Why I Oughta...

  I've been going with Nat and her family to cut down Christmas trees the day after Thanksgiving for 15 years.  And in that time, we've gone to a place down in Wilmington called Tammen Treeberry Farm.  When we moved into our house in Downers, Nat decided to have two trees inside.  One smaller one for the front room and a larger one for our family room.  That worked fine in theory.  But, what we found down at Tammen Tree farm was that they had a good selection of small and medium-sized trees.  However, they lacked in what I'd call "larger" trees.   That meant that last year, we called an audible and ONLY bought one tree down at Tammen.  We ended up buying the second - "larger" tree that was pre-cut from Wannemaker's in town here .  And with that decision, we paid *double* what they were charging down at Tammen, but we had a really lovely tree.   This year, Nat's folks decided to try something new.  A trip to a whole new tree farm - one up in Wisco

The calendar has flipped over to November first.  That means one thing:  Go ahead.  Break out those Christmas tunes.  Play that Christmas music.  It is time.  Visit one of my annual projects here:  Can I listen to Christmas music ?   This year - 2020 - has been tough and that means there's never been a better year to turn this from no --> yes on November 1st.   I started the "Can I listen to Christmas music?" project back in 2015 .  And have posted about it every years since. Here's the post on Christmas music from 2016 . Here's the post on listening to Christmas music from 2017 .  Here's the post from 2018 when I introduced a new landing page .

Yesterday, I posted a couple of photos (and a video) of the Great Horned Owl (or Owls) that have taken up residence in our neighborhood and talked about some of the natural features of Randall Park - including the large Barth Pond at one end and (what I think is known as) St. Joseph's Creek running from north-to-south along the boundary.  Nat and I really love our neighbors and like our neighborhood.  The lots are large(r), the trees are mature and I can walk to two different train stations.  Did we talk about the pond ?  Pretty great , right?  Welp, there are (at least) two other activities that take place in Randall Park that are community/neighbor-driven that make the place a special place to live.  The first is the annual block party Soap Box Derby that I've covered here on the blog.  Here's the Randall Park 2018 Soap Box Derby post and the 2017 Randall Park Soap Box Derby Post .  That's a handful of families who transform their annual block party into a HU

I know this post is late.  Like a month late.  But, I came across the photos on my phone and wanted to document it for diary-purposes like I've done over the years .  This past Christmas Eve, I made my annual visit to Kirschbaum's Bakery in Western Springs.  They open up for orders and pre-orders and it is a busy day at the bakery.  That's why I get there early in the am.  This year, I arrived first.  I was the first car that pulled up.  It was before five am.  The listed hours on the store's website is that they open at seven am.  But...based on previous years experience, I knew that they'd open earlier than that. A few minutes after I arrived more cars started to show up.  We all played along and stayed in our cars where it was warm.  Around six am, a guy got out of his car and then we all had to scramble and run to line.  Based on where my car was parked, I got there to be third in line. That's when the woman in front of me said:  hey...you were here

I'm posting this Festivus-related post here on the blog one day *before* Festivus.  Why?  Because a bunch of people who read these things happen to read them in their email inboxes. And those emails get delivered in the morning and include links to the blog post that I posted the previous day.  Hence...this post going up on the blog with a date of 12/22/19, but being delivered on Festivus - 12/23/19 - and we all can rejoice around the aluminum pole together.  Via Seinfeld Scripts , we can all see how the gif above is slightly off.  No mention of Harry in the first screen! KRAMER: No. (To manager of H&H) Ah, listen, Harry, I need the 23rd off. MANAGER: Hey! I hired you to work during the holidays. This is the holidays. KRAMER: But it's Festivus. MANAGER: What? KRAMER: You know you're infringing on my right to celebrate new holidays.. MANAGER: That's not a right. KRAMER: Well, it's going to be! Because I'm going back on strike. Come on Elaine. (Takes o

Over the years, I've shared a couple of creative situations that our very own Elf on the Shelf named Goldie has gotten himself into in the overnight hours.  Last year (well...actually in January of *this* year), I posted a photo of him having a little breakfast croissants with a little dollhouse doll.    And in 2016, Goldie got a little confused and didn't end up enjoying the dog treats .  What a ham.   But this year?  He's leaning way into the fun by applying what I'd call an unconventional figure-four wrestling move on the Hulkster - Hulk Hogan.   I'm sure that the Elf did this to entertain the kids, but I also was the benefactor of my childhood memories being used to build shared memories. I've posted a few of my childhood WWF LJN wrestlers here on the blog over the years including Nikoli Volkoff (in his USSR red sweatshirt) , as well as a Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake MOC LJN wrestling figure and a Jake "The Snake" Roberts LJ

Every year since we've been married, Nat and I (and the kids) have participated in a Moran Family tradition:  heading down to Braidwood to the Tammen Tree Farm to cut down a Christmas tree .  Last year's version can be found here.   And here .    What's that you say?  That's two different blog posts with two different trees?  Yep.  Like her Mother, Natalie likes to put up two trees.  One larger one in the family room and another smaller one in our front room. Our trips down to the Tammen Tree farm are a lot of fun.  We pack into a couple of cars and drive around their farm to try to find everyone a tree.  We buy one (or starting when we moved into our new house - two), Nat's folks buy a couple and her sister buys one (I think).  Driving around is fun, looking for the perfect tree isn't so much fun.   Why?  Because we like Fraser Firs and I want a 'big' tree for the family room tree.  Tammen has a TON - hundreds - of smaller Fraser Firs.  Those that

On a trip over to the Home Depot, Nat wanted to stop at Binny's for a few things.  I stayed in the car with the kids and she went in and came out with some of this Anchor Steam Christmas Ale.  This six-pack is destined for Naperville and her two brothers who have both drank and collected this annual release over the years.  They're the real beer drinkers in the family - they know their stuff and have their preferences, so it is fun to see this little tradition come alive every year. I've posted these bottles over the years here on the blog. Here's the post from last year . Here's the post with the bottle from 2017 . Here's my post with the bottle fom 2016 . Here's the post with the bottle from 2015 . And here's the post with the bottle from 2010 . So this year marks the sixth year that I've posted photos of the bottles - and every year it features a tree from Northern California.   This year is the Western Arborvitae.   From the Anchor

At the beginning of the month, I posted a couple of photos of the beginning of Menards Christmas setup at their Bolingbrook store.  The 'Enchanted Forest" is something that I look forward to every year as they always have some new items to check out.  Anybody who has been in a big box store during the holidays the past few years will attest that there is a HUGE market for inflatable outdoor decorations.  I've succumbed to the inflatable trend and we have a couple of BIG ones we put out at Halloween .   But, Menards is also holding strong with the blowmold market.  They put out holiday blowmolds for Halloween - and I've covered them here on the blog before - and looking at the analytics of this site, that's a popular post, so plenty of people are looking for Halloween Blowmolds from Menards.   There's more Halloween blowmolds in this post from 2011 , too.    They also do quite a bit of Christmas blowmolds as part of their Enchanted Forest incl

It was a nice little set of visits from Golide, our Elf on the Shelf, this Christmas season.  I think this was his final morning with us on Christmas Eve before he flew away for another 11 months.  Thank goodness that he didn't have any sort of cookie/dog treat mishap like he did a few years back .  There's pages all over the web spilled on both sides of the Elf on the Shelf debate.  There are plenty of folks who are posting tips/ideas for what the Elf can do in your house.  Then there are the other folks who shun the Elf.  Then...frankly there are the third set of folks - the militantly opposed to the Elf people.  I'm not ashamed to say that we're firmly in the pro-Elf on the Shelf category.  Have to embrace these years while we can, amirite?!?!

Over the years, I've posted photos of the bottles of Anchor Brewing's Annual Christmas Ale here on the blog.  Nat's brothers are beer people and they've been seeking this stuff out every Christmas season for as long as I've been a part of it in Naperville.  So, when we arrive for Christmas Day there's always a few six packs of the annual Christmas beer in the basement fridge and every once in a while, there's even a magnum of the stuff.  This year's bottle struck me as different:  much more red in the label.  You can scroll through all the labels here on their site and see if you agree with me on the red.  1982 gives this year a run for its money in terms of the outer red band, but in terms of recent runs, this one clearly has the most red on it.  The tree on this year's label is a Korean Pine Tree.  From the Anchor Brewing site : For the 2018 release, Stitt created a brimming Korean Pine Tree for the label. Native to both North and South Ko

Like a lot of you guys, I have a whole bunch of Christmas traditions.  Sure, there's the Christmas Train and all the various foodstuffs, but there's also one that is gardening-related:  Planting an amaryllis bulb.  Here's a post showing the two bulbs I planted last year (one from Wannemaker's and one from Menards) .  If you look at that post, you'll notice that the one from Menards - that cost $2.99 - never took off while the $15 version from Wannemakers shot up and bloomed right around Christmas Day.  This year, I simplified things and decided to just do one of these and (obviously) went with what worked last year and bought the $15 version from Wannemakers.  You can see how they pack the bulbs above in a kind of foam carriage to protect the bulb while keeping it free from trapping moisture.  When I was at the store recently, I couldn't remember what variety I bought last year, but remembered that I went with a double flowering version.  So, I poked arou

Have a little acknowledgement to make:  I had never watched the movie 'White Christmas' until Nat and I were married and we were buying our own Christmas trees.  Was never on my radar.  But, in what has become a pretty strong holiday tradition, Nat puts this movie on our tv on 'Christmas tree Day' and we watch it as we bring the tree in the house, set it up in the stand and trim it together.  Welp...we usually don't trim it that much that first night - rather we prefer to let the branches fall/settle and then put most of the ornaments on the next night. So, that's where this dollie comes in.  You can see him above that Bing Crosby as "Bob Wallace".  Funny isn't it?  But this is what the Babe came home with from the Pre-Christmas train show .  She saw it on one of the tables, liked it, then looked around for another hour or so and decided that she wanted it.  So we went back. I always try to make the kids do their own haggling in situations

Happy Christmas, everyone!  Today is my favorite day of the year and has been so since I was just a little one growing up in Frankfort.  So, in that spirit, I thought I would resurrect a blogging tradition from years ago.  Back in 2009 , 2010 and 2011 , I posted an annual "Favorite Things Christmas-edition" here on the blog.  Many of those lists had up to ten different things on them.  This year, the list will be shorter - half in fact.  So let's get to it. 1.  This compilation video of Darlene Love singing her mega hit "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" on Letterman over the years.   Pardon my ignorance, but I didn't even know this was a thing?  She's did it for almost 30 years!  Here's the oral history of the annual performance that is worth reading after you watch this below.  2.  Growing a Christmas Amaryllis.  Earlier in December, I posted this comparison between a bulb we bought at Wannemakers vs. one I bought at Menards .  The Menard

There are a few things in my world that I geek out about:  Disney World.  Pizza.  And Christmas.  I like everything about Christmas and even have a tub of shirts that we drag out that contains *just* Christmas shirts.  Part of one of our Christmas traditions is going down to the Tammen Treeberry Farm and cutting down a tree for our house.  Here's a post from 2010 that talks about that trip .  I also included the Tammen Treeberry Farm on my "favorite holiday things" list of 2010 and 2012 .   This year, we cut down two trees for our #newoldfarmhouse - which is one more than we normally do.  And that meant that we needed a second tree stand.  I went to the Wirecutter - where they (of course) have a piece comparing various stands .  They recommended the Krinner Tree Genie XXL .  They bill it thusly : A unique design makes clamping a tree in the Krinner far easier than any kind of stand we’ve found. The Krinner grips the tree trunk with five claws that you tighten b

We brought just a little bit of Indiana Street with us to Downers.  Over the weekend, we put up our trees inside the house, but we also went to Menards and bought a small 5' Fraser Fir to put up in our front yard.  Just like we did on Indiana Street.  Starting with our first Christmas in Elmhurst (in our first house), we participated in the tradition of erecting a 'front yard tree' along with our neighbors.  My sister Vic told us about the tradition before we moved in and sure enough, we fell in love.  The street(s) always looked so great when all of the homes had a uniquely-styled and lighted tree.  You can see the C7 bulbs I put on our tree this year out in front of our #newoldfarmhouse.  Nat did a great job doing 'classy' decorations on the porch with garland and lights.  And wreaths in the windows that you can see above.  So, while we have moved out of Indiana Street, we still wanted to bring some of that tradition with us in our new digs.  So, right no

There are plenty of Christmas traditions that we participate in (trains, advent calendars, elfs, tree day, Walnut Room, etc), but there's also a beer tradition that I've grown to look forward to:  the opening of the annual Anchor Steam Christmas Ale as done by my brother-in-laws in Naperville. I've chronicled this in the past here on the blog.  Here's a post from last year's version .  Here's the 2015 version .  And here's a post from 2010 with that year's bottle .  And based on those posts, I've been drinking a little bit of this stuff for 10 years now, despite this only being the fourth version that I've documented on the blog here. As for this year's brew, they once again picked a unique tree for the label.  From the Anchor Steam site : This year’s tree is the Santa Lucia fir. Extremely rare, it is native and limited to California’s Santa Lucia Range along the central coast of California. They bought some smaller bottles like nor

Each year, Anchor Brewing puts out a Christmas Ale .  This is the 36th version and each year the recipe changes a bit (although they keep it a secret!).  Thanks to the refined palate of my brother-in-law Charlie, this has become a mainstay at the Moran household during Christmas.  I don't drink all that much these days, but I always make room for a few of these - as a treat.  I *think* I've had the '07, '08, '09, and now the '10.  (ah....the aughts were fine years, weren't they?!?) Can't tell you much about the flavors and/or taste, but it certainly was effervescent.   The bottle, on the other hand, is quite handsome.  In fact, they change the tree on the label each year, but this year's tree has meaning for me!  It has a Ginko on it - and those of you who are loyal readers know that we planted a Ginko tree earlier this summer! Turns out, if you keep them over the years, the flavors age and the ales taste differently the longer you keep them.  Or.