Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses...

OK so the Christmas lights were partially done since before Thanksgiving, but the last two weekends we have been out of town, first to St. Louis to visit Kristin's parents (and grandparents and sister and aunt) for thanksgiving, and then last weekend to Branson with James's parents to see the lights at Silver Dollar City.

We enjoyed a nice long visit with Kristin's parents (They say fish and houseguests start to stink after 3 days. We were there for 5. You do the math.) Stuffed myself silly before, during and after Thanksgiving dinner. I am proud of Kristin; She was pretty good and managed to stay on her diet and still enjoy herslf! As mentioned below Kristin and her sister Kim went Wedding Dress shopping. Apparently they were successful

Silver Dollar City was nice as usual (supposedly their biggest Christmas light show ever, but when they have 4,000,000 lights, who is going to notice 4,000,001? :-) ) Of course we went to see their stage version of "A Christmas Carol" and we got to ride a few rides. They actually have quite a nice selection of roller-coasters now; we rode Wildfire (5 loop-de-loops) and The Giant Swing, (which is kind of like the Viking Boat on Crack). It was a whole new experience while hauling an 18-month around; let me tell you...  I had to stand in the back of the auditorium with her during the play; she wasn't being naughty or really fussy, just very fidgety and talkative. Our visit was a little shorter than usual due to the Wear-a-van breaking down. And for some reason there are no services shops open on the weekend, even in a tourist destination like Branson! So we had to drive 10 miles to the rent-a-car place, another 10 miles to the nearest Ford dealer, drop the van off, and then go to breakfast and the amusement park. Lily enjoyed herslf and enjoyed the pretty lights, and parts of the musical she really liked. Plus she got to be bundled up warm and pushed around all day sleeping most of the time which sure sounded good to me! Sunday we crammed all out stuff into the rented brand-new Dodge Journey, which is a lot smaller than the full-size conversion van!

But I digress... So anyway back to OUR Christmas lights, I got them finished today, in the snow... As Kristin mentioned earlier we have several burnt-out strands that we bought just last year, but when I took a closer look, most of them worked at least 50% or 75%. So I just overlapped the net-lights that worked with the ones that didn't and somehow managed to get full shubbery coverage. So I PROMISE that pictures are coming soon, but Kristin's Holiday Party for work is tomorrow night at our house, and I am not going outside any more than I have too today, it's been snowing like crazy! So of course, more excuses...

Here are some Branson pics to tide you over:

The sunrise view from our condo:
 

And some Christmas lights at Silver Dollar City:



And finally, my "artistic" shot of the trip:

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Where are the pictures?

Yeah, so not totally done with the lights still. We got the new blue and white icicles up, and the columns done, and the two pine trees out front, and the two baby trees at the porch. But we had a snag in the net lights department and those boogers are expensive, so we are trying to repair last years. Only have half the lights lit, because we need the nets to connect everything together. But we are headed to Branson for some Silver Dollar City Fun this weekend. I'm off tomorrow, we might be able to get some of the net lights out by then. Either way though, we have to get it done ASAP. I am hosting my work Christmas party here at Casa de Wear on the 10th. I want the house to be festive, which means I still need to put garland on the inside stair banisters, add lights, pick out a tree, pay for a tree, trim a tree...you get the picture. All while baking a desert for a larger work Pot-Luck on Tuesday, and making 2 appetizers, green bean casserole and another desert for Wednesday. Thank goodness for Honeybaked Ham.

We have some pictures from last weekends Thanksgiving visit with my family in St Louis. Lily had a ball and got lots of attention, being the only grand baby and all will do that!

I was able to go with my sister wedding dress shopping and her dress is lovely, but shush. Can't talk about it here.

Also went to a Holiday party at my future brother in law's parents. She goes all out with Christmas decor, but so tasteful. And her appetizers were fabulous, plus she makes her own wine coolers with whine, 7-up, orange, lemon and lime slices. Fun times were had by all. Except Lily, she had to stay at home with the baby whisperer.

My mom and I went Black Friday shopping. Check out my other blog if you want to hear all about my hatred for Wal-Mart and my love for Target.

We'll post pictures when we return from Branson.