Recent Posts
Christmas Fantasyland Lincoln Park 2021
This year VIP camp set up a special visit to Fantasyland in Lincoln park and it was the first time James and his family saw this Christmas display. It was two levels of decoration and many of the displays were tributes to popular Christmas movies. One of the rooms upstairs were a couple train displays, HO and O scale. I could not help but ask if the train people knew Mr Nick. To my surprise they had pictures of him on the wall and said he was a founding member. Mr Nick was James Dad baseball coach at St. Alberts and put on huge train shows at St. Alberts for decades.
James got a free picture with Santa so he took advantage of it. He also got to see his friends from VIP camp so it was really a beautiful evening all around.
Power Loss and a Trip to Frankenmuth 2021
Sunday began much differently than it ended but its these unexpected surprises that sometimes make the best fun. After dropping of some goods at Grandma’s the family returned home and found out a car accident had caused a power failure throughout Dearborn and Dearborn Heights. With no power at home we decided to take a little road trip to Frankenmuth for some last minute Christmas shopping.
As one would expect, the place was crowded with lines outside of Bronners just to get in and a 2.5 hour wait for chicken dinner, but the family was not deterred as they spent a few hours shopping at the mall and even had a chance encounter with a Christmas hero of Dad… No, not Santa, but the Grinch!
A great time was had by all as we listened to the Lions win their second game of the year and lots of Christmas music.
Continue reading “Power Loss and a Trip to Frankenmuth 2021”
Dads Birthday 2021
Dad had a great time on his birthday, although Hoot knocking out a couple Christmas lights and trouble with a new Iphone did put a slight damper on things. Dad got some great gifts including a corpse incense burner and an animatronic that is a little bit different and is sure to put a little scare into people next Halloween.
As is traditional on Dads birthday, a trip to Boneyard with extra ribs and extra wings provided the perfect Birthday dinner. After that, the entire family enjoyed cake and ice cream as bowl season began and college football was once again playing on the television for the first time since Michigan won the Big Ten Championship almost two weeks before.
Hoot Fitting In Well With the Family
Hoot certainly keeps us on our toes but in general she is fitting in very well with the family. The other kitties are tolerating her very well and actually caught playing with her from time to time. James and her are always together building different kitty toys for her to play with.
Hoot does enjoy getting into just about everything she can. She is pure energy and everyone loves her, even when she is causing trouble.
Hoot is not a finicky eater and seems to enjoy everything we feed her, where the other kitties only like seafood in gravy platters. However since Hoot has been eating other type of meals, now they are too so if this continues we will be much better off finding food that they like since they will like it all.
James 4.0 GPA First Semester at WCCC
James was dropped of for his last day of finals and when we picked him up, he felt he had done very well but due to a power failure at the school (high winds throughout the midwest caused many power failures) he would not know his actual score for several days. When he did get the results we found out he had a perfect 4.0 gpa for the semester.
James was rewarded with a trip to his favorite restaurant – Bubba’s – on Eureka road just around the block from his school. Mom and Dad had several gifts for him which you can see in the pictures (t shirts, pennants, Christmas bulbs, etc.)
Later that day James made up 5 Christmas bulbs, one for each A he got that semester and placed them on his Christmas tree for display.
Christmas Decorations Modified
There have been several changes with our Christmas decorations, some due to high winds, some due to props breaking, and some due to little Hoot swiping them from under our noses. Regardless we have been taking pictures and while the evolution of the decorations is subtle, we though it worthwhile to record just so we could keep up.
Our antique bicycle decoration broke after one day and we had to return it for credit, which broke our hearts since there were no more available anywhere in Michigan. We ended up getting some spiral trees to fill out the yard which gives it a nice look. Unfortunately all the snow is gone and we are hoping for a White Christmas as our outside display looks so much better with all the snowmen in the snow.
As far as inside, most of the decorations swiped by Hoot have been found, but she really has it in for signs in our little Christmas village.
Putting Up Christmas Decorations 2021
After a great meal and watching the Lions lose on Thanksgiving we began putting up the Christmas decorations. This year we had to do things differently due to “Hoot” getting into everything and we certainly did not want her to get hurt. We tried to make it so she could not get into the trees by putting items around it but it did not work, she still got into everything.
We use snowmen outside because they look great if it snows, and sure enough we got snow on Saturday during the Michigan Ohio State game.
A big surprise for us came Saturday as the Michigan Wolverines beat the Buckeyes soundly in a game that they were favored to lose. Michigan did not have any plays for a loss and did not run a third down play the whole second half. It was a very entertaining game but Michigan was clearly the better team on this day 42-27.
We are off to a good start for Christmas this year!
Thanksgiving 2021
Despite another trying year with covid we certainly had much to give thanks for. Our Thanksgiving was a complete feast and the deviled eggs were great. We did the turkey a little different, getting a smoked turkey without legs and buying 4 drumsticks separately for a very tasty turkey dinner with all the fixings.
Lions lost again so we began putting up Christmas decorations a day early. Currently the Lions have not won a game (they did manage to tie Pittsburgh at Pittsburgh) and many people including myself thought that a home game against the Bears would be their best chance but once again they lost on a last second field goal.
Continue reading “Thanksgiving 2021”
After Halloween Sale 2021
After Halloween is a holiday in our family. This year we kept saying we really did not need anything, but we went out anyway and could not resist the 50-80 percent of sales that were going on. We hit Halloween City first, then Spirit Halloween, and finally Jo Annes, Michaels, and Walmart.
This year was certainly different as there was many empty shelves in many of the stores as they were having a hard time getting inventory in. Because of this we did not expect much to be left after Halloween but we got lucky because we shopped in a city outside of the suburbs where the population was a little light.
