and POOF - Christmas is over

So now life is finally slowing down!  

We don't have any exciting plans for New Year's - other than going to Zehnders in Frankenmuth for an early dinner and to look at the lights.

So let's see.....on the 13th I went shopping with my sisters & Mom.  We were at Frankenmuth then - there's a lot of little shops all up & down Main Street, then of course, there's Bronners - "The Christmas Wonderland".

We all got crowns and wore them all day. 

 Naughty & Nice - guess who bought these?
Hint - not me!

There are these Santa's in different poses on I-75 and the roads approaching the stores. 

Love them!  I was happy to see this one inside the store, since it's one of my favorites. 

Randomly Robert!

One Sunday night, Randy & I went to see the lights in Rochester - we happened to pick the perfect night to go because they were holding Caroling in the Streets and had several blocks of Main Street blocked off to vehicle traffic. 

First...a stop at Chomp for dinner.   

I don't know who creates their specials menu, but they are a magician!  

I had an autumn grilled cheese - O.M.G.  

Whole grain Ciabatta, cheddar cheese, sliced butternut squash, balsamic onions & chopped almonds.  It was glorious!   Randy had some kind of BBQ chicken quesadillas. 

Every storefront all along Main Street are covered in lights!

We ended up being more entertained by all the emergency vehicles blocking off the streets - with all their lights going. 

It's hard to get a selfie with the front of a fire truck!

It was neat to walk down the middle of the street.
I stood in the middle of an intersection and turned in a circle, making a SnapChat video!

The ladder truck was blocking the north end of town, and they had the bucket out so people could go in it and stuff. 

Santa in a hot air balloon.

I had a half day of work last Friday - a team of truck drivers came in and managed to decorate the window without anyone noticing!

I went out to do some last minute shopping.

And found a gift for me!

11:45pm Saturday night, mailing Christmas cards!

Last Saturday I had to finish up some last minute shopping and opted to go at weird times which totally paid off!  Going to the sporting goods store near the mall at 7am was ideal - very little traffic, 2 other cars in the parking lot, was able to get immediate (and cheerful) help from a lady who worked there.  In & out.  Then going to the Walmart Supercenter at midnight is perfect!  There was a surprising number of cars in the lot, but the store is big enough where we never had people in our way.  We managed to find an InstantPot!  Randy said every store he looked at had been out of stock, so this was an excellent surprise. It was the last one on the shelf AND it was on sale!  

It was actually quite pleasant & we had a good time roaming around looking at ugly sweaters & tools & stuff.  It was almost 2am when we left there!

So Christmas Eve at my sister's house.  Of course it started to snow a couple hours before we had to leave. We saw a lot of cars in the ditch and one that had taken out the guardrail.   We had a snacky dinner & played a game, then opened presents.  Once we got home we watched the Grinch. 

I woke up at 5am, so I got up and rearranged the presents to look nice & filled the stockings, then sat on the couch with a cat on my lap, looking at the tree for a while.  Then I went back to bed. 

It was a very nice Christmas - Randy got me a remote start for my car and I sure wish it was already installed!  Angel got me a new purse & some earrings.  We gave Angel the smaller TV out of our bedroom & DVD/BluRay player that we picked up a couple months ago.  We count on her being un-observant since they've been sitting on top of the dog's crate behind a basket & covered in a towel for months! Randy also got a wall-mount for the TV and installed it in her room for her.  

We were supposed to have gone to Zehnders for dinner Christmas Day, but it was still snowing and squalls were so heavy that Laurie sent me a picture out her back door where you couldn't see her barn at all!   We didn't want to risk the hour + drive so we went to a local Chinese food place instead. 

Before I left for work yesterday.....

Today it was 6*! 

Just to show that not all of my decorations are obnoxious and that I DO have some class!

I bought the Nativity set the first year I was in the Navy (aka away from my parents house) and the red scarf was a fire party shirt that I wore on duty days on my first ship. The Santa & reindeer just go well with it.

How was your Christmas?