Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas to you all!  

Hope you have a fantastic day!

For your listening pleasure.....

Def leppard

We All Need Christmas

Twisted Sister

O Come All Ye Faithful

I really like all of the the Twisted Christmas album - they did a great job of putting the TS spin on traditional songs while not ruining them. 

Dokken

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

LA Guns

Run Run Rudolph

Firehouse

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

Styper

Winter Wonderland

actually, if you search for the Monster Ballads XMas on YouTube, you'll find the whole album. 

I confess that Silent Night by Faster Pussycat and Jingle Bells by Skid Row were not my favorites. But the rest were pretty good! 

Random Holiday Rant.

So I was opening a web browser at work and this was one of those clickbait opinion articles that was on the home page that sucked me in.  

 12 Things You Should Never Put in Your Yard at Christmas.  

Of course I had to read it - just so I could see exactly how many apply to me. 

1/ Oversized Inflatables - OK, I don't have any and probably never will. When deflated they remind me of dirty laundry laying out there.   But that doesn't mean I don't like to see them in other people's yards!   I pass a huge inflatable Santa standing out in someone's yard on my way to work and it always makes me smile!

2/ Lawn Ornaments that Don't Match - I could take this or leave it.  The article mentions penguins with tropical Santas or traditional Nativity with cartoon characters.  Again - I don't care!  If it makes whoever lives there happy - then so be it!  Actually I prefer this over all matchy-matchy.  

3/ Fake Snow Blankets - I'm in Michigan so I'm not exactly sure what this even is.  Consensus is....you do you, folks!

4/ Bright Laser Light Displays - I haven't seen these, either.  Unless they're talking about those light shows where you have to tune into a specific radio station to hear the music....?  If so - those are pretty cool! 

5/ Outdated Decorations - This one hits home for me.  I have a mish-mash of new and vintage blowmolds in my front yard, and yes - some are faded.  But if you're up wandering around my yard without being invited - you have other things to worry about than some faded plastic thing that doesn't belong to you.

 Like me. 

I even have a nice dead branch out there!

6/ Decorations That Block Walkways - we don't use our front door so if I want to put things on my front walk, I'm gonna do it.  If you're not smart enough to see that the door is blocked / walkway might have stuff on it and go to the side door, then you shouldn't breed. 

7/ Too Many Flashing Lights - Not seeing a problem.  There's a house near us that has a maple tree covered in lights that I'm pretty sure are flashing Morse Code!  They're along a main street, too. 

8/ Cheap Plastic Figurines - The author is concerned about things blowing away in the wind.  I know for a fact that people who drop big $$ at Home Depot for their huge decoration still have a problem with the wind blowing them over. 

9/ Sound Systems Blasting Carols - OK this could be annoying.  This is the top reason none of my Halloween decorations make noise, since it just gets to be too much. 

10/ Dangerous DIY Decorations - the author mentions sharp edges and dangling wires.  Stay away from other people's stuff - problem solved!  I'm sure nobody messed with Clark Griswold's house. 

11/ Excessive Holiday Messaging - the author is talking about little signs for every holiday.  Not seeing a problem!   I belong to a couple FaceBook groups where they decorate their 12 foot skeletons for every holiday.  I have blowmolds for most holidays, and I will put them out! 

12/ Themes That Don't Make Sense - the author mentions zombie Santas and pirate snowmen and that it's "just confusing".  Yeah, whatever.  I find that entertaining!   I saw a house a couple years ago that also had a big bunch of blowmolds and they had a volleyball game staged in their front yard, Santas vs Snowmen!  Loved it.  

So anyway.  This just goes to show you that opinions are like assholes - everyone's got one! 

It's officially winter!!

I scheduled this post to go live at exactly 4:20am when the solstice is supposed to start in Michigan. 

Because, why not?

I'm ready for the days to start getting longer.  

This post is going to look pretty choppy today.  

We took the grandkids to my VFW to see Santa earlier this month.  

They really enjoyed it.  BabyGirl wanted to give him a hug!

Little presents under the tree!

I also walked in the Lapeer Parade of Lights with some of my SAR team.

The K9s are always a big hit.  

These 2 in particular are total people lovers so they have a good time in parades, too. 

This shirt (and a sweatshirt) randomly showed up in the mail one day!

I think it may have come from a place I did a survey for, since how else would they have sent the correct size? 

The Grandkids still for a moment!

I bought them reflective vests in their size since it gets dark so early now.  

The Grandson had been wearing one of mine, but I had to use binder clips to make it fit him.  

This is much better. 

Last weekend, I went with Mom and the Sisters to Ohio.  We stopped in Steubenville at the Nutcracker Village like we did last year. 

YMCA!

Sis2 was disturbed by this Santa!

In her defense, he was pretty creepy. 

I can't resist the Navy Nutcracker!

Mom was the troublemaker. She had a hard time climbing up into the porta-potty trailer and scraped up her shin really badly.  Sis 2 ended up pulling her and a random man walking by pushed her from behind.  Then she got up at 1:30am and (wearing fuzzy socks) slipped & fell in the bathroom in the hotel.  Bonked her forehead pretty good.  Luckily I was awake and heard her fall and Sis2 heard me get up and run over so she was right there, too.  We helped her up and made her sit up in a chair until after 3am with ice on her forehead until we were certain she was OK. 

The trip home was an adventure, since she was pretty sore all over.  She was having a hard time walking, like 2 of us literally had to be right next to her so she could hold on.  Once we finally got back to Michigan, we took her to the ER to get checked out.  Thankfully she's OK.  Sis1 took her home with her for a couple days so she wasn't alone at home.   

Sleigh rides on an excavator!

We had a good laugh putting Chuck the skeleton in the Nativity Scene - hope we don't go to hell for that! 

The Spawn started making a grocery list and the Grandson added to it.  

I'm not exactly sure what he wanted, hope it was granola bars!   

I asked him and he told me he just wanted to leave a little note for me. 

Speaking of the Grandson, he's kind of freaked us out a few times.  

He's occasionally been telling us stories about "when he was grown"!

Like how he used to play tennis (and was good at it)

When he was 14, he drove a work truck (then said a tow truck)

He's read a map before. 

He's seen me, when I was 13 or 18 or 19, kill a bad guy before. 

And there's more. I've been writing them down so we remember them. 

Here I thought I was taking a cute pic of Rusty & Daisy spooning.  

Neither of them look happy! 

I made the mistake of offering to take over as editor of the VFW newsletter.  The guy currently doing it showed me and it looked pretty straightforward how to add the new content into the template.  So I went to the post last night to work on the January/February edition and found out that he uses an Apple computer!!!!  I've never messed around with one of those and is making something that should be somewhat easy into a HUGE hassle!  Insert lots of cussing **here**!  Thankfully, one of the younger guys wandered into the office and was able to transfer the file from the Apple to my laptop so now I just have to fight with it, converting it to something I can edit.   If all else fails (or my patience wears out, which is more likely) I'll just start the whole thing over from scratch.  

Yay me.  And deadlines.  Wooo. 

So anyhooo.  Nothing else is going on in the near future.  Not ready for Christmas at all.  I have ordered/received a few gifts, but they won't be wrapped until the last minute.  I don't want to get too much for the grandkids since they will get a ton of other stuff, and then the grandson's birthday is January 2, so MORE stuff.  However I already have tickets for the Reptarium on his birthday so we can go there and feed/hold some critters.  I know both kids will enjoy that.  And me, too!

Since I haven't done Christmas cards yet, I'm going to cheat and get photo cards from CVS, so I'm off to do that!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Where has this year gone????

OMG. 

How is it Thanksgiving already? 

Sheesh. 

Anyhoo.  Waaazup? 

I am so thrilled that I found actual Thanksgiving earrings!  I have 42,000 pairs for Christmas & Halloween, a few random other holidays but not much else. 

Found these at a craft show last weekend - I'm currently wearing them. 

These others?  Torrid for the win! 

I was looking for some nice tops online and ended up in the accessories dept and found these!

Also last weekend, we went to a birthday party at the Flint Children's Museum for my niece's little girl and it was a lot of fun!  I think the grownups were having as much fun in there as the kids! 

The Grandson & his Chicago cousin.

Then afterward, I asked Sis1 if she wanted to explore a cemetery with me - another niece had time to spare before the party and drove around this one and said it was really cool.  

I wasn't thinking at the time, but I'm glad Sis1 went with me, because - Flint.  

It's not really a good place to be roaming around alone. 

But the cemetery has a lot of fascinating stones and art.  

I did some research and posted about it on my other blog. 

oooo we got some snow!  

Or a squirrel had dandruff, idk!

So we're going to call BabyGirl "Rocky" now since she's had a pretty rough week. 

The boo-boo under the bandaid?  She got her hand caught in the car door when she tried to open it from the inside at the same time her Mom opened it from the outside.  5 stitches!  

And I'm not exactly sure how she got the shiner on her left eye, but it happened at the Children's Museum and I'm sure she was annoying her brother, and he'd had enough.  She just needs to be wrapped in bubble wrap!  

Last Saturday we went to the Wayne County Lightfest.  

There are drive-thru Christmas light places closer to home, but it was only like 45 minutes and $5 per car.  Then halfway thru the park, you could stop at a picnic area where they had bathrooms and food trucks!  The lights were really neat. 

Chuck the Skeleton went with us, too! 

Taco Bell brought back the caramel apple empanada!  

The air pocket inside seems bigger than I remember, but the filling is excellent. 

What are your plans?  I took Friday off work so I have a 4 day weekend!!!

I'll be going to Sis1's house after work Wednesday and staying there thru Friday. 

Tonight is going to be busy, grocery shopping and getting laundry done so I can leave right after work tomorrow. 

Then on Tuesday next week - I'm going with both sisters and Mom to Bronner's in Frankenmuth.  It's a huge Christmas store that literally takes most of the day to walk thru.  The grounds & parking lot are decorated year-round.  Then Frankenmuth is a super cute German town with a lot of shops and restaurants and hotels with waterparks. 

I'm sure it'll be an adventure!

Stay tuned!

I'm back!!

Now that Halloween is over (sob!) and the Countdown to Halloween complete over on my other blog.... I can turn my attention back here now! 

Until next year, peeps!

The Spouse & I take November 1 off work and manage to go from this

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

to this

v v v v v v v

The time stamp on this pic was 12:20pm on November 1. 

Don't get me wrong - nothing is put away at this point!  But from the street you can't tell. 

We feel this is part of the magic - I start putting the cemetery out the last week in September and add to it / tweak it all the way up to trick or treat time - then the next day.... POOF.  Like it never even happened. 

Ugh, I have a new app to compress the size of the pics in my phone (they're been huge lately!) and it doesn't save them in the date order.  So I'm going to just roll with how they got uploaded!

The best campaign signs ever! 

Seen in my neighborhood.

The GrandSpawn waiting for the train at Huckleberry Railroad in Flint. 

Said train!

This was my car at the inaugural trunk or treat at my VFW. 

Top Lights Truck or Treat in Lapeer. 

There were fire trucks, police/sheriff/state trooper cars, ambulances, tow trucks, state conservation vehicles of all sorts, the sheriff's dept dive team, animal control, victim services, child services and of course - the SAR team!   All with lights going, of course. 

They said a good 1400 kids came thru in those 2 hours. 

It was so fun to walk around with the grandkids in their police/fire costumes.  Whoever created the Facebook Event noted that any kids dressed like police/fire/emt were going to be given a shift!  The Grandson got a fist bump from the actual Sheriff.  They both got lots of comments from the respective departments, most of which I know they didn't understand, but I thought were funny. 

Trunk or Treat at the grandkids' daycare. 

My next-car neighbor offered to watch my candy bowl for me so I could run down to do my own trick or treating at the cars that had pumpkin pie pudding shots and caramel apple mimosas!

My co-pilot looks like he's cussing at other drivers!

I attended K9-One's Halloween Camp again. 

Posted here, too

Finally got to see the northern lights from my house!!

The Grandson conversing with some of my skeletons.

We made 2 visits to this particular location of Blake's Orchard (they have several) once was with the kids' daycare and the other for the Granddaughter's birthday. 

Speaking of the birthday girl (10/18)

My favorite tree has dropped its leaves!

This was the first of the trunk or treats I want to.  

After sitting there for a while, the guy I was there with decided to grab some pinecones from the tree whose shadow you can see here and offer those as an option to candy.  We thought that would be hilarious and it made it better to see just how many kids DID take a pinecone!!  

I took a half day on Veteran's Day and went to the VFW for the ceremony there.

I ended up having lunch with 3 gentlemen who'd been in Vietnam and they started telling stories and I was riveted!  They could have sat there all day and I wouldn't have left! 

Ooops - Lowe's got me with some really cute blowmolds this year!

Normally I wait until after Thanksgiving to put the Christmas stuff out in the yard, but I think I'll do it this weekend.   The lights are already up on the house, but haven't been plugged in yet. 

~GASP~  who have I become???

I had to take care of some scholarship program stuff at the VFW yesterday and stopped at the local park afterward to eat my lunch - couldn't help but notice how pretty this tree still is!