I find January to be one of my least favorite months, if not the least. The holidays are over, the decorations are down, there’s nothing really to look forward to, often the weather is crap, it still gets dark a little too early, etc.
But today I took a walk around my area at a break and took a picture of what our January trees look like. These are not ever greens obviously, I didn’t take pictures of those trees who maintain their leaves year round. But these naked trees are also part of what I don’t like about January. As you will see though you can’t beat that blue sky.
There is a neighborhood near us (wealthy LOL) who really do it up for Christmas lights. Every house has decorations. Some more than others, but not a single house does not participate. Since J asked, I thought it would be fun to post the pictures I took of the neighbor hood.
Now you can feel like you went through the neighborhood too! They even play music and have lights across the interlinking streets that connect the whole thing overhead. It’s pretty awesome
Got a request to post some more pictures so here you go! Hope you enjoy a look into the lives of me and M and our family!
Our house as decorated for fall (please excuse any mess LOL) Front of our house ready for Christmas!
And now some from my sister’s as J asked. Yes we did decorate her house. For two fricking days!
Sister’s Tree – Pretty right but not as cool as mine, you will notice several gingerbread as that is what she is into! Front yard of sister…yes I bought her that elf ha ha. The Santa waves (sometimes), they look better at night of course Looking into sister’s house, I bought her some of those garden stakes you see there including the elf and the gingerbreads.
There you have it!
By the way, we put up Mom’s stocking and put a black band around it in memory.
As the holidays approach you might get more if you are interested
So as you know the flashes begin tomorrow and in the meantime I thought it would be fun to share a picture of this year’s Christmas tree.
Oh my yes that is an Enterprise tree topper. Yes you can all be envious. It is interactive and as awesome as it looks.
In addition, I have all the Mirror ornaments that interact with each other, also quite awesome. I would have posted a video but WordPress won’t let me unless I pay extra so that’s a nope.
I saw some people shitting on the Mirror ornaments on Tumblr but since I have them in person I can tell you that they are incredible and loads of fun. Are they exact replicas of the actors? Nope, but they are close enough and their dialogue and sound effects are from the episode. It is a delight.
When my father was alive, they both loved Vegas. So much so that they briefly lived there after my mother retired. They had to be brought back from there because they couldn’t stop spending money but that’s another story.
When we would take my mother to Vegas, while we were checking in, she was already sitting at a machine. Up until the pandemic hit, she played bingo every Wednesday at the local Elks Lodge. Over the years, she won many jackpots (about $5,000 or so at a time mind).
So when we take these kinds of trips my mind is often on her. Definitely this time for a trip she would have loved. Back when she still could love anything (before dementia and Leukemia). More on that in a minute
Our view…pretty nice, yes?
So I was playing one of my favorite slot machines and playing the minimum bet of 88 cents per spin. I’d played about 9 or so spins when I got the bonus on it. That’s when this little jar’s lid closes. You get either the mini, the minor, the major or the grand jackpot. The mini was like $15. Almost 100% of the time that’s what I get. Once in a while I get the minor which is about $30-$60 depending on how recently it’s gone off. This time…
I got the grand. Which never happens on an 88 cent bet. Ask anyone. But it did. Yes, I won $17,000. It’s going into my retirement savings, but yes. It was a bit of an excitement. It’ll never happen again but my mother had a hand in it, I am convinced. I had her blessings as total this trip I ended up winning about $19,000 and my sister about $7,000. So yes, my mother blessed us.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to say because I didn’t want anyone to think I was bragging or whatever, but since you did ask, I am sharing here.
Since we are coming to the end of October already I thought I’d post some “Fall” pictures for us.
Tree losing its leaves (yes the sky is that blue)Proof some of our trees leaves change colorMore changing trees and a super blue sky
Fallen leaves and yes that is my foot
A nearby neighbor’s decorations, Too cute right? A little girl lives there
I am beginning to write some of the holiday flashes. I haven’t finished November but right now I want to get a jump on the December flashes. Now is your chance to tell me in the comments if there’s anything you’d like to see.
I’ll probably repeat titles and ideas from the 2019 set. Last year, if you will recall, I did one story instead of the flashes. This year we return to the more popular flashes
Thought you might want to see some pictures of the neighbor’s decorations. Cool huh? They have creepy sound too. As a child I would have been terrified of that house HAHA
Spirk (with a small dose of Pinto) 