Lucy’s Phobia

Tags

barking, Christmas, Christmas decoration, Dog, poinsettia, Santa, Santa Claus, Singing, Wreath

Poor Lucy.  She is very glad to see the Christmas decorations put up and out-of-sight.  Why?  She’s scared to death of several of them.

City Boy doesn’t agree with me on that.  He says Lucy is trying to play with them, and that’s why she barks and attacks them.  Actually, she doesn’t have a problem with them (or at least she tolerates them) when they are just sitting there doing nothing.  But, unfortunately, there are a few of them that aren’t always inanimate.  

Once a button is pushed, and the decorations come to life and start swaying, moving around, and singing, Lucy flies at them growling, barking and biting.  Frank says if she was afraid of them, Lucy would hide from them.  I don’t really agree.

So, all through the holiday season, Frank has happily played his favorite decorations, much to the fun (trauma) of Lucy.

They look innocent enough when they’re just sitting there.  My Hallmark snowman looks rather cheerful, actually.

But in the evening, when the lights are low and City Boy gets a fun (mean) streak, it looks more like this:

Keep in mind that while it’s lighting up like this it’s also moving around, singing and playing music.  For a little dog, that can be kind of scary.  But, Lucy actually got used to my little piano playing snowman.  She realized, after awhile, that the snowman was actually every bit as cheerful as he looked, and she gradually got to where she ignored it.

The wreath, on the other hand, is a different story.  It, too, looks fairly cheerful and innocent when hanging there during the day not doing anything.  Granted, Mrs. Santa’s eyeglass frames make her look a little angry from this angle, but I don’t think that’s anything a dog pays attention to.

But, at night, when Mr. and Mrs. Santa come to life, it’s a totally different story.  While they’re swaying back and forth and singing a cheerful rendition of “Home Sweet Home,” the way they look takes a really bad turn.

Heck, at night that even kinda scares me.  Keep in mind that they’re swaying back and forth.  And Lucy is going nuts.

But, it’s Frank’s favorite wreath.  Matter of fact, he picked it out before we ever got Lucy, and he bought it during the day.  So now that it has turned out to be the wreath-of-the-damned, he is determined to try and put a happy spin on it so I won’t throw it away.

Now all there is left of Christmas is our poinsettia collection, part of which is up on the mantle, to keep them away from Lucy.  We don’t want to risk her deciding to attack them, since poinsettias are poisonous to pets.  Well, I guess they are to people, too, but Frank and I leave them alone until they die.  Nothing else Christmas left out to traumatize Lucy, and the house is, once again, without drama.

Bad, bad picture of three out of four of our leftover Christmas poinsettias

So, it’s all packed-up for another year.  Thank goodness.  May the wreath from hell rest in peace and “coincidentally” have stopped working next time we get it out.

Rustic Swag

Tags

Christmas, Christmas decor, Christmas entry table, craft, crafts, DIY, DIY swag, entry table, grass swag, Holiday, holiday decor, holiday entry table, natural crafts, nature crafts, rustic, rustic swag, Swag

Christmas is over for another year, and it always looks so bare around the house when the decorations are taken down, doesn’t it?  We get so used to it all over the month or more that we have our houses all gussied-up.  And it’s really bad when there are some bare spots in your decor even when the holiday decorations are up.  That’s where I found myself before Christmas, even though we’d been living here since February.  Still a lot of bare spots that needed a little decor.

While I was decorating, I decided to take care of one of those spaces that looked bland and bare, so I decided to make a swag.  We have an entry table with a picture over it, and I have always thought it looked like it needed…something.  Ever since the Fall decorating had begun I had wondered what to do with it, and finally decided to put a swag there.

Our entry table is a modern one that has been purposely distressed, so a rustic type swag was what I was looking for.  Several shopping trips later, I still hadn’t found anything that screamed “Take me!  I’m the perfect swag!”   Finally, after the Christmas decorations were all up, I decided to make one.

Back to shopping I went, looking for materials.  Being frugal (cheap), I just couldn’t bring myself to pay a huge price for each component of a long swag.  Finally, I remembered my Fall foraging trip that City Boy had taken me on, the one where I gathered all the Fall foliage.  At one point, we had gone into an open field and I had cut a big bunch of overgrown field grass.  Most of it had gone to seed, but I managed to clip most of it without the seed head.  It was above the knee, less than waste high.

Once home, I hung the whole bunch upside down in the garage, and then forgot about it.  And so, once I remembered the grass again, the swag in this picture is what I ended up with.  

If you are not into rustic, collecting grass in the Fall is probably not something it would be of benefit for you to do.  Dried grass is always going to look rustic.  Well, maybe if you spray-painted it silver or gold it would look more updated — I’ll have to try that and see.  I’ll try anything once.  Almost anything.

Here are the things I used to create this rustic grass swag:

Scissors, twine, long dried grass.

This is another weed that I had drying at the same time the grass was — I didn’t have a full-length picture of the grass.

Gather the overgrown grass in any field that hasn’t been mowed in awhile.    I used scissors to cut it off as close to the ground as possible.  Gather a huge bunch — remember that it will seem like much more when it is in its live state than when it is dry, so gather more than you think you will need.

Tie the bottom of the bunch of grass with some twine, leaving long ends so you can tie it around something to hang it upside down.  Let it dry for at least several days; longer is even better.

When ready to make the swag, separate the grass into small bunches that are about the density you want your swag to be.  Lay them out on a flat surface so you can work with them.  I laid mine out on the floor.

Use the twine to tie the bunches together, overlapping the end of one bunch with the beginning of another.  Leave stray blades of grass loose from the twine to give the swag a more natural, full look.  Continue this process until the swag is the desired length.

Shape the swag to suit what you are using it for.  I did some bending and shaping before I put the swag up, and then did some touch-up shaping after I had it in place above the picture over the entry table.  For the purpose in the picture, the swag is resting on the picture with nothing else holding it up, but for other purposes it would probably need to be tacked here and there to the wall.  

I have not tried seeing how this would look on a mantle or a table, but if I make another one or move this one I will have to try that and see how it looks.  

Here are a few pictures I took while in the process of making the swag:

Grass spread out on the floor made it easier to work with

Beginning of the swag — two bunches tied together

Close-up

Third bunch ready to be added on

Third bunch added on, tied off, twine cut — I think I used seven or so bunches altogether for this swag

The finished product.  I did fluff this swag up some after I took this picture because I had it too squared-off.  This swag can be made shorter or longer — as long as there is overgrown grass available, a swag can be made.

 One of these days I might do something rustic with the other weeds that are still hanging out in the garage (unless City Boy has thrown them out thinking I was not going to use them).

Rustic isn’t for everybody, just like ultra modern isn’t for everybody, but I enjoy it any time natural things are used in home decor.  The materials are all around us, we don’t have to spend a lot of money making things from them, and best of all, nothing gets wasted.

If you get a chance, go on a nature walk and get some ideas for things you can use to make your atmosphere pleasant.  There are so many things, especially this time of year, that are laying out there dormant or dead that can be brought back to life by your creativity.   So let your creative juices flow out of every pore, and have a blessed day!

The Week After Christmas, And All Through the House….

Tags

Christmas, Christmas dinner, Family, Holiday

Recovered yet?  Hope you all had a very merry Christmas to recover from!  Whether you spent a peaceful or active day with yourself, one, a few, or many friends and relatives, Christmas is a time to celebrate, and there are a million ways to do it!

City Boy and I had a gathering at our house with the Willingham side of the family.  It’s the most crowded our tiny house has been since moving here in February, and was such a wonderful way to spend the  holiday!  My son had driven up Christmas Eve and spent the night, and the rest of our guests appeared around noon.  Much as I’d like to say everything went off without a single hitch, I can’t.  But everyone seemed to be having a good time eating, laughing and visiting, and some of us were better than others at Christmas trivia.

During the festivities, a guest had gone into the master bedroom to use the bathroom.  I didn’t let it bother me since I knew most of the guests would use the main bathroom, and went into the master bathroom a little later to check and make sure everything was still spick-and-span.  

A little piece of paper remained floating in the toilet, so I flushed it just to be tidy.  To my dismay, the toilet stopped-up.  So, there I was, right before dinner Christmas day, house full of guests, madly plunging the toilet hoping to lessen the amount I would have to mop up from the floor.  Relief came as it appeared catastrophe had been averted and the toilet was unstopped before anything had hit the floor.  And, in addition, it was out of earshot of any of the guests, so no one need ever know.  

Just as I went to wash my hands, I looked up and noticed that someone must have gotten ready in our bathroom that morning.  It looked like a deer had been gutted right in the bathroom sink.  Some sort of goo was sprayed completely over the whole bottom half of the mirror.  Thank goodness most of the guests were using the main bathroom, I thought.  Someone yelled for me right then and I pulled the bedroom door shut and made a point of forgetting about it until after everyone had left.  Later that evening was when City Boy let me know that he had encouraged everyone to use the master bathroom since that bedroom was where all the coats were.  

???  We have a coat closet, which he had put extra hangers in for when he took everyone’s coats.  And who cares if, for some unknown reason, he decided that flinging the coats on our bed would be better — we still had a fully functioning main bathroom that was closer to the guests.  So, now everyone just thinks I stink at cleaning bathrooms because the really clean bathroom went unused.

After dinner I drove a short distance to pick up a couple of guests that don’t drive, and when I got back a few of the guests had helpfully loaded the dishwasher full of dishes and had them washing.  People in my family are so helpful, and can be counted on to always lend a hand!  But someone didn’t realize that sterling silverware that is many years old does not do well in the dishwasher.   I am hoping that when I hand polish them one at a time all the spots will come off.

Telling about all the mishaps is much more entertaining than saying, “Everyone came and had a wonderful time,” so that’s why I tell about them!  But, the reality is that none of the mishaps really mattered that much.  After all of the aforementioned ones and one broken goblet, it still was all worth it.  I absolutely loved seeing everyone and visiting, and would do it again in a heartbeat!

Lately blogging time with me has been a few-and-far-between thing.  City Boy not only does some work-related business on the computer, but also does most of his schooling on the computer at this point.  

Recently his laptop suddenly bit the dust.  Very little warning, just fell asleep and never woke up.  It was a hassle for him, since all of his school stuff and work stuff was on it.

My computer not only had to fill the void, but he decided it would fill the void long-term to save him the expense of purchasing a new laptop or fixing his.  See, I don’t have my own income, and Frank originally bought my desktop computer for me.  So, I can’t hardly, in good conscience, tell him to get his own.  That said, he is on my computer most of the day and evening, leaving me time to do what I need to do during the wee hours of the morning.  I’m old, and those hours are not conducive to lucid thought for me.

As time passes, hope springs eternal that I might have my computer back full time.  Until then, it’s going to be hit-or-miss with me as far as computerland goes.

This picture was taken the night before Christmas while I was setting up the dining area for the Big Meal.  The picture isn’t as good as the real thing, since my photography ability is sadly lacking, and I wasn’t done setting up.  It looked very nice when I was done, though, and I threw some sheets over the whole thing to keep everything dust-free overnight.

Frank’s Christmas rug is not very visible, and I should have taken a picture of it.  He got it after Christmas one year when it was the very last one left and kept being marked down until it was about 90% off.  He finally couldn’t resist, and this is the first year we used it.  The rug depicts Santa and his sleigh flying at night in front of a full moon.  It’s a bit much for me, but he likes it and it is a nice looking rug.

And one more thing I thought I’d mention that was neat — Mom got a digital camera for Christmas.  It’s her first ever!  My daughter gifted her a nice one and Mom is nervous about how to use it.  I told her that I would help her with it — I knew she would need help when she asked me what kind of film it used.  Her brother, my Uncle Bud, has been a photographer and camera buff for as long as I can remember, not to mention working as an anchor for an NBC affiliate for years, so he knows some things about cameras.  He sat with my mom and patiently showed her the ins and outs of a digital camera using the one he had brought with him.  I am so excited for Mom, and hope she gets a lot of enjoyment taking lots of pictures!

I have missed being in Blogland and keeping up with everybody, and I’m hoping to be able to carve out more time to be online.  Pretty soon it will be a brand-new year, and I hope your 2012 closes wonderfully and is the start of a great 2013!

Related articles

• Toilet Paper and the Not Quite Empty Nest (reneemaynes.com)
• After Christmas Laughs (beduwen.com)
• 10 Minutes Before Guests Arrive – Do This (simplystated.realsimple.com)

Christmasaholic

Tags

Christmas, Christmas fanatic, Christmas tree, Holiday, Humor, Merry Christmas

Have you ever wondered if you go too far when it comes to celebrating Christmas?  Are those many Christmas “traditions” you hold so dear cause to wonder if it’s all too much?  Maybe you’re really into Christmas but don’t feel like you are any worse than anybody else….but then, you wonder if maybe you’re just deluding yourself.  How do you know if you are a Christmasaholic?

Here are just a few symptoms of a died-in-the-wool Christmas fanatic for you to consider if you are seriously afraid you might be over the edge.  Even if you are part of this group of over-doers, do not worry — there are a lot worse clubs to belong to!

You may be a Christmasaholic if:

• You have a decorated tree in every room of your house, including the bathroom.
• You do your weekly grocery shopping and come home with candy canes, chocolate covered cherries, Christmas cookies, chocolate chips, almond bark, M ‘n’ Ms, nuts, cake, pie, sweetened condensed milk, marshmallow creme, assorted candy for stockings, and candy kisses.  Oh, and a loaf of bread
  and some lunchmeat.
• You finish decorating the outside of your house and people compare you to the Griswalds — just as you always dreamed they would.
• Your kids greet guests at your door with “Welcome to Santaland,” followed by an eye roll.
• Your dog wears fabric antlers from Thanksgiving on.
• Your clocks all count down advent instead of regular time because no other time matters.
• Your electric bill doubles every year during the month of December.
• Your children are forced to answer the house phone with “Merry Christmas and God bless us every one!”
• Members of your church congregation ask you to sit out in the lobby during worship service to keep from being a distraction because you jingle too much.
• During December your family members all wear sunglasses in the house — no one wants to get tinsel blindness.
• No one can ever find the cat until after New Year’s — once is all you’re ever going to get Kitty to wear the antlers.
• It’s tradition to drag out the same fruitcake every year — the very same one Aunt Margaret gave you ten years ago, and it’s still even in the same box.

What turns a regular Christmas celebrant into a maniacal holiday monster?    Who cares?!  If you have one of these in your household, enjoy it — you only live once!

How dull would life be without the occasional day to set aside for celebrating?  Pull out all the stops this year and have a wonderful Christmas!

Related articles

• Merry Christmas! (humblehomespun.wordpress.com)
• On the Eighth Day of Christmas Recipes: Christmas Pies (brooklynlocavore.wordpress.com)
• Christmas Treats for UPS, FedEx and USPS! (creoleindc.typepad.com)
• Sweet treats and Christmas wishes (zhongguojumble.wordpress.com)
• Christmas Sweets & Treats Round Up (mommyhatescooking.com)
• The Origin of the Candy Cane (todayifoundout.com)
• Easy Holiday Treats: Chocolate Peppermint Bark Recipe (ctworkingmoms.com)

Stars Are Born

Tags

choir, Christmas, Christmas program, Christmas tree, Dog, grandson, lighted Christmas tree

This past Sunday our Christmas program “All Is Well” was presented, and it was a resounding success!  It doesn’t really look like it, but this choir stretches five rows back — the pictures and videos were taken from well below the stage.

City Boy and I both participated — we’re there, you just can’t see us.  I’ll point us out so nobody thinks I’m just saying we were in the choir when really we weren’t.  It was a fabulous evening, after which my daughter, son-in-law and grandson all came to visit us at home.  

This is the only decent picture that shows both Frank and I — it is a snip taken from the video, so the quality is really poor, but there we are!  We were there!

See?  We were there.  We were even placed pretty close to each other — close enough for me to smack him if he got out-of-line.  Not that I would ever do that.  Frank almost always behaves himself in public.  Almost always.

 

Another picture that shows both of us — sort of.  There are times when I choose to wear my hair in some old-lady, goofy-looking style and then think later, “Dang, what was I thinking?”  I thought the jingle bells that held my hair back would look cute and Christmassy.  I never fail to be wrong about these things.

Later on we had a wonderful visit with my daughter’s family.  It wouldn’t be Christmastime if I didn’t take the obligatory kid-in-front-of-the-Christmas-tree pictures of my grandson.  Everybody does these, but it’s different this time because it’s my grandson.  And he was fascinated enough by the handful of presents he wasn’t getting any of that I was able to capture a few pictures.

 

 

Of course, Michael is getting presents from us, but we (actually I, as if Frank does any present-wrapping) didn’t have the gifts for him and his mother ready yet.  Only my son-in-law’s was ready, so it looked kind of bad I guess.

 

My daughter, Megan, always groans and rolls her eyes as soon as I get my camera out, so I don’t get many pictures of her, and even if I did she would say she doesn’t want me to post them.  She is very much like most of City Boy’s family — they act like when you try to take pictures of them you are pointing a gun at them.  And then when you manage to get a few pictures of them, they say they are ugly and don’t want anyone to see them.

Maybe I’m being out-of-sorts.  Today the little dog tinkled on the carpet and I had to clean it up.  Gag.  She’s never done that before, and I am annoyed with her. 

Lucy, the little dog, was originally given to me.  I am generally not a dog person, but when she cocked her head and stared at me with those puppy-dog eyes, I thought, “I’ve never owned a dog before, and I think I could be a good dog owner.”  And I was.  I played with her, groomed her, trained her and took care of all her needs.  Then she decided she liked City Boy better.  I couldn’t understand it.

 As it turns out, City Boy was feeding her table food off of his plate and going along behind me and reversing the things I was trying to teach her by letting her do anything she wanted.  No wonder he was more popular.

So, for a while I begrudgingly took care of the little dog while Frank enjoyed her, played with her, and had a neat little companion.  Then one day it occurred to me while I was struggling to give the wriggly little brat a bath, that I was not going to give her a bath any more.  Frank didn’t like that.  He said Lucy didn’t behave for him in the bathtub, and wouldn’t hold still for him to brush her, so he just didn’t feel he could do either.  Again, it was no wonder City Boy was more popular with the dog.

Well, we’ve worked out a system: he bathes the dog and I brush her.  He cleans up the doo-doo and I clean up any tinkle.  She doesn’t do either in the house unless we’re gone for a period of time and she has no choice, but she’s never tinkled.  Until today.  And I wasn’t even gone!

So naughty Little Dog is on my blacklist for a day or two, and I’ll get over it and she’ll look up at me with those puppy-dog eyes again and I’ll melt.  Sort of.

Days are short and it will be Christmas before we know it — lots to get done!  I hope everybody has their Christmas shopping done and presents wrapped, and their voices ready for Christmas caroling!

 

First order of business at our little corner of the midwest is to go around the house and flip over the ten or so calenders which are still on September, shake my 2011 Mickey Mouse snow globe, decorate our office with my 1979 box of felt Christmas decorations, and get with the program!  

Happy holidays!!!

 

Related articles

• The Snowglobe Story (o.canada.com)
• The Royal Roots of the American Christmas Tree (history.com)
• Papercraft Star #124….a Christmas Tree! (syviastamps.typepad.com)
• “Because you’re ‘posed to have a Christmas Tree on Christmas!” (reaching4hishem.wordpress.com)

The Season of Peace–Take It Calm and Slow

Tags

Amish, calm, Christmas, Christmas and holiday season, Holiday, Holidays, Missouri, peace

 

This time if year all we hear about is the rush, rush, rush and the busy, busy, busy aspect of the season.  All the peace and goodwill that is supposed to be part of the Christmas holiday seems to go right out the door, and is replaced by total madness.

A fellow blogger published a post recently that talked about staying calm, and it gives pause for some thought: when was the last time you heard of a person relaxing their way through the holiday season?  There must be somebody that does this, but most of us have never met any of these people.  They would have to be saints.  Or live on a sandy beach with gentle breezes wafting all their cares away.  Right?

The above picture was taken by my friend since childhood, Kay, who lives in the country further north of me in Missouri.  She doesn’t say where she was going, although it was probably to work, and she doesn’t say if she was in a hurry, although it’s a safe bet that she wasn’t wanting to dawdle.  She took this picture through her windshield, probably with her cell phone, and posted it with the caption, “Sigh……..Why me…….Rght in the middle of the road…..”  and the first thought that hit me was, “Yeah, I know just what you mean!”  Having lived in a rural area of SW Missouri where a large group of Amish had settled, I’d had my share of trying to slowly follow a buggy down the road when I was in a hurry.

Since the gentlemen in the above picture were out on a cold day and were kind of huddled, there is a chance they did not hear the car pulling up behind them.  Some of the Amish are kind and will pull off the road when they can to let vehicles pass by.  Others don’t seem to be bothered if there is a line of traffic behind them.  They are not in any hurry, and don’t particularly care if you are.   

How do people who get in no hurry ever get anything done?  And yet, they do.  Some farms in this sect were massive, and took a lot of hard work to run.  

So what’s the answer as far as us getting what we need done and doing it calmly and not at breakneck speed?  And, as far as this time of year, what’s the secret to having a calm holiday season and still getting the things done that are part of having a great Christmas?

Maybe, like apparently with the Amish folk, it’s about doing what needs to be done to live, enjoying family and friends, and then letting the rest fall into place whatever way it does.  Not that I would advocate what a few others have posted on Facebook and other places every time there is a major holiday.  You’ve seen them — the “You should be ASHAMED to be celebrating the holidays while there are so many starving children around the world!” or “How dare you celebrate a holiday that is evil!  You should be ashamed!  ASHAMED I tell you!” posts.  

I’m into Christmas shopping, gift-giving, family dinner eating, gift receiving, cider swilling, etc., just as much as the next person.  But for the sake of our health, mental and physical, and for the sake of just experiencing peace and joy, we might need to learn to reign it in a bit.

Maybe some of you out there have different ideas about how to enjoy this holiday season without ending up frazzled and tired.  Hit us with your ideas for how we might make this the most joyous, peaceful, calm, happy celebration we’ve ever had!

Blessings to you as you celebrate this season of giving and happiness!

 

 

Related articles

• Celebrate First Christmas in Style (cardstore.com)
• What to Write in your 1:1 Holiday Cards (cardstore.com)
• Tips for Handling Visitation Over the Holidays (herstontennesseefamilylaw.com)
• How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Holidays (margaretadopts.wordpress.com)
• In Branson Missouri, Christmas Comes Early (prweb.com)
• Peace With A Purpose (gibsongirl247.wordpress.com)
• Gifts of Christmas – Peace (essentialthingdevotions.com)

Slow Winter Night

Tags

Beginning photography, Camera, Christmas, Christmas tree, Dog, Humor, moon, winter, winter night

The one thing about the weather getting colder and nights getting longer is that there is less to do.  For those hearty individuals who don’t mind roughing it in the cold weather, there are still outdoor things to do, but the rest of us namby-pamby souls have to find more things to do indoors.

Fortunately, there is Christmas decorating to do, and festive music to play while we’re decking the halls.  But, some evenings are just made for being ordinary, and there’s nothing wrong with that for old folks like us.  So, the other night was no exception to the rule.

Here in small towns certain services are limited.  There is only one cable company that services us, and its prices are higher than a cat’s back, so we have satellite.  There still wasn’t much on that night…

Really??!!  Don’t ALL murder victims wind up dead?

Lucy wasn’t really interested in doing much of anything, either.  I figured she would get underfoot while I tried to do some Christmas decorating, but I finally found her.

Her room also doubles as our office, and City Boy got her the biggest bed he could find.  The Little Dog is about the size of a cat; why on earth would she need a bed that size?  It sure makes the office that much smaller–Lucy is not a bit spoiled, oh no.

A plastic bin of decorations made its way into the living room, and I also took that opportunity to put the first gift of the season under our tree.

Looks lonely, doesn’t it?  That right there is a gift from me to Frank.  I’m hoping one from him to me joins it there soon.  It’s all about me, me, me.

In the middle of everything Frank came in and said I just had to step outside right then.  Turns out he knows I always try to stretch my picture-taking skills, which are sadly lacking, and thought I might like another challenge.  He also thought it would make a neat picture.

And, City Boy was right on two counts.  It WAS a challenge (I took several pictures of it to even get one as good as this), and it WAS kind of neat-looking, the moon with all those clouds wafting around it.  One day I’ll figure out how to take night pictures without the purple dot.

Well, back to decorating.  City Boy decided to give Lucy a bath since she was just laying there, easy to find.  Lo and behold, she had disappeared.  Frank had taken her collar off earlier, and he only does that for one reason.  And the Little Dog has figured out that reason.

So, they ran around the ottoman for awhile, and Frank finally caught her and took her in to take a bath.  I got done decorating and still had the camera out, so I entertained myself playing with it.  I discovered some new little settings, and messed around with them a bit.  

This is the “Soft Focus” setting.

This looks just like the way my pictures look when I can’t hold my hands steady enough and I don’t wait for the camera to focus.  Guess I didn’t need that setting.

Next was the “Sparkle” setting.

Whoa, this brings back memories.  When my vision was messed-up this is the way car headlights looked at night.  Don’t really want THAT blast from the past. 

Okay, so, I have no idea what I did to get this…

I’ll just call this the “Really Orange” setting.  With that, I put the camera up for the night and decided to lay in bed with the tv on and read a book.  

Then this movie came on tv about a husband who disappeared after forgetting to put a present under the Christmas tree for his wife….yeah, that might be worth a look….

Christmas Parade Before Thanksgiving!

Tags

antique cars, Beginning photography, Christmas, Christmas and holiday season, marching bands, Parade, parade floats, Santa Claus, Santa Claus parade

The weekend before Thanksgiving was our town’s annual Christmas parade, complete with all the bells and whistles (literally).  After the parade was our church’s annual Hanging of the Greens, where we deck the halls with festive decorations (or try to, anyway).  It was a full and enjoyable day, and a good send-in to herald the holiday season.

The parade was surprisingly lengthy, much to my delight.  Usually, if you arrive to a small-town parade route ten minutes after it is scheduled to start, you don’t miss a thing.  Small-town parades almost never start on time.  If you arrive five minutes after the parade has actually started, you’ve missed it.  Small-town parades are notoriously short.

Fun was had by all on a bright, sunny day!  I only posted a fraction of the pictures I took that day.  Here are some highlights:

Meet Hoodie Boy.

He’s the young man in the purple hoodie who will be in many of the pictures, or at least the parts of him I couldn’t crop out.  He was having so much fun that he stood out in the middle of the street so no one else could see.  He is crazy about candy and didn’t want to miss even one piece that was thrown!  He managed to get in nearly every picture I took, so you can keep an eye out for him Where’s Waldo style!

Hoodie Boy also made it so I had to stand out too close to the parade.  

I would love to have gotten a photo of the WHOLE car.  But, no matter, there was too much fun going on to care very much!

Floats, at least in this parade, consisted of anything that people could sit in or stand on.  Many of them were reminiscent of a hay ride.

Dude, you’re on a float in a parade with spectators–GET OFF YOUR CELL PHONE!

While one girl is paying too close attention to the little boy who thinks the pile of candy in front of him is his, her jacket is about to become road kill

Okay boys, once again, you’re supposed to throw the candy to the people, not sit there and keep it for yourselves.

Although this is an interesting looking truck, the float it was towing behind it got everyone’s attention…

…the smallest unmanned float in the parade!

And here is the smallest float with people in this parade…

Daughter: “Dad, I was called into work suddenly.  Can you take the kids today?”

Dad: “Oh, sure, I know just the thing to do today.  There’s a parade in town.  The kids will love it!”

Daughter: “You’re taking them to the parade?”

Dad: “Taking them?!  We’ll just be IN the parade!”

Everyone thinks we’re part of a parade–nobody knows I’m only babysitting the grandkids!

Parks and Recreation went all-out this year on their float:

Little girls in stockings hanging from the fireplace–cute idea for a float, and one of the few decorated floats.

One of the many princess candidates being driven by–no need to do any waving at the crowd when you have candy to throw!

This parade was full of fantastic cars and vehicles–only a few of them are in this post.

I always think it’s cute when a little old couple who have been sensible all their lives suddenly go out and get a car like this!

Lots of pretty flag girls and marching bands.

Hoodie Boy forced me out into the middle of the street for the occasional picture.

At the Christmas parade you can get as much candy as you do at Halloween!  Everybody in the parade is throwing some!

A group from Christian Health Care were in the parade as candy throwers, while children waited and watched hopefully.

Lots of businesses were in the parade to advertise.  I was most impressed with the new pizza place in town, that went all-out in this parade to advertise with cute little girls holding signs, a gorgeous dog, a pretty girl dressed as an elf throwing candy out of the company van, and a pack of adult candy throwers.  Now that’s advertising!

And, of course, no parade is complete without the fast moving, rolling, spinning porta-potty!

A well-behaved pet is an asset to any parade!

This rider is a teacher, and she stopped to converse with a few of her students

I don’t know, something about this float just screams refugee camp.

And the moment every good boy and girl wait for in this parade every year….

Santa!!!

And so ends our annual holiday parade–lots of fun and lots of flying candy!  Sure hope you’ve enjoyed our little slice of pre-Christmas Ozarks Heaven!

The Tree From Hell

Tags

Christmas, Christmas lights, Christmas tree, Dog, Holidays, Humor, Tree

Last night, after City Boy and my son Joel had gone to bed, I decided to put up the Christmas tree.  Of course, it’s artificial, because I’m lazy and don’t like to take care of a live tree.  Frank and I had given away our last tree to a friend of mine right before we moved–seems Frank didn’t want to have to load it onto the moving truck.  As if a tree in a box takes up that much room.  You wouldn’t believe the stuff he tried to get me to leave behind!  

Anyway, Frank said if I gave the tree up he would get me another one when we moved here.  Well, he did, but not without me prodding him to do so.  A friend from church had given us a white tree, but it wasn’t very tall (we have vaulted ceilings), not to mention it had aqua, pink, and yellow lights, so I put it in our bedroom.  Of course, City Boy was stunned that I did not want to use that tree in the living room as our only tree.  “Why would you put that tree in our bedroom?!” he said, aghast.   Anything to keep from having to buy a tree.

 

I like white trees okay–I just don’t know what to do with them.  Especially when they have pink lights.  So, I told Frank I needed to get a few things at the store to decorate the tree, since the ornaments we had would not go well on that tree.  Again, he was stunned.  “Why do you need to get decorations for it?!  It already has lights!!”

I guess he was already upset that he was going to have to buy me a tree after all, so buying decorations for it sent him off the deep end.  So, I went minimal on them.  

My son took me shopping and I bought a tree while Frank was at work.  It spared both of us the trauma of my husband having to do any kind of shopping.  Another day I’ll tell you how he is to shop with.

So, I’m putting up the new tree.  I nearly lost my religion trying to set that thing up.  The directions, which were probably written in another language and then translated, were extremely simplified to the point of making no sense.  The diagram appeared to have been engineered by a gradeschooler.

After a few hours of getting my arms stuck raw from having to dig through the tree looking for various cords while fending off the dog at the same time I was crawling under the tree with a flashlight, the tree was standing, all lit up.

 

So, there she is–the tree from hell.

And here’s the tree’s sidekick–the little dog, and the other reason it took forever to get the job done…

 

I think Little Dog needs to go live somewhere else until the holidays are over.  Well, I guess that would be mean.  She thinks I actually like her.  Well, I guess I do, so scratch that.

 

What are ya’ gonna’ do?  Maybe I’ll tell City Boy tomorrow that I dropped the bin of tree decorations and now I need new ones.

Share this:

Tags

Christmas, Santa, Santa Claus

Thought this picture was priceless–the look on the young girl’s face made me laugh!