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Great Lakes Crossing 2019
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.
New Years 2019
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.
Christmas 2018
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.
Counting Down To Christmas Vacation
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.
Santa’s Magical Forest 2018
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.
Dads Birthday 2018
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.
Thanksgiving 2018
What an awesome Thanksgiving we had this year, first watching the parade on TV then chowing down on Turkey and Stuffing. We then watched the Lions lose to the Bears in the Detroit Thanksgiving Day game, a tradition which goes back to the thirties! Later we called Uncle Don to wish him happy birthday as his birthday this year happened to fall on Thanksgiving.
The next day we visited Aunt Peg then began decorating for Christmas.
Saturday was the big game with Ohio state and, unfortunately, Ohio state won relatively easily despite the fact that Michigan was favored.
Despite the lousy football, it was a great time for the family.
Trick or Treat 2018
This year was a team effort for handing out candy as James, Mom, and Dad took shifts doing the work. We had the gargantuan spider out front on one side and the skeleton horse and carriage on the other side. Both sides were completely encased in a creepy fence (actually the fence from the back yard sawed in half horizontally and every other board removed) Not only does the fence make the yard look like a creepy graveyard, it also provides some protection of the props from curious visitors.
This year we also eliminated the pumpkin blow molds which made room to create the graveyard. It was a little sad to see the blow molds go but we had used them for the last decade and most if not all were purchased at garage sales. We did save the tombstone blow molds however, since they fit the new theme of a fenced in grave yard.
A pretty decent turn out for trick or treat this year, and the weather was ok which was a pleasant surprise compared to the last 5 years.
James Halloween Party 2018
Once again we hosted James Halloween Party and once again everyone enjoyed themselves at the party. The party started at about 1:30 and ended about 7pm and had a parade a guests coming through during this time. James had plenty of friends show up, some from Lincoln Park, some from VIP Camp, some from Annapolis, and some of our neighbors which made for a great time. We had some new props on display trying to keep things looking fresh and keeping the surprises coming. One of our new items was an animated Michael Myers, something Mom had wanted since she first saw it at Manuels Taco. Also new this year were some evil toys in a box along with an evil rocking chair. All in all a great bunch of fun.
Please note that the video below is a multiple video playlist, to play from the beginning simply click play, to view the list and jump around click the upper left corner of the playlist with the three horizontal lines.
Haunted Garage Sale 2018
Once again we visited the haunted garage sale, this time in a new location – Canton. When we first went it was in Belleville (which is our favorite location because there was plenty of parking) then it moved to an ice rink in Wayne and finally this location. Parking was poor at best but we managed to make it in. James and Mom both found some great deals and the place had a good atmosphere. As usual there were many unusual items and a pretty good selection, however the parking is really starting to be an issue and we hope it improves as we were very lucky to get a spot and were actually about to give up. All in all a fun day as we all had fun!
