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Tag: Christmas Tree

Banging out the classics like a tone-deaf seal.

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Some acts should just stay in the studio with the sound boards, and the mixers, and the editors whom can chop up useable chunks of caterwauling and turn it into a top 40 hit. Enrique, Axel, that fat dude from Motley Crue, those folks should all sit down and give their heads a shake. I know that drug habits and alimony are expensive, but sweet cheese bud, pull yourselves together. The leopard seal squeals are making those over inflated ticket prices a real cross to bear. Hard to enjoy yourself when the lead act sounds worse than the average karaoke lounge act in Korea Town. And that’s with folks singing across a language barrier, not old fat dudes forgetting half of the songs they wrote that got them there in the first place. Dreadful. I can not for the life of me impress upon you how disrespectful it is to charge these obscene ticket prices for near has-been musical acts of yesteryear, and they sound like these shrieked, half forgotten mumbled parody accounts on TikTok and IG.

In other news we will be in December by Friday of this week, how wild is that. Oh, and we did put up our Christmas tree on Sunday afternoon as I thought we would. My little minions came home from their overnight Zoo trip with the Girl Guides around noon and the first words out of their mouths wasn’t “hello” , or ” I missed you”, it was “can we put up the tree now?”. Good thing I had brought up all the tree lights and decorations that morning, and brought the tree in from the shed to warm up before assembly. I still had my hands and forearms shredded by the faux tree, as happens every year, long sleeves or not. It extracts a drop or two of blood to feed the holiday spirits. Thirteen years without fail this tree has drawn a blood sacrifice. Every. Damn. Year!

We loaded this bitch up with almost every bulb & ball we own. It’s a very full tree this year. I also added 400 new light bulbs to the tree this go around. In addition to the four hundred from last year. I might even go so far as to buy even more to add next year too. I still see far too many dead spots on the tree. I’m sad that all the blood taken over the years hasn’t resulted in the pre-lit tree remaining functional. Nothing another 1,600 bulbs of white or multicoloured lights couldn’t fix. I want this thing to light up the street! A Griswold Family Christmas Tree!

My minions posing with the newly decorated faux tree.
As much as I like it, I still see dead spots. My oldest blue bulbs are still the most vibrant on the tree, to this day!

Here we are, Tuesday. Snow squall warnings and all that jazz. Glad I don’t have to commute on days like today. Take it easy out there. Ciao Bella!

Ah, the holiday classics.

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Started the season off early while in Florida watching Elf with the kids, with about 12 minutes of commercials every ten minutes or so. Then while I had the night to myself I sat down to watch Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Always good for a laugh. About three days late for US Thanksgiving, but close enough for me. And now, this morning while I have the laundry running, the dish washer emptied, have showered already, and brought up the Christmas tree decorations, and fetched in the faux tree from the shed to warm up, I’m ready to enjoy National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. If the kids stay out for a Zoo visit after the group sleep over, I might even watch Scrooged too! Hard to know at this point in time. I may put the movies on in the background while I do something else. Trying to get back into the holiday spirit. We had a bunch of it rub off during the long hours of holiday cheer promoted at all three of the parks we visited for 11 of the 14 days of our trip. Trying to recapture the joy! Helps that there isn’t sweltering heat, and we are back at home in the colder temperatures, and have family & friends around once more.

Which reminds me I need to wrap my daughters birthday presents some time soon. Then I will have to do an about face and leap into Christmas shopping. Luckily I have five people off my list already with gift cards, due to distance. My kids have three gifts each already purchased. I have a few more to go get and i can call it a day, comfortably, i feel. Which is a load off my mind. This year I’m going to do a better job of keeping track by filling out lists of what i buy for whom. So i don’t panic shop, and wind up over spending like in years previous, because i forget all of what i already have picked up for the kiddies.

Spent an hour or so yesterday and added a second wrapped maple tree trunk with colourful lights, and then reworked my extension cord situation so that I could put the gecko & Christmas mouse out beside the tree. I think the Santa train can stay packed up this year. I need to get bricks or rocks to keep it from falling over, so that might be a random side quest to achieve next spring/summer/fall before another Christmas. I should draw up plans for how I want the lighting set up executed. I’m always having to switch & swap out cords, so a numbered diagram would alleviate that issue if I put in the effort to prepare one. Add it to the list of “nice to haves”.

Now I might make it seem like we do a lot of exterior decorating for Christmas, and that isn’t really the case. More than some, less than others, is where we sit. One string of lights along the eaves, two 4 ft lit wreaths, two partially wrapped maple trees, a gecko and a mouse. And if I can stand to constantly fix it, a Santa Train that falls over constantly. I’d love to have blow ups, and rows of candy canes, and even more lights up on the house, boughs with lights on the railings, but I don’t know how you’d work all of that in, or power it all up. That kind of display is for the independently wealthy, which I am not.

Later on today when the kids get home, I’ll put on some music and we can assemble the tree and decorate it as a family. I’ll give my wife a chance to have a nap after her girl guide outing with the kids last night, and this morning. Hard to believe we are back to Lazy Sunday again, so soon. Ciao Bella!

Breaking long held rules…

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Broke down after years of holding the line, and let the kids put up our Christmas tree before Remeberance Day. I figure with the looming CUPE strike, and then the possible teacher strike this holiday season could go sideways pretty quickly, so why not let them have it just this once. It took us a while to do it, and we listened to Michael Buble croon some holiday songs in the back ground, and a few of us have settled in to watch “Elf” with the tree lit up. I generally feel pretty strongly that we should give the Vets their due by waiting to observe Nov 11th prior to starting in on the holiday season. But we’ve had such unseasonably warm weather these last few weeks, so I put up the lights in warm sunshine, instead of freezing rain & high winds. And given that the kids are off school 2 days minimum (Friday & Monday) with the CUPE strike action, the thought of them being home 24/7 whining and asking me constantly to put up the tree was going to get on my nerves, so I nipped that in the bud, and we have it up for two months, instead of six weeks. Ha. The big red Christmas bow is on the front door, and there are a few other items still left to go, but that can wait. The tree was the big ticket item. And with the time change the kids were up ‘early’ jumping in place to get started.

Funnily enough we went to a big indoor park yesterday, full of trampolines, foam fits, dodgeball court and climbing equipment. And within 30bseconds of getting out into the park my eldest hurt her foot by landing half on a trampoline, and half on a line green padded surface. The very first thing the safety video tells you precisely not to do. So today she is limping a bit. No bruise, no swelling, no numb toes, but a limp and some tenderness. I could have called that happening to one or both of my kids. I just knew it. Glad it doesn’t seem to be permanent damage. Could have been much, much worse. Glad it wasn’t a neck, head or spinal injury. Not with how hospitals are as of late. The birthday party we attended was otherwise a good deal of fun. Both kids tried the leap of faith onto an air bag, and tried the trapeze over a foam pit. So I think they had fun regardless of the initial foot injury.

So a lovely four day weekend, unexpected, but nice nonetheless. I have one more bout with the leaves left to go, and then we can think about putting up the second half of the Christmas lights, ornaments and displays on the lawn, trees. Who knows how long any of this will last. So best to take advantage of the dryness and warmth to get those pesky chores out of the way before the weather eventually turns, and we get that icy rain and snow. Ciao Bella!