After having nice Thanksgiving and Black Friday, it's time to put up our Christmas decorations. We spent the morning/early afternoon putting up lights around the house.
Then we took a break to watch the FSU @ UF game. It was Tim Tebow's final game at the Swamp. UF won 37-10. In the evening we put up a Christmas tree in the living room and filled it with ornaments.My favorite part leading up to Christmas has to be all the holiday lights. It doesn't matter the house or building if it has lights it seems warmer. It must be the comfort that they have the holiday spirit. Don't get me wrong there are levels of greatness. For example, looking at too many houses that where done by professionals. With their strands perfectly sized to match the eves. Every twinkly light perfectly straight. It makes you overly critical when looking at "do-it-yourselfers" homes. You know what I'm talking about; mismatched bulbs, mismatched lengths, randomly placed, extension cords visible. This year I have been seeing more and more where half the lights will be the regular old bulbs paired with LED's. Al Gore wants you to switch to LED's you know. Some stores were even offering a discount on LED's if you gave them your old ones. LED's are twice as expensive too.
Since we are talking about price. Watch out when deciding what strand to buy. I noticed that Walmart had a 400 bulb strand and 200 bulb strand both for $9.98. I was trying to decide which I should get for my front tree. I decided on the 200 bulb strand. MISTAKE. I didn't have enough. So instead of buying another 200 bulb strand. I ended up buying (3) 100 bulb strands at $2.00. If I would have just bought the 400 bulb strand I would have had enough lights for $10 not $16.
TIP: Always go for the bigger, more bulb, strand for the same money. You'll use them.
Even though I felt a little ripped-off, as soon as I was done I was beaming with pride. My wife and kids are happy too. However they did ask if I would put lights on the second story.
"No way!" I'm afraid of heights."
Hoping for sympathy because I admitted my fear. I got...
"scrooge"!
I don't care what they think, when I look at them I feel festive. Warm even.
Over Thanksgiving we went to see family in Benton, MS, via Greenwood. Here are some pics of our time with some dear G'wood friends, the Colemans and Robertsons, and Mrs. Bettye Jim. Wish we could have seen more folks! Anyway, Part 2 (family pics from Benton and Flora, MS) coming soon.
I. Love. Thanksgiving. My favourite holiday by a long shot. Lots of great food, four days off, no pressure with presents (either to think of things I want or to get people things they'll like... Christmas stresses me out). Anyhoo, here's what's happened on my Thanksgiving, so far:
I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving! We had a delicious meal with an Italian bent, thanks to all of our friends' cooking prowess. The menu included glazed ham, fresh cranberry sauce, roasted squash, brussel sprouts, asparagus with Frico, vegetable lasagna, and my contributions, sage stuffing and fennel mashed potatoes with rosemary. After we stuffed our bellies, we sipped on homemade Limoncello while the boys held an impromptu music session, with Adam on the guitar, Greg on the accordion (!), and Anthony spitting some freestyle rhymes. What a perfect night with great friends, food and conversation!
Thanksgiving hasn't even been gone for 24 hours. And we're throwing all caution to the wind (wheeee!) and decorating gingerbread men.
They were pre-baked. From a kit. Hey, I made the icing! (From a mix.) Don't judge.Oh yeah, some of the cookies were broken, so we ended up with extra feet and hands. And you know what that means, don't you?
Ho ho ho! The Christmas Cannibal!
Our kid is going to need so much therapy someday.
