Happy Holidays!

Thought I'd pop in for a minute to say "Heyyyyyyy".

Did you have a great Christmas?  Mine was fairly good.  Way too much time with my family!  Last weekend, we met my brother in Lima, OH since it's been a couple years since we've seen him.  My sister had this crazy idea Lima is halfway between us and his house in Dayton.  Pppft.  So there were the 3 of us, sister Laurie, niece Lisa, Mom, sister Linda, BIL Dave and brother Terry all in a hotel for the weekend.   Christmas Eve, we were all at Laurie's house, minus Terry, but add in nephew Jamie.  Then Christmas Day, I tried to get us out of driving 60+ minutes to Frankemuth for a mediocre chicken dinner with Mom, Laurie & Lisa - to the point of falling on the floor and claiming (as the dog tried to give kisses) that he was eating my face off.  Sigh, no luck there. 

I can't wait til next year when we go to Arkansas for 10 days!  Randy's mom is so much less drama!

Anyhoo.  My nutcracker collection has grown significantly.  I don't know the exact count, but it's somewhere around 80. I'll find out for sure when I put them away.  On the plus side, I did send 3 of the 8 inch ones to my MIL as a gift.  She said she really liked them!  My sisters can't believe I think dolls are creepy, but I have an army of these guys.

These guys were Christmas gifts.  I ordered the Rockette Toy Solider for myself, but I had the girl wrap it for me.  So I never got to see it other than on the website.  Laurie got me the farmer.  It was funny that it was in the Tractor Supply ad last weekend, so she got to gauge my reaction to it beforehand! And Angel got me the zebra guy.  It's very blingy.  She has this thing for zebra print, which is OK!

I got these at JoAnn Fabric the day after Christmas.  The biggest one is missing half his mustache, but I can repair that.  They were 70% off, then another 30% off that!  I was entertained to get 2 in the same day wearing kilts, with bagpipes! 

 I got these at Walgreen's on my way into work on the day after Christmas.  The one in the middle is very Austin Powers with his red velvet suit and lace instead of a beard and the leopard print guy is just so fabulous!!

I got these at Joann Fabrics probably 1 1/2 weeks ago.  They were already 70% off then, and I had a 25% off your entire purchase coupon.  Angel was entertained with the ballerina & I really like the gold one, since he's made to look like solid gold. 

Other than that, I got a 6 month membership to a gym, which I am totally tickled about.  Most women would be pissed, but I had told Randy this is what I wanted and even sent him the link to the webpage, so he could see the info.  I went yesterday for my fitness consultation and first workout. I did 'the circuit' 3 times, 10 minutes on the elliptical and 15 minutes on the treadmill.  I surprisingly wasn't dead today!  I was stiff earlier, but only for a couple hours.  It'll probably hit me tomorrow. 

Tomorrow I'm going to start putting the Christmas blowmolds away.  I had thought to wait until after New Year's but it is supposed to be in the mid 40s again, which is downright balmy!  But then it's calling for like 12* on Monday.  I'd rather not be out in that!  Granted, blowmolds take a lot less effort to take down than a whole cemetery & stuff, but cold is cold! 

I've been poking around the HalloweenForum and seeing these people who are already working on fantastic ideas.  I have no plans for anything exciting, expect for figuring out a way for for my gargoyle blowmold to sit up on the fence instead of on the ground.  Gargoyles don't sit on the ground!!  And of course a new layout.  I'm finally figuring out my lighting and as much as I love my blowmolds, I have to figure out where to put them where they won't drown out the lights in the cemetery.  This will be the issue. 

So I'm sure I'll be posting again here & there.  Definitely with a final count on the nutcracker army!  

Happy New Year!  Have a great 2014!

edit - Nutcracker Inventory - at that posting I was at 90 nutcrackers!!!!  And I have at least 5 more since.