Holiday decorations....Charlie Brown style.

With the Christmas holiday fast approaching, Tracey and I decided it was time to hang up our outside decorations. Usually we go all out with way too many lights and blow ups in the yard. This year we decided to scale back a bit. We decided that we no longer needed the icicle lights hanging from the gutters (after about 90 minutes of getting six strands of them to work correctly). We also decided that we had fought our last battle with the outdoor snow globe. Who knew that those things were very sensitive to rain and snow...resulting in the little "snowflakes" sticking to the inside walls of the globe. We opted for simple white lights around the deck railing, the front and back doors, a Merry Moose and Santa blow ups, and two reindeer in the front yard. After several hours, our work was finally completed.

After dark, Tracey decided to head to the little store up the road. Upon her return home she informed me that the front of the house now looked like something Charlie Brown would do and that we needed animated reindeer and some of those spiral tree thingys in the front yard. Apparently me telling her that we are out of outside outlet space to plug these additional items in didn't seem to be a concern. I now fear we may need to call our electrician.

Ssince the downstairs is finished now, we apparently are in need of a Christmas tree down there too. So this week should be entertaining assembling and decorating my 9 foot tree upstairs and our new 7 foot tree downstairs.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.......

Enlightening young minds

So as part of my job, I get the opportunity on occasion to go to the local schools and give speeches and presentations. Last week I spoke to two groups of 9th grade students about career paths and college education and their value and importance. Today was similar but different. Today I had the pleasure of speaking to 4th and 5th graders about my job in all it's glory. Now I am sure that each of us enjoys starting our day off with a word of support and encouragement from our loved one. Well as I am leaving the house this morning to head off for my morning at school, Tracey sends me off with these kind words....

"Now remember to not get all huffy when one of those cute little students calls your sanitary landfill a dump."

Me...huffy...naahhhh. Now granted I have been known to politely correct an adult or two about the correct term for the place where they dispose of their garbage. But hey...these are cute little kids that are just happy to have me there (or could it be that the sooner I quit talking the closer they are to getting out of school early). And in case you are wondering....not one of those precious little angels called my prized landfill a dump. Gotta love that!!

A

The First of (Hopefully) Many Blogs

Well here goes....first off we should make a disclaimer up front that neither one of us have been very good in the past about keeping up with blogs. But we are willing to give it another shot. Some remember the infamous Midnight Rambles from Tracey waaaaaayyy back when. Who knows..those might be resurrected....if you're lucky. In a casa with 5 animals, life is never dull. Hopefully we can gather some photos of the gang to post later on. Some of you may also remember hearing about the famous basement finishing project. Well that project took 22 months to complete but alas it is done and has hosted a couple of pool tournaments. Apparently I had a lapse in judgment recently and thought it would be a good idea to host my employees and their guests over for a holiday gathering. I am sure that should make for a few good posts in the not-to-distant future. In the event that there isn't another blog before turkey day....here's wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!!!