*sigh*

[Andybev01]

A little post-holiday blues.

[Murfreesboro]

I was going to post "364 days remaining," but you beat me to it.

Our Halloween was somewhat subdued, but it did happen. We got several groups of ToTers, and there was more traffic than I'd anticipated on our nearby street that hadn't decorated as much as usual. Not a peak night for anyone. For one thing, it was very cold. We had 80 degree weather on Saturday, but our low last night was supposed to be 29. And it was a school night, a Tuesday. I was happy to see anyone out. I called it at 8, and got one last ToTer as I was putting the candy up. Many people were driving their kids. I'd gotten two groups before the sun even set, around 5:40. It was that kind of night. We'll be eating candy for days.

That house I mentioned that had the cut outs of 60s TV icons put out even more of the cut out displays and was quite a focus of attention. Before I'd left on my trip, they'd had cut outs of Kermit, Snoopy and Woodstock on the Great Pumpkin, Herman Munster, and the Scooby-Doo gang in the Mystery Machine. To those they added Beetlejuice, Courage the Cowardly Dog, two images from the Treehouse of Horror (alien beings, my daughter said), and a cartoonish crab in a mummy costume holding a beer stein. That's the logo of a local restaurant called Toots. They were not the only people who went all out on the yard haunt, but they may have been the most original.

[Andybev01]

'Courage' is so underrated.

[Murfreesboro]

My daughter watched it, and I did not. When she and her friends were in high school, she got into a lunchtime discussion in which they all agreed Courage had been very unsettling to them as children. I didn't know what she meant, so she had me watch some of it. Holy moley! That show was a mindf*** for little kids, and I never knew! It was most definitely not a children's show, and I made the mistake of assuming it was.

One that worked well for both children and adults was The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. That was a smart, funny show that reminded me tonally of Rocky and Bullwinkle from my own childhood.

[Andybev01]

I love that Grim was a laid back Jamaican.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

NOW WHAT?

Now it's time to start decorating for Christmas. Well, at least it is for my wife, she already put out a few things, and we are only 2 days into Nov.

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[Murfreesboro]

I saw my first Christmas tree through a neighbor's window yesterday. I love Christmas, but I like to acknowledge Thanksgiving first.

Andy, Mandy was the scary one on that show for sure, not Grim.

[Andybev01]

NOW WHAT?

Now it's time to start decorating for Christmas. Well, at least it is for my wife, she already put out a few things, and we are only 2 days into Nov.


Ghostbusters .gif

Yeah, I do a hybridization until Thanksgiving weekend, then it's full-on Christmas until mid January.

[Murfreesboro]

I stubbornly keep Christmas through Jan 6. Most people around here take everything down by New Year's. Once I actually saw a family dismantling their display on Christmas afternoon.

That's a beautiful table display, Andy.

[Murfreesboro]

And at church yesterday they were passing out Advent devotionals, even though Advent won't start until Dec. I think Thanksgiving is early, so the Christmas shopping season will seem longer.

[Andybev01]

Christmas shopping is all year long if you economize.

[Murfreesboro]

There was one season, in the mid-80s, when I actually did that. It was very convenient for me.

I guess I gave up on that during the years when I was buying for little kids, because children change their minds about what they want every week.

[Andybev01]

Kids are definitely the most difficult to buy for.

With a dizzying array of movies and TV, plus spots and even books, amazingly, you might get one detail wrong and be the one who ruined Christmas.

A friend of mine used to travel 80% for her job and would just buy random cool stuff from anywhere on the globe, and then in November go through the pile, assign them to different people and boom, Christmas was done.

It made for great surprises.

One year I got a red felt fez from Turkey and another year I got a really awesome assortment of origami papers and Japanese stationary from Tokyo.

[Murfreesboro]

How neat! My aunt used to do that. Her husband had been extremely successful, and they spent their retirement traveling the globe. She would buy mementos for everyone on her list, not super expensive stuff. Once I recall she gave me a tablecloth from Greece. That was probably the most expensive thing I ever got.

[Andybev01]

It's never about the price for me, it was the variety of the gifts and usually an accompanying story of where it came from.