Un-Traditional Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving was a first - I did not cook Thanksgiving dinner nor did anyone in my family. Instead we all went to Harrah's and had a great steak dinner. Dad and I were talking on our way to Harrah's and in our 140+ years combined, we have never had a Thanksgiving dinner where we weren't at someone's house. But when you think about it most restaurants - even McDonald's - were always closed on Thanksgiving. With all the people having Black Friday shopping on their minds, home-cooked Thanksgiving dinner may be a thing of the past. Michael even said that the line for the buffet at Harrah's wound around to the convention center most of the day.

Violet started out a little tired at the beginning of dinner but when the macaroni and cheese arrived she was ready to go. There was one little mishap where the busboy dropped the dirty dishes down Dad's back (he wasn't hurt, just a little messy). And Dad got a coupon for $10 for his inconvenience.

After dinner I took the opportunity to take a few pictures hoping to get something good for my Christmas card. I started out with just me and Violet then realized squatting next to her wasn't my best pose.

About 30 minutes later I had my pictures and Michael took our group selfie. We may have just started a new tradition for Thanksgiving. But today I'm paying the consequences - no leftovers to snack on.

It's Christmas Time!

I can't believe it isn't even Thanksgiving and I've got my Christmas lights up, my tree is decorated and all my presents are bought and wrapped.

I spent the past week going through all my old Christmas decorations and decided to cut back just a little this year. I've decorated the tree with all stuffed animals so I don't have to keep a close eye on the ornaments when Violet is around. She was over today and really loved all the animated Christmas characters and lights. I'd take down the picture behind the tree but it's covering the hole where the TV used to be mounted on the wall and I don't have a decoration big enough to cover it.

Jamie and I braved the cooler temperature and put up the outside lights and decorations. I wasn't the first on my block to have decorations up. A couple of houses beat me. But I still have the most animated.

Khloe - The Good Dog

Khloe is the sweetest dog. She'll let you do just about anything to her. Unlike Lola who'd rip your eyes out if you mess with her.

Khloe even accommodates entertaining Violet when Jamie can't think of anything better to do. Here she's giving Flo Mingo a ride! Good dog, Khloe.

M'm! M'm! Oops!

Poor Ashley is suffering from the flu and nothing seems to be going her way.

Even the bowl of soup she saved for her dinner only made it to the kitchen floor.

Tiny Dancer

Looks like Jamie has been teaching Violet a few more dance moves.

This girl finds a song she likes then plays it and plays it and plays it.......

Christmas Cactus

I believe when I moved back to Kansas City in 2001 I bought this Christmas cactus at a WalMart. It was a couple of sprigs in a 3" container.

Now 13 years later it's still alive and continues to bloom around this time every year. A little early for Christmas but with all the holiday decorations going up, I'd say it's right on time.

Violet the Photographer

Tonight was our usual Thursday night dinner. Since Melissa and Violet joined us we decided to go to Cheddars.

To help distract Violet I let her look at the pictures on my phone. While we were talking I noticed the flash going off on my camera. Violet was taking these pictures. It's amazing how children under the age of 2 know their electronics. I had to delete several pictures of the table but these turned out very good.

White and Yellow Striped Afghan

I spend so much time making afghans for other people that I sometimes forget that I might need a few around my house. Now that Melissa and Jamie have moved out I have a cozy little "apartment" for overnight guests. Michele recently stayed here and I didn't realize just how cold it could get downstairs.

There's a comforter on the bed that has a small white and yellow stripe pattern mixed in with the other grey, white and yellow design. Each stripe of the afghan is a double crochet row, starting the alternating color without turning - for crochet people they'll understand this terminology. For everyone else, isn't it pretty. Now Michele has something to cuddle in during the wee hours of the morning when she's up and everyone else is still asleep.

The Aches...The Pains

I'm sitting here tonight wondering why my arm and shoulder muscles are tight and painful.

Then I remembered I spent most of yesterday bringing all my Christmas boxes upstairs to sort through. There are 35 totes of Christmas decorations that I've collected for the past 3o years. And that doesn't include the menagerie of Christmas characters that I put on my front lawn. I've decided to go through and downsize. I'd like to say I'm going to cut that amount in half but let's be real. Everyone knows I'm a sucker for Christmas decorations.

Toot Toot

Violet has a new talent - she can toot (fart) on demand.

I know Melissa will be mortified that I'm posting this but it's just so cute. Even if she doesn't toot she'll at least give you the raspberries. What a proud Grandma I am!

Jamie - Refrigerator Repairman

I can add another talent to Jamie's list - refrigerator repairman. My refrigerator started making popping noises and the lights on the digital panel began blinking. I immediately called Jamie thinking he could fix it over the phone. The popping noise was caused by the ice maker door opening and closing. As I was waiting for Jamie to return my call I thought I'd brilliantly fix that by propping that little closure open. After spending 30 seconds trying to get my hand free from that death trap, Jamie called me back and told me to unplug the refrigerator. I was frantic that my food would spoil until he quickly reminded me that I had a refrigerator downstairs. Is it the memory that goes first? Anyway I got online and ordered what I thought was the right part. Nope - didn't fix the problem. Thinking it was a defective part I called the company and they sent me another of the same part. This company's policy is "no returns on installed parts". I asked the customer service representative how I knew if I was ordering the correct part. She told me to call a local repairman and ask him. So Monday morning I was on the phone with the repairman. He told me I had the wrong part and I needed the main control board. I asked if he could repair that and he told me if he came out and did it the cost would be 3 times what I could do myself. So again I got online to the place he recommended - repairclinic.com - ordered the part and 3 days later it arrived.

Last night Jamie came over, installed the part, programmed the part and my refrigerator has been cooling ever since. For a few days I didn't mind going downstairs to get things out of the refrigerator. I thought of it as my exercise program. But after a while that got really old. You just don't realize how important an appliance is until you don't have it. Thanks Jamie!

Broken Sewer Pipe, Back Breaking Labor and Poop

Michael had a broker sewer line that was going to cost a fortune to replace. So with the help  of Jamie and his neighbor, the guys decided to tackle the job themselves.

Melissa and I watched from the window inside the house. It really surprised me when both Michael and Jamie jumped out of a 5 foot deep hole. When they finally dug down deep enough to expose the broken pipe, guess what suddenly sprung from the ground - poop! I ran outside to see what the excitement was about and the smell sent me scurrying back inside. Then Jamie came inside to take a break and told Melissa and I NOT to flush the stool. Jamie then proceeded to take a trip to the bathroom and out of habit...flushed the stool. Michael came running inside silently cussing the person who once again flooded the hole. But the day was successful and they replaced the broken pipe. Michael is glad he doesn't dig ditches for a living!

Mavericks Home Opener

Last night was the Mavericks home opener - that's the local hockey team in case you didn't know. I didn't renew my season tickets this year because there are way too many games. So Jamie and I decided to pick and choose a few games to go to and of course the home opener was our first choice.

Violet and Melissa joined us. Violet was very quiet for the first 2 periods. But by the 3rd period she was bouncing around and spotted Mac and Cheez (mascots) in every section they appeared. I'm still not very good at taking selfies but this was my best effort. By the way the Mavericks won - 3-2!

Flo Mingo

In my haste to get my Vegas blog posted I completely forgot to mention Flo Mingo.

I mentioned we stayed at the Flamingo hotel and they had a habitat with flamingos. The gift shop was near the habitat had stuffed flamingos which I kept telling Violet I was going to buy for her. We went by one day and the gift shop was closed. But before we left we had the stuffed flamingo.

I like to give all Violet's stuffed animals names so we settled on Flo Mingo. Flo is the favorite toy right now. Violet takes her down the slide and even shares her waffles. When Flo Mingo gets tossed to the side, I've called dibs on her to put on my Grandma wall. That is if Lola doesn't get to her first.

VEGAS Baby!

Each year SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) holds their premier automotive specialty products trade event in Las Vegas. And every year Jamie attends this event. This year I thought it might be fun for the whole family to take a trip to Vegas.

I could barely get off the plane before I had Michael taking selfies just to prove I was in Vegas. It's been almost 3 years since I was last there. Some people put pool tables and home gyms in their basement. If I had my way I'd put Vegas in my basement.

Being a Seven Stars player with Harrah's meant I was entitled to a limo to transport us to the hotel. But we couldn't find the limo driver so we stood in a line a mile long to catch a cab. But as luck would have it just as we got to the front of the cab line, the limo driver called and said he was looking for us. We hopped the cab line fence and headed to the limo - who wants to take a cab when a limo is available.

I didn't know it but limos are equipped with some type of child safety equipment right behind the driver's seat so no car seat is needed.

We stayed at the Flamingo hotel because it was the most reasonable and I thought the most central to different Vegas attractions. They had a habitat outside filled with flamingos, ducks and fish which Violet had to visit several times a day. They even had stuffed flamingos in the gift shop which I just had to buy her.

Shopping was one of the things at the top of my list. I was curious as to the cost of Gucci, Prada, and Louis Vuitton bags. Was I ever shocked when the lady at Prada told me the bag was "very reasonable - $2,500". I think I'll stick with Coach. This picture is priceless with Violet standing in front of Gucci holder her Sephora bag.

Vegas is full of fun places to eat - Serendipity (where Mellissa, Jamie, Violet and I had breakfast), Guy Fieri's, Gordon Ramsey, Sugar Factory. But I was craving bar-b-cue. So Michael and I headed to Harrah's to Toby Keith's. Not the best decision. Their bar-b-cue does not compare to Kansas City.

Wednesday was Britney Spear's day in Vegas so we went down to the Linq - Vegas' newest outdoor retail, dining and entertainment plaza. Melissa, Jamie and Violet were there pretty early and got free tickets to the High Roller.

The High Roller is the biggest ferris wheel in the world at a height of 550 feet tall. It is comprised of 28 enclosed transparent pods. Each pod can hold about 40 people but there were only about 10 in our group. This ferris wheel doesn't stop while loading and unloading. It just goes very slow and you jump on and jump off. Since there was only 10 of us it was fairly simple. I'd hate to see it with more people trying to jump on and off. The entire ride was about 30 minutes long and offered panoramic views of the Strip. We also got to see a little of the motocross race.

They had this cute little cupcake place called Sprinkles where I just had to take Violet and get her a cupcake. They had these mini cupcakes that were delicious.

Harrah's was also holding their Great Gift Wrap Up while we were there. You earn points by playing the slot machines then use those points to buy everything from a bass boat to hair dryers. I had enough points to buy a ham from Omaha steaks and a box of chocolates from Godiva.

But all good things must come to an end and it was time to go home. This picture was taken in front of the Flamingo sign. We should have got Violet a pair of sunglasses. I'm not sure when I'll be back to Vegas but maybe sometime soon.

The Taylors Have a New Car

After 7 long years and close to 200,000 miles on their Honda, Jamie and Melissa bought a new car - or at least new to them.

It's a 2009 Chevy Tahoe complete with navigation system, TV for Violet, just about heated everything and a whole list of other stuff.

Violet couldn't wait to come show me her new car. I think Jamie cringed a bit when she brought the chips into the car. I didn't check but maybe there's a built in vacuum system.