize that Bronner's turns all their lights off at midnight so we just drove around for a while.  It was a ghost town!  So we looked for photo ops.  I'd always wanted to lay in the middle of the road, so what better time than when no one else was out??  Then Laurie jumped on me.

 I took the time to put on actual pants - Laurie & Linda were in pajamas.

By the way, the hotel gave Linda & Dave the option of moving rooms, which they didn't want to do in the middle of the night, or just using another room to shower.  It was right across the hall, but still pretty inconvenient!  But that's what they did and also got 1/2 off their room rate.  Funny part is, that room was rented out again the next night!!  Dave said he could guess what was wrong and that it wouldn't be an easy fix.  So I wonder if the next people were unpleasantly surprised, too? 

Saturday we got up and met for breakfast.  Randy took Angel back home so she could go to work and the rest of us went to Bronner's.  I'm pretty sure he was happy to avoid going shopping!  He caught up to us right as we were getting ready to check out. 

It's a really fun place and you'll find ornaments for everything you could ever dream of!  But it can be VERY pricey.  I got 7 ornaments and 1 blowmold and spent $125.  Crazy, I know! 

These are regular sized ornaments.  I want to get some of the white flakey snow stuff to put in the black & white glitter tree bulb.  And the Halloween scene goes all the way around - haunted houses & trees & a graveyard, etc.  Love it!

The picture doesn't do the peacock one justice - it's so vibrant & pretty!  The toilet cracked me up!  I couldn't resist.

The silver angel cat is really heavy and I could have had Skeeter & Maggie's names written on it, but forgot to get in line to get it done.  Same with the Navy guy.  He's just too cute!  I have a fine point Sharpie, so I can do them both myself.

This one is my favorite.  He's 5 inches tall.  I don't normally like the blown glass ornaments, but this one is way less cheesy than the rest!  I almost fainted when I saw he was $20!!  He was by far the most expensive ornament I got.

I've been wanting a Mrs. Claus for the yard and found this one on clearance!  Normally $63 and I got her for $35 because she was a display and has some paint peeling on her face.  

She goes well with a Santa I already had! 

These are the only 2 that don't have painted eyes.  

They have realistic eyes that were stuck into the plastic. 

Everyone parted ways after Bronner's.  Randy and I had already opted to stay another night, so we went back to the room for a nap and maybe some other activities (wink wink).  Then we went and had some dinner at this awesome BBQ place and walked around some of the shops until it was almost closing time.  Then we drove around looking at lights and went back to the room.  We thought about going back to the pools, but that meant putting bathing suits on and walking all the way across the hotel to the Fun Zone.  So we watched Saturday Night Live and went to sleep.

This morning we got up and went to breakfast after checking out of the hotel.  Did I mention our room didn't have a balcony - it had a large patio?  All the rooms in our area opened out onto it and there was a turret with a spiral staircase we could take down to the parking lot.  Very convenient!

We had breakfast, then browsed in a couple antique stores on the way to Laurie's to get the dog.  We left him at her house Christmas Eve and she took him to the kennel with her dog C-mas morning and then picked him up this morning. So we got home mid-afternoon and happily all took naps.

Ugh.  I guess I need to get to bed - I still have to work tomorrow and I'm the only one in the department all week.  Glad it's only 3 days and most of the plants are on shut-down!  There really shouldn't be much to do - fingers crossed anyway!

Edit - I was wrong!  I worked my butt off those 3 days and even had to stay late to finish putting fires out!

Later!

#TFTLS