Merry Christmas

Now that the kids are gone, Christmas morning clean up is easy. Too easy.

I've had plenty of quiet time to study this week's results in the football pool...

...and cook myself breakfast. I should also mention that I am doing laundry. Christmas just isn't the same without kids.

Happy Holidays!

We always make a trip to Homestead Gardens at Christmas.

No matter what day we pick to go, it is always cold. It will be 70 degrees all week and the day we ride out to Davidsonville, it will be windy and feel like it is below freezing.

 

It's a good thing most of the things to see and do are inside.

It wasn't as impressive as it has been in year's past...

... but there were still things worth seeing.

 I had a coffee while enjoying the trains.

Santa wasn't here today but his reindeer were.

I think one wanted to follow me home.

New this year was an ark. This elephant fountain was making quite a mess.

I didn't spend much but I came away with lots of holiday cheer.

Merry Christmas!

Done

My first Christmas puzzle is finished-all 1000 little pieces.

Up next is the Santa puzzle we do as a family every year. I'll get plenty of help with this one so it should go pretty quickly.

That Time of Year

You know it's getting near Christmas when I get the puzzles out. This year it is a brand new one. It has 1000 pieces. What was I thinking?

There is a lot going on with this one.

There is way too much white and red though. This is going to be a problem. Any bets that it won't be finished by New Year's?

City Sidewalks

I had to spend hours on Saturday roaming the streets of Georgetown.

A good cup of coffee from Dean and DeLuca helped.

They had salads in there that were $39.00 a pound. Olives were $12.00 a pound. I just had a coffee.

Daughter had a big event at the new rink so I tagged along.

I am not complaining because Georgetown is awesome.

On one street there are civil war era row houses and on the next are million dollar plus condos with trees on the roof.

There are even old boats in the now dry canal.

The new Washington Harbor waterfront park and retail area is a nice place to take a break from the crowds. Why didn't I bring my fishing rod? Do I even own a fishing rod?

 The real show is after dark. The place is lit up like a winter carnival. It was a long day and my knees are killing me but it was worth it.

In the Spirit

She drug me to Ikea today to look at stuff to put on the tree at the same time that She is whining that She just may not put one up this year. It wasn't a total loss. I got lunch at Chipotle.

 We also had to buy 1,000 mini candy canes for Daughter. That's no typo. We really bought 1,000 mini candy canes. Who would even have thought this was possible?

 The whole day was as fuzzy as this photo. Happy December!

A Sign of the Season

It's not Christmas if I am not spending a fortune in Yankee Candle. My shopping's done. Kids, drop me an email letting me know which one you want. Just kidding. These are MINE.

World Points Rewards

I had 19,000 points on one of my credit cards that lets you use them to get stuff.

A few weeks ago my golf bag's zipper broke and look what I got to replace it for nothing.

I didn't even have to pay for shipping. Of course, what I did have to do was charge up about a million dollars on the card to pay for Daughter's wedding, a riding lawn mower and a new furnace.

I Did.....

...and I hope you did too.

Branching Out

I didn't think I would be using this very much after I bought the riding mower.

But thanks to Sandy, I can't pick up the leaves with the mower because they are full of sticks. The trees didn't fall over but they dropped lots of their small branches along with tons of leaves.

So many leaves came down that a single pass through the yard...

...resulted in my leaf catchers overflowing. This job is going to need beer and lots of it.

Trick or Treat?

Two days ago these trees had all of their leaves.

Now those leaves all over the place and someone has to pick them all up.

That someone is me.

I stuffed as many as I could into the Halloween bags.

 Then I lined the driveway with them to keep the trick or treaters from falling in the holes.

My reward for all my hard work was to get to make the Goblin Franks for Halloween dinner.

She also let me put the face on the jack o'lantern this year. Too bad no one saw it. We didn't get a single kid.

Haunted House

We have always had a ghost in the attic.

 Tonight it needs to get out and do its thing.

I also had to hang up all this stuff.

 That's a lot of work for the 3 or 4 kids that show up every year. Happy Halloween!