James varsity jacket came in and it was still cold enough outside that he got a chance to wear it. James only wore it the one day as the temps warmed up and James said that the jacket was very warm being leather and all. Not that we don’t enjoy James wearing his jacket but with spring here we are hoping he won’t have to wear it till after Halloween 2019.

James got his letter last year for track shot put and we ordered it from Park athletic in Allen Park, a sporting good store that was in business when James Dad was his age.

Nascar driver and owner Tony Stewart was on hand at the Autorama in Detroit and James, Mom, and Dad all got to meet him and get an autographed picture.

We first noticed people lining up a couple hours before Tony was scheduled to show so we went and saw the exhibits then got in line around noon. The wait was a little under two hours but it was worth it. Tony was very pleasant and friendly to everyone and James got to shake his hand. Tony was only here in Detroit for a couple hours so we were able to get plenty of pictures of “Smoke” while waiting in line. James was very happy at the end of the day with his autographed 8×10 of Tony.

Tony has been our favorite driver in the family since before James was born and now as an owner we all root for Tony’s team (including Kevin Harvick and Cling Boyler as part of Stewart Haas racing) All in all a fun time for all and plenty of autographs to go around

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Autorama,also known as “World of Wheels”, made its way to Detroit’s Cobo Hall this weekend and James and his family made the most of their visit to the “D”. However, todays visit was a complete surprise to the family as Dad surprised them with tickets to the event (AKA America’s Premier Custom Show Car Series). James and his mother did not even know where they were going till we were in the car on 94 and well on our way to Detroit. While they had plenty of hot rods there as advertised, we were very happy to find lots more including plenty of toys and hard to find collectible. Mom picked up a t shirt and James picked up a metal Ford plaque while we were looking the cars (including the ultimate car, the Bat Mobile), Its been a while since we have been to Cobo Hall in Detroit, and we were surprised to find out that the Hall of Fame plaques had been moved since our last visit.

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On a cold February day we took a little jaunt to Canterbury Village to check out the shops. In a week they will be hosting a home garden show so we felt this would be a good time to visit. Everyone found something unique at these stores to bring home. Olde World Canterbury Village and Aldridge’s Always Christmas celebrated it’s grand opening October 1, 1993. The original Wildwood Farm buildings used by the Hadrills, Scripps and Keating have all been carefully restored and continue to be productive while preserving an important chapter in Michigan’s history.

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Presidents Day is a day off for both James and his Dad so the whole family took advantage of this and headed out to Pontiac for Great Lakes Crossing. We thought about going to Frankenmuth or Canterbury Village but both had malls that were primarily outside and it was 27 degrees outside so we decided on Great Lakes Crossing which is the largest mall in Michigan. It is truly gigantic and you could really spend a whole day seeing everything.

Mom picked up some items at TJ Maxx and James found a controller for his Nintendo game that he got. No big purchases but alot of fun for a mid winters day.

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As usual, James stayed up late to celebrate the New Year in his own inimitable way. After doing his countdown from 2018 to 2019, we heard the fireworks going off down the street and went outside to enjoy them on this relatively mild first day of January. The firework shows on New Years are pretty impressive since they legalized firework sales in Michigan.

The news was not good for Michigan this bowl season as they suffered another second half blowout. I do not know why they look so good at home and sometimes so awful on the road or neutral sites. They also seem tired in these second half blowouts, hope they get it fixed.

James has his own New Years Eve countdown that he does every year. He starts with about 40 seconds till the New Year and then continues on till the zero hour arrives.

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What a great Christmas we had this year, we did things a little different with different food, different lighting, and different decorations. Our holiday began with visits to Grandma’s house and then Peg (at the hospital). Our friend Dynamike the magician visited us and we watched a magic movie and exchanged gifts. Dynamike gave James a big old box that had a smaller box, and so on and so on till he finally got to the gift, a penny for his coin collection.

This year we put the snowmen outside but did not turn on the lights in them, that way you could see the laser effect on the house much better.

Christmas day arrived and we began opening presents, all sorts of goodies, too many to name here. We then ate and watched a Christmas movie while playing with our new toys and clothes.

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James simply cannot wait till Christmas vacation and is counting down the days till it arrive. As each day passes, Christmas gets closer and closer so James changes the countdown each day to make sure its accurate.

We do not know if this is an official course or if you get any extra credit for counting down the days till Christmas accurately, but at least we are sure that James is having a good time doing it.

Every year we go to this event in Taylor and see all the beautiful Christmas decorations. Mom and Dad surprised James by telling him that we were going to the post office to mail letters and James bought it. We noticed many more items added to the display this year so its great to see it evolve through these pictures as we make a sort of historical record of the Christmas display. Lots of fun and great to see all our friends as well on a beautifully lit December evening.

VIP Camp once again hosted a wonderful event and James got to meet his friends from summer camp before Christmas.

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A sure sign that it is getting closer to Christmas is Dad’s birthday. Dad has always complained that he gets short changed on his birthday because it is so close to Christmas that most people just got him one gift for both, but for the past few years we have moved his birthday (at least the gift part of it) to November 1st where we take him out to the Halloween shops to buy decorations at 50 – 90 percent off.

However we still celebrate his birthday in December so now (in a way) he sort of gets two birthdays each year on his two favorite holidays each year, Christmas and Halloween.