'Twas The Night 'Fore...

...and all through the 'hood...

 

...not a porchlight was shining and that ain't no good.

The gales of November had toppled a tree...

 

...and plunged us in darkness; how long would it be?

The candles were lit to brighten the hour...

...while we gazed with envy at those who had power:

So we sat by the fire, cozy and warm...

 

...sipped wine, shared stories, and weathered the storm.

Then off to bed early, no Hallmark tonight...

...with hopes that Consumers would turn on the lights.

We grabbed extra blankets and stoked up the fire...

...coaxing the room temp a tiny bit higher.

When Karen said, "Honey,"  'ere stifling a sneeze,

"We're buying a Generac so we don't have to freeze!"

 

That's our sad story.

On a frozen, blustery night when Karen hoped to make progress for Thanksgiving day festivities...

...instead we scrounged around for candles and flashlights, stored food in coolers, and waited for the lights to come on.

12 hours later they did and all was well, but it did accomplish two things:

* caused us to ponder how much more difficult life was for our ancestors sans electricity  -and-

* helped us appreciate just how good we have it now.

Appropriate at Thanksgiving, yes?

We should be truly thankful for the manifold blessings we enjoy and too often take for granted.

"Blessed be the Lord who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation.  Selah."

    -Psalms 68:19

Ok, let's get this out of the way, shall we?

The Lions lost...

...again...which pretty much sticks a fork in their season.

They really need to pick a day OTHER than Thanksgiving to perform their magic...tired of the perennial damper they put on this holiday.

Sorry for that little bit of unpleasantness, because otherwise, Thanksgiving Day was fine.

My clan was unexpectedly flung to the four winds this holiday, but a few of Karen's were able to share the day with us.

Thanks to Bob Evans (and a bad assumption on my part), we had enough food to feed a division II football team...

 

...but happily Karen's Krew agreed to take a lot of it home with them, including some for her son who couldn't make it.

Safe to say a good time - and a good meal - was had by all for which we are, indeed, very thankful.

The recent 60 mph wind gusts didn't just knock out power all across West Michigan...

...they also grounded Santa and the gang.

That's them hiding behind the wall, out of the wind, not perched proudly on top of the wall.

Cowards!

So all my scheming on how to skirt the "No Christmas Decorating Until After Thanksgiving" rule was for naught.

Sadly, today's not looking so good weather-wise:

...and neither are the next few days:

...yep, that's 4 to 8 more inches of the white stuff.

I guess we can file all that under <the best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley>.

Outdoor Christmas decorating may be delayed, but it's a good bet the Christmas Decorating Tornado has her sights set on the innards of the Castle Frankenstein.

More to come, I'm sure.

yep, it's time

Let's do that 23 Skidoo thing...

we've got 3 cats standing at the ready to terrorize our Christmas ornaments

wurst accident ever...mustard been terrible, no bun intended*

from Larry's cottage, pre-Thanksgiving:  red sky at morning...

...sailors take warning.  that was right on this week.

one of the two bald eagles that make themselves at home around Larry's cottage

time to start spinning some Christmas vinyl on our 1962 Philco K-1526 Hi-Fi

* I take neither credit nor blame...saw it in the Monday morning memes section of Townhall.com

On your marks, get set, Christmas!

I'd say "the race is now on" but then I can't explain what all the Christmas merchandise was doing in the stores before Halloween...warming up, maybe?

In any event, you now have 26 days until The Big Day, so choppety chop chop...

...time to put your big black running boots on and get after it.

And while you're at it, remember to channel your inner Linus, who explained to Charlie Brown what Christmas is really all about, way back in 1965:

later, mcm fans...