Why I Oughta...

Here's our 2013 Parrillo Family Christmas tree.  I think it was the best tree we've ever had.  Had a nice shape.  As always, it was a Fraser Fir. Yes, yes, yes.  I know.  It is 2014.  And Christmas is over.  But, I have a bunch of posts coming that wrap-up Christmas.  Have some patience while I deposit these thoughts/images here. Here's the post (on google+) of our 2012 Tree Here's the post of our 2011 Tree Here's the post of our 2010 Tree

This is a photo I took last week up in Coloma at the Great Lakes Antique Mall of the Christmas cabinet that I always check out. Here's the same cabinet last year .  From the quick glance, there isn't that much missing (or sold).  I see the Santa/Sleigh and Reindeers on the second shelf from the top on the right side gone.  That was the nicest piece in the whole case, imho, so I'm not that surprised that it sold. The spaghetti trim Santa that I was admiring last year is still there (far left, second shelf from the top).

We were in the Hobby Shop up in Watervliet over the New Year's holiday and The Babe spotted these vintage "New Old Stock" (as the guy called them) craft projects.  They were buy-one-get-one-free, so we picked up both of these. The Babe did the flower one all by herself.  I used a tweezer to clean up a lot of the little beads that were in the 'wrong' section, but this one was 99.5% her. These type of sun-catchers were all over Nat's Grandmother's kitchen.

We took the girls to Brookfield Zoo last Saturday.  The temperature was oddly warm which meant that we weren't the only ones who had the bright idea to go to Zoo Lights.  The traffic was a mess, but once we got inside (and parked in the South Lot!), we had a great time.  We even rode the carousel....which we never do (according to the Babe)!

In the sprit of the times, I figured I'd deposit this here for posterity's sake.

Had just 153 posts in 2013.  With a job change, a once-in-a-lifetime vacation and plenty going on around the house, it is no surprise that life got in the way of daily posting.  I had 58 posts on the family blog and 51 posts on the sockpuppet blog I write, so adding up the three numbers, we get 262, so that's not terrible, right?  Add in all the Google+ posts of the girls, and I'm sure I was over 365. 2014 is full of promise and here's to hoping to capture just a little sliver of what is happening around my world each and every day.