We had a great Christmas but what really was a surprise was the Lions winning the division for the first time in about thirty years on Christmas Eve. Congrats to the new division champs, but enough on the Lions.

We spent at least an hour opening gifts and I think everyone got what they wanted. Deviled eggs again were a hit with no left overs and we even brought out the Donald Trump standup out of the rafters for Christmas since we are going into an election year. Lots of fun, great food (turkey and stuffing with all the trimmings) and great gifts made this a great day and lots of fun. Later in the evening we got a special treat with a firework show on our block.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Continue reading “Christmas 2023” →

Unfortunately James had a class at nearly the same time as the VIP camp Christmas Fantasyland. Rather than miss it, James and Dad left early and were able to attend for about ten minutes before heading on to his class at the Mike Illitch School of Business in Detroit (Fantasyland was in Lincoln Park near an exit so James made it to school on time, although it was close).

James got to say hi to several counselors and a few friends from VIP camp and also got his picture taken with Santa, which has been a tradition since he was little.

Thanks to VIP camp for putting on a great event for the campers!

Continue reading “Christmas Fantasyland 2023” →

This was very close to being a perfect Christmas for our family. The weather outside was frightening and we were kind of trapped inside due to the freezing cold which was described as a “generation” storm. But it was still a white Christmas. The Christmas dinner was awesome as we had prime rib for the first time since Mountain Jack restaurant closed down. It was just as good as we remembered.

The gifts this year were awesome including a couple Wii games for James, along with many new clothes that were Michigan, Lion, or Wayne State oriented. James also got a bit box of all his favorite snacks!
Continue reading “Christmas 2022” →

This was our second year visiting Fantasyland in Lincoln Park and James ran into many friends on this visit. The event was organized by VIP Camp and all members got a free picture with Santa included with their visit.

Dad went upstairs where the train display was to see if they still had the pictures of his old baseball coach on the wall ( Mr. Nik was a founding member). Sure enough they were still up there and Dad contributed to their raffle, although he has no idea what he would do with a train set if he won.

The displays were spectacular again this year, lots of Grinch and community trees contributed to a great time being had by all visitors.

Continue reading “Christmas Fantasyland 2022” →

Santa’s Magic Forest returned to Heritage park and so did the VIP campers who came out on a cool (not too cold) December evening. The problem this year was James had to be at College at 7pm and the event begins at 6pm, but the good news is that it is only a 5 minute walk away from the College and James was able to not only attend College during the day and evening, but got to the Santa’s Magic Forest in between classes.

Santa’s Magical Forest took 57 volunteers 840 hours to assemble and the bulk of the props came from Hudsons, Bronners, and South Land Mall. Continue reading “Santa’s Magical Forest 2022” →

Memorial Day weekend continued with a trip to Bronners in Frankenmuth. The first thing we noticed when we drove into Frankenmuth was that there was a dog show called “The Dog Bowl” and the city of Frankenmuth was packed with visitors to see this show. However Bronners was not crowded at all and we took advantage of it to enjoy a nice visit to the largest Christmas shop in the land. Perhaps the most exciting new thing we saw was that Dept 56 was putting out a new Munster and Addams Family ceramic houses. We already had the Hawthorne version of the Munsters but we really had nothing on the Addams family so we bought a small Addams family gazebo to go into our ceramic display of haunted houses. Continue reading “Bronners Visit 2022” →

We started opening gifts after breakfast around 9am. James had the most gifts and this year he received many clothes for his College career which is in between semesters right now (James got straight A’s the first semester). He also received many Michigan Wolverine gifts due to their awesome performance against Ohio State and in the Big Ten Championship day. Mom even got a Michigan gift as she got a Harbaugh bobble head (supposedly collectible).

Other fun gifts were a Skull incense burner for Dad that we plan to try out later, along with an awesome Halloween animatronic. We also got a family portrait Southpark style to go with our portrait last year Simpson style. Mom got a talking Tina doll, along with a pair a sun glasses that doubles as headphones as it has awesome speakers built into it. Everyone got lots of clothes so we should be looking sharp for 2022.

Continue reading “Opening Christmas Gifts 2021” →

It was a great day for all the kitties who got plenty of toys but without a doubt the kitty who enjoyed it most was little Hoot who had never experienced anything like this.

Carmen and Thelma enjoyed the cat nip toys which we set out for them in the front hall. This year we added a ball of yarn that went over well until the cat nip arrived. Without a doubt the biggest hit was the Sharper Image scratching post with the remote laser. I do not think the kitties even scratched the post once as they were too busy chasing that laser along the floor.

Its safe to say it was a great day for all kitties this Christmas!

Continue reading “Hoots First Christmas 2021” →

This was an exceptional year for great food, to begin with we had Moms special French Toast which everyone loved, along with biscuits and sausage. Later that day we had our lunch/dinner which was ham with all the trimmings including deviled eggs and the best scallop potatoes we have tasted in a long while.

Lots of decorations in the kitchen as well so here is a quick look at some of them. Big congrats to Mom for an excellent day of food this Christmas.

Once again, the kitties got their toys along with catnip so everyone had a special day today thanks to the magic Christmas kitchen.

Continue reading “Christmas In The Kitchen 2021” →

As usual the bulk of the Christmas decorating inside was done in the living room. We enjoy watching movies with the Christmas lights on so what better place could their possibly be to decorate. In the 1990’s we used to do parties in the basement but stopped that at the turn of the century.

Stockings were hung and gifts under the tree as we wanted the place to look nice in case Santa paid us a visit. This year we pulled out a few of the “old” Hallmark decorations from the 90’s and added them to the trees that were displayed in the living room.

Our new kitty “Hoot” had a blast, exploring all the new and wonderful wonders she was seeing this Christmas (her first).

Continue reading “Inside Christmas Decorations 2021” →