Bemoaning Christmas Decorations Lost

I've been wanting to do a post on our Christmas decorations, since we put them up the day after Thanksgiving, but I keep forgetting to take pictures to show them off. I suppose I could thrill you with a written description of the exciting colors and breathtaking designs, but somehow I don't think I'd do them justice. I will tell you this:

Our Christmas tree is purple.

Yes, Stacy has managed to get herself a purple Christmas tree this year. The artificial pine is not purple itself, but almost everything else on it is. It is actually a very nice effect. I think it would look better on a natural fuller tree, but we have allergies to deal with this year, so artificial it is.

The sad part about decorating this year is the loss of our beloved friend of the past three years, Mr. Inflatable-Santa-What-Pops-Out-of-a-Chimney-Sometimes-if-We're-Lucky. Mr. ISWPOoaCSiWL for short. Like a recalcitrant groundhog, he decided this year that he was not going to pop out at all. Instead, we were treated to the rather depressing sight of his pointed hat flopping over the rim of the chimney for a couple of seconds before sagging back into the air-puffed nether regions of the stack. You will be sorely missed, Mr. ISWPOoaCSiWL, sorely missed indeed.

The inner tinker in me has stashed him on the back porch. I think I'll get around to performing some exploratory surgery on the variable fan that pumps up his pedestal and try to convert it to always blowing instead of kicking in occasionally.

We may end up filling his forlornly empty spot on the front yard with this guy if we can find it within our budget. If we do and I manage to convert Mr. ISWPOoaCSiWL into Mr. ISWSPOoaC (Inflatable-Santa-What-Stays-Popped-Out-of-a-Chimney) then he'll probably decorate the side yard. It's criminally bare of Christmas cheer right now anyway. Then again, when you live on a corner lot next to the neighborhood play area, you learn to leave only objects you don't mind vandalized in the side yard.

Related Note Dept.
What's with the humbug this year? Our neighborhood was bare of Christmas decoration besides us and our next door neighbor until this weekend. Doesn't anyone decorate after Thanksgiving anymore?

Belated Halloween Pictures

Wow, it only took me 10 days to get Halloween pictures up! Thanks, Stacy! Now if only I could get the Disney World pictures online. You can click on any of these images to see the full picture.

Here's our second-place-winning yard. It is much more impressive in the dark, but the pics without the flash are blurry:

From left: Vicki as Princess Peach Toadstool, Stacy as Luigi, Zoe as Princess Daisy Toadstool, Scott as Mario, and Scarlett as Toad, the toadstool retainer.


From left: Casey as Dick Butkus, Kylie as a Bears Cheerleader, Traven as a Bears Linebacker, and Jamie as, well, I'm not sure what she's dressed as. Hmmm, that's a toughie.



From left: Vince as a Blue Man

And to finish off:
Scarlett as the Frosting Fiend!