MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

YES!!....It's finally Christmas. Last night was Christmas Eve and I waited until I heard the jingle bells on my roof. I heard some commotion in my living room near my fireplace. I got my camera out and I was ready. I wanted proof that Santa Claus really does exist!





Here he is...coming down the hall....SANTA!!





I caught him putting presents by our fireplace.....I gave him a cookie...





He loved Mini Sue! She got lots of presents...






...and I took a picture of Santa with me to prove he was really here!

I got lots of presents too!!!

Mr. Snowman...and movies....

I love Mr. Snowman as you already know. So tonight when we turned on our lights Mr. Snowman did not go UP. I didn't know that. I thought all the lights turned on and everything was fine. So...hmmmmmmmmm.....about 2 hours later.....hubby informs me that I should put on my boots cause he doesn't have any boots (WTF!!..who the hell doesn't have boots in Michigan?)...(or maybe he is hinting for a Xmas present)...(or maybe I sold his boots at a garage sale)...whatever.

So anyway...he told me to go rescue Mr. Snowman. I looked out the window and all I could see was a faint light under the snow where Mr. Snowman should be. And this was about 2 hours after I turned the light on for Mr. Snowman. We have about 3 light switches to turn on for all our outside lights. I turned on Mr. Snowman. (okay, didn't exactly turn him ON, but you know what I mean....he's a fuckin Snowman!) So I put on my boots and I drudged out into the snow up to my knees and I scraped the snow off Mr. Snowman and all around him. He slowly started to rise as I was stroking the snow off him.....hhmmmmmmmmm...typical male snowman! Anyway, he is now up and looking handsome and waving at cars.
________________________

Now this is weird:

Tonight nothing was on TV as usual. So we watched this video I had called "Christmas in Connecticut" with Dyan Cannon and Kris Kristopher and Tony Curtis. Now THIS was really weird: After we watched the video, I saw that there was an old movie on TV called "Christmas in Connecticut" with Barbara Stanwyck dated 1945. It was very similar to the movie we just watched....same character names, a lot of the plot lines the sames, etc. So we watched it and then when it was over, there was a movie called "Holiday Affair" which starred Janet Leigh.....who happened to be married later to Tony Curtis.....who was in "Christmas in Connecticut" with Dyan Cannon that we just watched!!! OMG....A circle of time....

Does anybody else think this is weird or is it just me cause I've drank a bottle of wine and a few beers????

I'm in Hell....

Today it snowed like hell. Actually that doesn't make sense cause it doesn't snow in hell. So where in the hell does it snow??? Apparently not in hell. But it sure as hell snows in Michigan. So I guess that means that Michigan is HELL!!!

Apparently so....

Mr. Snowman

I love my outdoor snowman that my hubby bought a few years ago, and he always puts him up in front of our house. Last year we spent Xmas in Caseville so we didn't decorate outside that much at home, so my son borrowed Mr. Snowman to put up at his house. Well, it got real icy in his yard and when he tried to put him up Mr. Snowman ended up getting a tear and deflated real fast. "OH NO....NOT MR. SNOWMAN!!!", I said when my husband told me. So hubby got out some patch stuff and got him all fixed up and up again. He's in our front yard as I'm posting waving at every car that passes by.

After hubby patched him up he tried him out inside our family room. He's 8' feet tall and very handsome! Here's a picture of Mr. Snowman and me and Mini Sue.....



_______________________________

Today I had my dental cleaning appointment and got THAT over with!

Hubby did some early Christmas shopping....instead of his usual Xmas Eve 15 minutes before they close the stores shopping.

Nothing on TV tonight as usual so we watched some I Love Lucy and Honeymooners Christmas shows I had on VHS. And then we watched a movie I taped years ago with Henry Winkler playing a Scrooge-type person in the same theme as A Christmas Carol, but another name.

I got my tree up so everything is done.

Started wrapping presents.

Just gotta finish my Xmas shopping.

One week to go.....

Ho-Ho-Ho...

I'm still trying to get my Christmas shopping done. Got a few ideas from one of my sons so I was out today buying a couple items. I'm getting there. I have 3 huge boxes filled with presents to send to North Carolina to my son and his family. I kept forgetting that everything I bought I have to send...it's not like they are coming over and unwrapping them here. It will cost me a small fortune to send everything. Oh well....

Hubby is getting the outside light up and is almost done. All the neighbors have had theirs up for weeks now. I'll be glad to get our up. I love my big huge 8 foot snowman. I also bought one of those reindeer this year to put up. The neighbors all have a reindeer and my husband hates doing things that are the same as everyone else, but I don't care. I wanted a reindeer.

We got a package in the mail from UPS and it was from my godson. He sent us some yummy chocolates, coffees and a beautiful coffee mug from a company that sends out that kind of stuff. We also got one of their catalogs and I may use their services next year. They have great things.

Saturday I went out with my girlfriend. We always start out at this restaurant and get something to eat...then we drive down to the bar for a few beers. Anyway, I had a few beers...she drank coke. I had a coke at the restaurant (with rum!). I haven't seen her since September. She didn't even know that Lucky had died. So we talked and talked and closed the place down...then talked some more in her driveway. I know it was late when I got home. I slept most of the next day...LOL

Tomorrow I'll shop some more....shop til I drop...

Hate these newfangled machines....

The day is coming and coming soon as we are reminded constantly now on TV. One day my old TV with rabbit ears will not work. The cable companies hate the fact that people can still get free TV and have lobbied our government to take away our airwaves. Yes, I have cable TV in my family room. But my old console TV in my living room still works with rabbit ears; and my little TV in my bedroom also works with an antenna; and what about my really little tiny TV I like to use in my computer room...antenna. We don't have a basement, and my living room TV is against an inside wall. Cable guys don't like crawling around under a house, so I thought I would spare them that and just use the TV for regular stations when needed. My bedroom TV is against an inside wall and would have to be hooked up through the attic, and cable guys don't like crawling around in attics, so I thought I'd spare them the trouble and just watch regular stations with my antenna.

Well, as of Feb. 9 I will no longer be able to watch my TV unless I hook up to a DTV convertor box. So I bought one at Radio Shack....a better one with a remote control and extra features for my living room TV. So I spent a couple days trying to get it to work. I had it hooked up correctly. I finally got the remote control to work somewhat. I could turn the TV on and off and use the volume buttons but that was it. I couldn't get it to work the convertor box. When the setup screen came on I couldn't work the RC to do anything and set everything up like the channels, etc. It was so frustrating.

I finally went back to Radio Shack and complained. The guy was very rude practically insinuating that I'm just plain dumb. I went home ready to box everything up and take it back cause I purchased the warranty and would tell them to just give me another one cause this one just doesn't work...something must be wrong with it.

I read the directions over and over again one more time. Then it said something like to be sure that the remote sensor on the convertor box is free of any obstacles. Oh...like Xmas candles maybe???? I had all my Xmas candle decorations sitting on my TV, and I had purposely put a big fat red candle in front of this ugly convertor box trying to hide it.

I moved the candle over and VOILE...it worked!!! So now I'm all set for Feb 9. But now I have to go back to Radio Shack and buy another one for my bedroom TV and I'm sure the guy will laugh at me....

I want a Gazebo....

I have my house decorated except for my tree in my family room. I'm kinda waiting to do the tree cause I don't want to get sick of it before Christmas. I think I'll put it up by Sunday or beginning of next week. I have my little table tree in my dinette up and my fiber optic one in the corner of my living room is up. I also put up a new village scene this year. My other one is a Norman Rockwell one. There are 7 houses but they are made of a heavy material...resin or something. Don't know what they call it, but they are heavy in their original boxes; and I had heavy resin type trees. Anyway, the box was so heavy to put up and down from the attic. I also had a few "Sarah, Plain and Tall" ones from Hallmark. They are plastic and much lighter weight. I went to a couple of estate sales where they had the Sarah collection and I bought all the houses. So now I'm doing my village scene with the plastic houses from Hallmark. And I threw out the boxes. I don't care if I have the original boxes. It's easier to just pack the houses by themselves. So now my village scene box will be much lighter weight. Hubby will be glad. So now I will try and sell my Norman Rockwell set at my garage sale or Craigslist or something. I paid around $250 for these 7 houses and I'll be lucky if I can get $50 bucks for them the way things are selling. Oh and then I found a plastic gazebo that is fiber optic at this consignment store, and I have it sitting right in the middle and it looks beautiful.

Talking about gazebos.....For some strange reason when I was in Caseville I started thinking about how a gazebo would look so nice in my back yard. I was even thinking about finding someone who builds them and get a price. Just thinking about gazebos out of the blue. So then I go to my consignment shop and there is a gazebo...perfect for my village scene. Then I saw a street sign advertising a free Christmas Play at this church near my house for last weekend. I thought it would be nice to go to a church Christmas pageant so I decided to go last Saturday afternoon. Now except for funerals and weddings, I haven't been in a traditional church in probably over 30 years!! But I was drawn to the idea of going to see a Christmas play. So I went. It was really nice and different...but anyway, they had us sit on these chairs in the lobby while we were waiting to go into where it started and I looked up and right over my head on the wall was this beautiful picture of a waterfall and a GAZEBO! Now go figure that out....

The play was different. It was actually a "Journey through Bethlehem". They took in groups of 20 or so at a time. They had different stations set up separated by walls and curtains, etc. The first station were the beggers. They even gave you plastic coins to give the beggers. The next station was the marketplace where they had a well where you could drink from and the women selling their wares like pottery, spices, wicker baskets, etc. Then you walked into where the roman soldiers were; the next station was where there were angels singing and Gabriel was; then you walked to where the 3 wisemen were talking; then the shepherds and the couple at the inn. The last station was the stable and manger with Mary and Joseph. It was a walk-through play. It lasted about 20 mins. Very nice....

Today I spent wrapping presents. I wrapped all of my army son's and his family's presents cause I need to get them packaged and sent out. He's still not talking to me but he's getting presents anyway.

So I'm digging out all these presents out of my closet in my bedroom. In one of the bags were some small things I had bought for my husband. At the Holly Berry Fair in Caseville this year someone from Port Austin was selling fudge they make. It is sooooo good. So I bought a small box and was going to give it to hubby for Christmas. I look in the bag and there are shreds of paper and holes in the bag. The box the fudge was in had a hole bitten through it. MOUSE!!!! They must be coming into my bedroom while I'm sleeping and going through all my stuff. The fudge was wrapped in tissue and it was all shredded but he didn't bite into the fudge though. Guess he doesn't like chocolate peanut butter fudge. Picky, picky mouse.

And alot of my Christmas decorations were ruined and shredded stuff inside the plastic tubs from up in the attic where they live. I don't know how in the hell they even got inside the plastic tubs. I got rid of a lot Christmas stuff this year....the ruined stuff plus crap I don't want anymore. I took a crap load of stuff to the Salvation Army yesterday. I am determined to cut back on my decorating. It's too hard to get all this stuff up and down the attic.

I've rambled enough already....going to bed....Nite

Xmas decorating...

Nothing much to post about. I got hubby to climb up into the attic to get all my Christmas decorations down. Unlike Caseville, we don't have stairs that we just simply pull down and climb up. No....No....NO....In our house it is a major production to get up into the attic to get crap down. The entrance into our attic is through our linen closet upstairs....it is a deep closet with 4 shelves. Each shelf section actually has 2 or 3 shelf boards to make up the shelf. (I know this is complicated to even imagine, but that's what it is) So in order for us to get up into the attic, I have to take EVERYTHING off each shelf and then remove each section of the shelf, leaving just enough sections so hubby can use the shelf pieces to climb up on. Then he can push the little square door up and turn on the switch for the light (that he installed cause he got tired of climbing around in the dark up there). And it IS scary up there!!! I've been up there!!!!!

Our attic is where all our little mouses live.

First of all, we don't have a nice floor that you can walk around in like our attic in Caseville. This attic has boards that you can only step on or otherwise you will fall through the fucking ceiling!! Our roofer found that out. We needed major roof repair done one year....like my upstairs bathroom ceiling had fallen through and hubby had to put plastic up to keep the rain from falling on my head while I was peeing. Anyway, roofers had to install a whole new roof and he stepped wrong and BAM...went right through my ceiling into my spare bedroom!

Getting Xmas crap down from the attic is no picnic. Ya gotta be really careful when you go up there. So first I have to take all my stuff off the shelves...take down most of the shelf pieces...then hubby can climb up there and gingerly step on the right boards to get to all my Christmas crap and then hand them down to me one at a time. He is not happy about this. He whines and complains every year. Last year I went up there myself and got a few boxes down cause we weren't doing the whole Christmassy thing here anyway...did it in Caseville instead. But this year I am doing Christmas here...the whole shabang (sp?).

He went up there...got my crap down....and I've been getting my place decorated for Christmas 2008. I decided I have too much stuff anyway, so I am eliminating. I have a pile in the room of all my stuff I am NOT putting up and I will either take to Salvation Army or sell at my garage sale. I need to downsize Christmas in my house. I need to have less boxes to put up in the attic. Cause getting them down is one thing...then ya gotta get them UP there. Another ordeal. I have to take everything off my shelves again, take the shelf sections down, and hubby has to climb back up there, and I have to hand him all my Christmas crap and he has to gingerly walk on the boards to put them away, and heaven forbid if he misses a board....(we'll have to call our drywall guy again)

Home...

Yes...I'm home, I'm home, I'm home!! I can take just so much of Caseville in the winter up there. I drove back yesterday and hubby drove home today. We had a really, really nice Thanksgiving. I cooked up a small turkey with stuffing, and everything else that goes along with Thanksgiving. I probably had way too much food. I even made an apple pie with some apples I still had up there, and I made a pumpkin cake...and I also bought a pumpkin pie. Everything was so yummy, I ate and ate way too much.

The Friday after Thanksgiving I am in the mood to shop and shop but it is just too far to drive to any malls or anywhere where there are any decent stores; so I ended up driving to Bad Axe and hit K-Mart and Walmart...the only big stores. I missed all the morning rush, so things were calm and not crazy when I got there in the afternoon. But I'm assuming that things aren't all that crazy in those stores as opposed to the stores here in the city. Anyway, I bought a video camera at K-Mart. Then when I got it home, I couldn't get it to film very well in low light like my living room in the evening. I was bummed, so I drive all the way back to Bad Axe the next day to return it. The clerk explained a few things I could adjust to get the camera to film in low light. These things are so damn complicated. I just want to point and shoot...not try and figure out how to film each shot with all these features in the menu, etc. So I drive back to C'Ville and tried again. Still it was useless in low light and I couldn't get it to do what I wanted it to...and I couldn't even delete the bad videos from the disk. So the next day I drive all the way back to Bad Axe again and just got a refund. What a pain. It's over an hour driving time round trip just to go to KMart! Waste of gas...

So now I'm back to civilization and last night I was at Kohl's shopping at almost midnight...Kohl's is only less than 10 mins away....Everything is less than 10 mins from my house. In Caseville, I'd have to drive to Saginaw just to go to Kohl's and that's a three hour round trip!

Before I left Caseville, I put out all my snowmen and santas and Xmasy stuff. We'll be doing Christmas here this year, but I'm hoping to go up there for New Years.

I'm gonna start decorating my house this week. I can't wait to get my stuff up. I'm trying really hard to get into the holiday spirit this year. I miss Lucky so much. Sometimes I think I hear him barking...or scratching on the back door. It's just so sad that he won't be here for Christmas this year.

My godson sent me the pictures he took when he was in Caseville visiting. He took a really great shot of me and Lucky and Mini Sue. I look at the picture and he looks so healthy and happy. It's hard to believe that only a little over 2 weeks later he would be gone. I'll have to scan the pic and post it....

Ciao...