Why I Oughta...

Every year is the same these days.  After the Turkey Trot, we come home and I want to watch the Last Waltz.  Nat and the girls want to watch the parade.  So...I usually scurry off into the basement or my office and watch as much as I can.  Traditions are traditions, right? Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. 2012 post 2011 post 2007 post 2005 post 2004 post

I saw these little gift boxes at Costco over the weekend and I couldn't help but think that the printer/designer forgot the word "Chocolate" in the product description.  Shouldn't it read "Milk **Chocolate** Peanut Butter Pretzel Nuggets"? Or is there such a thing as milk peanut butter?

At the request of my wife, we're moving the train table out of the main room in our basement to the spare bedroom.  Part of it is here (temporarily) across the bed as a test fit.   Here's how it looked last year.  On saw horses .  This is going to be an upgrade.   Between the sturdy legs and the one-piece top, we'll also have a bit more room.  From nine foot wide to almost eleven. Hoping I can find time this weekend to finish it up with the Babe's help!

This weekend, we stopped at an antique shop out in Naperville after lunch and Nat came across this little reindeer ornament.  How 'bout those eyelashes?!?  She's going to look great next to these two , right?  

On Saturday, we stopped by the Holiday Craft and Bake Sale at a church in our neighborhood.  While the craft section wasn't really of much interest to me, they did, tucked away in a hallway, have two tables of what I'll generously call "Garage Sale Christmas-related things". Included there was this set of "Giftrims".  They're from the 60's?  70's?  Printed in Pennsylvania per the copy at the bottom of the box. This originally sold for $0.59, but they were asking just $0.25.  Some of the tags are gone, I think?  At least, the package was opened every so slightly, so I'm assuming some are gone. Figured for just a quarter, these are going to look great on top of our gifts we give our family this year.

Despite the rain, we had A LOT of trick-or-treaters show up yesterday.  Just like in year's past, I tried to keep count.   Last year, we had 327 total .  This year?  326. Last year we had 8 adults, this year just 6.  But...there were a few people that had multiple bags where they said that their son/brother/sister was 'Sleeping in the car'. In 2012, we had 327 total. In 2011, we had 269 total . In 2010, we had 236 total . In 2009, we had 184 total .

Our trip this year really cramped our Jack-O-Lantern style this year.  We made it out to Sonny Acres just this week and had some slim pickings of the pumpkins. In year's past, I've gone crazy.   See the Owl Pumpkins here .  This year, it was all about the Babe.  She wanted to carve her pumpkin with a very specific pattern.  That's what you see here.  She had her heart set on the star eyes, so Nat was able to help make those happen. The Babe couldn't be more proud!