Our neighborhood is truly lucky to have probably the best decorated Christmas tree in Michigan located on our humble block. If you ever get into our neighborhood, check it out. You can see it from nearly a mile away and to top it off they shoot off fireworks there as well. The ornaments are blow molds which gives you an idea of how big this tree really is.

We included two pics, a before and after.

It was a clear and cold night this year as James and his family made the trek to see the magic forest. It was great to see so many people attending this year, by far the largest turnout since we have been coming to this event. It was also great to see people that you usually only see in the summer time during the Holiday season. Lots of fun as always and we encourage everyone who can to visit this awesome Christmas display which is at Heritage Park on most weekends during the holidays.

We did receive some bad news, that one of the parents we know very well had a stroke, fortunately he is expected to make a full recovery so our prayers our with him and his family during this Holiday season.
Continue reading “Santas Magic Forest 2019” →

A great time was had by all at Dads Birthday which included cake and ice cream, gifts, and a Boneyard Dinner.

Later that day we got a chance to spend some quality time with the whole family as we watched a movie on TV. It was nice to get away from news and internet if only for a few hours and do something together at home as a family rather than everyone working on their phones, ipads, and computers. A big thank you to all the well wishers, cards, and gifts.

After dropping James off at school, Mom and Dad had an errand to run and it took us in the area of Plymouth where we decided to take a quick walk through Kellogg Park and enjoy the “Walk of Trees”. The trees are contributed and decorated by various businesses, clubs, and individuals from the city of Plymouth. Below is the spiel for this beautiful event.

Enjoy trees lining the walkways of Kellogg Park decorated by local businesses and organizations in the Plymouth Community. The trees are officially lit the day after Thanksgiving and remain up until the New Year. Come enjoy the trees, shop for the Holidays and enjoy a wonderful meal in one of our many restaurants. Also, Santa greets families at his house in Kellogg Park on weekends during the Christmas season.

Continue reading “Plymouth Christmas Tree Walk” →

It was a different Thanksgiving this year for sure. First the bad, not a good football weekend for any of our teams so lets get that out of the way right away.

Now the good, we had an awesome meal and as soon as the Lions loss was official, began transforming the home from Thanksgiving (about 2 decorations) to Christmas (a whole bunch of decorations). We had purchased new Christmas trees at the after Christmas sales last year and this was the first time we would see what they look like. The living turned into a magic forest of its own with all the trees.

I cannot emphasize enough the financial benefit of purchasing Decorations for Holidays after the Holiday.

Continue reading “Christmas Decorations Set Up Thanksgiving Weekend” →

James signed up for the Rap Off, a Poetry Slam Event and it was the first event of its type. It was held at the McDonalds on Telegraph and Colgate from 6pm till about 8pm and was alot of fun for all the kids and especially for the spectators. James based his rap on the history of McDonalds and it was very well received. James received $110 dollars for his activities (an anonymous donator enhanced all the prize money which was cool), and also received a Certificate of Congressional Recognition signed by Debbie Dingell. The event was very successful and there will be another such event probably in a couple months.

James also got a chance to meet Darren McCarty of Detroit Red Wing Fame.
Continue reading “The Rap Off” →

James had to bring home an egg for one of his classes (Human Development I think). All he has to do is not break the egg for one week. He has to bring the egg to class each day so he cannot simply put it on a shelf for a week, it has to be brought to school each day so James has to be very careful that he does not break the egg. If the egg gets broke he fails the class. Pretty Draconian if you ask me but hopefully the egg makes it through the week.

Well, the egg has made it to the weekend so we are halfway there.

Finally, the egg has made it the whole week and James got an A on this project.

Once again we continued a tradition and went shopping for after Halloween specials. We had a lot of success but felt the pickings overall were smaller than they had been in recent year. Perhaps the retail stores did not order as much this year as they had in past years (or maybe they all had a banner year and there simply was not a whole lot that did not sell during the Halloween season).

Our stops included Spirit Halloween, Halloween City, Walmart, Home Depot, and Michaels and despite there not being as much as previous years we believe we have one of our better hauls which included a creepy doll, a John Doe prop which rises up, snoopy in a pumpkin, another slimer, several Pennywise items, and a net full of skeleton fish for our skeleton boat.

Lots of fun and a good start to the 2020 Halloween season Continue reading “After Halloween Sale 2019” →

We had one of our best Halloween turnouts this year and the weather, despite weather alerts, held on long enough for a great evening of spooks and goblins. While there was a little rain, it was light and very manageable.

For the second year in a row James helped hand out candy and did a really good job getting into the festive spirit of the holiday. James had only a half day of school today so he took the time to carve a pumpkin which was really haunting and truly the icing on the cake for this years display.

As we had done in the past we brought out more decorations from the house for the trick or treaters and we received many compliments on the display.

Continue reading “Trick or Treat 2019” →

James just hosted his 9th Halloween Party and everyone had a blast. Once again the Magic Mirror was the big hit, along with a creepy rocking horse. Some of the new items this year were the skeleton boat (which took up the whole back room), the new Pennywise (just like in the movies, a new Pennywise comes out every 27-30 years or so), and a flying witch (who we named Rhiannon after the Fleetwood Mac song). The party went on most of the afternoon with people coming in and out all day so it never got too crowded. Playing the “IT” movie also kept some of the kids upstairs which also freed up space in the bedroom. We noticed that if there was a theme this year, it would be “IT” as a couple kids dressed up as the clown, there was an IT cake, and the movie played three times upstairs (to different audiences). I guess its true, everyone loves a clown.

James hopes to see everyone next year Oct 17th, 2020 for the big 10th party! Continue reading “James Halloween Party 2019” →