Hank

There is no such thing as a day off here at the Hayes house. A day at home just means time to get some things done around the house. As for Friday, November 27, it meant time to put up the Christmas tree. 

As I was smack dab in the middle of just that, I hear a loud vehicle pass by the house. Simultaneously, I hear Devin say " Ha! Some guy just drove by and threw a cat out the window."

Just as the the old poem goes...

"I sprang to my feet to see what was the matter!..Away to the window I flew like a flash, tore open the blinds and threw up the sash (whatever that is). When what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a little baby kitten afraid to be here."  

Okay...I ad libbed a little there at the end. 

I ran outside just as the little kitty started to scurry away. 

I called him over,  scooped him up and told him that he was okay.

(still kinda sounds poetic huh?)

He was so confused, as anyone would be that just got tossed out the window. 

I brought him inside and made him cozy until Brooke got back home.

She took over as soon as she seen him.

We quickly invested about $30 in litter, toys, food etc. We tried to keep him confined but he was roaming around every time we took our eyes off him. He is the best kitty with the sweetest meow.

How could someone be so heartless to toss him away?

We spent Saturday, November 28 at home hanging out with "Hank" (I named him)

I went to church on Sunday, November 29, while Stroker and the kids stayed home.
I worked on Christmas cards on Monday, November 30 after Brooke's ball game and dinner at Cheddar's. I have just under 300 cards to mail this year. I've also started Christmas giveaways on the Facebook page. Just a few holiday goodies.

My Favorite Holiday

My great-nephew Jett had his 8th birthday party on November 21.
He sure is growing up. I can see his little personality changing every time I'm around him.
 I like to listen to him talk about his PlayStation and games. He is quite the gamer these days.
He has outgrown the simple things. It's electronics and gadgets nowadays.
I watched him toss football with his little cousins at his party and it seems like it was only yesterday that he was sitting in a high chair.

We had lunch with Sterl and Debi after church on November 22. Afterwords, I went to spend some time with mom.

I went for a massage on Monday, November 23, before heading over to watch Brooke cheer at the basketball game.

We took two units to my sisters church on Tuesday, November 24 to dry and clean. We went to dinner at El Tapatio in Sparta with my sister and brother-in-law while we were there.
 Devin got a haircut today and he looks so handsome.

Wednesday, November 25 was a day full of running all over town. It was meant to be a day to get Thanksgiving food prepared,, but it didn't work out that way. I went to Wal-Mart and Lowe's. I painted the base board in the Laundry Room because it has been bothering me for far too long.
We also went back to my sister's church to pick up our dry and units that are ready for their next delivery.

It was 10 pm before I got started on food preparation. I got to bed just a little before 1am on Thursday, November 26...THANKSGIVING!  I don't even know how this happened....I mean,..
I never use this enough to wear out the handle 🤔😒

Thanksgiving has become my favorite holiday you know? Although it is gradually falling away from it's original purpose of celebrating family and togetherness, it has become my favorite because it is not about "what am I getting?" or fireworks or hunting eggs or bounce houses.
It's my favorite holiday because it still involves thanking God for what we have, spending a little time with family, and food.

I took notice of a commercial this year that said
"remember when the four letter word that defined the season was L.O.V.E. and not S.A.L.E."
That one phrase really sums up what the world is letting holiday's come to.
 I don't want to let go of the holiday's that I grew up with.
The ones where, if you needed a stick of butter, you knocked on the neighbors door and asked to borrow some. You did this for two reasons... because neighbors were friends who shared, and because NOTHING was open on Thanksgiving day. Not a market, not a gas station, not a restaurant...Nothing.

Nowadays, you throw some turkey down your throat while thumbing through digital coupons waiting on a 4pm doorbuster sale. 😔

In the last 30 years, we have somehow evolved from Thanksgiving's like this

to Thanksgiving's like this

As for me, I am holding on to the traditional stuff just as long as I can.

New Stuff

9 miles of vendor booths is what we walked over the next few of days.

 Isle after isle of cool foods, games, toys, rides, costumes and anything else you can imagine.

I could not believe that neither Brooke, nor Alyssa knew who this was.

I purchased a back massager at one point.

We bought all sorts of things while we were there. A new combo bounce house, a dunking booth, some patch tape that a guy in Australia invented, a balance board, an extra 1 HP fan and so on.

Good thing we brought the truck. 

I cant wait to get out the new bounce house next spring. 

We had dinner one night at Texas de Brazil which I highly recommend. 

dessert was great too.

The ride home was long and full of delays, but we finally made it. Thanking God for safe travels. Now...I need to rest.

The first thing we had to do when we got home was put our freshly painted bedroom back together. 

Day 2 Was a Zoo

Literally spent the entire day of November 17, 2015 at my most favorite zoo in the world.

Animal Kingdom!

We rode Expedition Everest (the Yetti as I call it) at least 10 times throughout the day.

I tried to work on my candid photo's since Brooke commented on my terror expressions.

I got some yummy Dole Pineapple whip.

We had lunch at the Yak and Yetti...near "the ride"

Stroker and I did a "Then and Now" photo. 

The Dinosaur Ride wasn't as frightful as I remembered it. 

We hung out in dino-land quite a bit. 

That is where Stroker and I realized our age. 

We spent some time on the bench while the girls rode twirly spinny stuff.

Brookelynn and Alyssa got in line for a photo with Sophia the 1st.

Brooke always says she has Asian eyes, so I picked out this hat for her.

We rode Kilimanjaro's Safari...one of our favorites

There was a themed Christmas tree at every park.

Animal Kingdom closes a little earlier than the other Disney parks because the animals have to be fed and get their rest. 

This gave us time to explore other Disney properties. We went back by the Polynesian Resort, where we said our "I Do's"  years ago. 

We wound up having dinner at a restaurant in Disney's "Contemporary Resort"

We rode the monorail back and managed our way back to our room just in time for bed.

We were all pretty exhausted. Especially us older people.

Headed South

I had plans to remove all of the face plates from the walls in our bedroom this weekend.
I had plans to remove curtains, rods and screws from the walls.
Remove photos, mirrors and anything else that covers my currently eggshell colored walls.
My painter was to come by and paint the room a new color why we were out of town for the week. As my life usually goes, I never got everything on my "to do" list accomplished before it was time to hit the road and head south. I hated to leave the room half done, that is just more for Katey to have to do before she can get started painting.

But, when we got up Sunday morning (November 15), we were running non-stop to get the car packed, get to church, get Alyssa picked up and get on the highway.

It was noon when we finally got to head south. We drove the truck this year in case there was any purchases that we decide to make while there.  We lost an hour (on the clock) when we got to Chattanooga, so we hit Atlanta around 4pm. Stroker still gets panicky when driving through big cities or unfamiliar places. He keeps both hands on the steering wheel and requires full concentration on the lanes and signs ahead. All those lanes of traffic can be a little intimidating.

Once we were on the other side of Atlanta, it wasn't long until sunset. Most of our driving was in the dark. We arrived at the Disney gates around 10:30 pm. I took advantage of the online check in this year, so we got to proceed straight to our rooms after we parked.

We spent about an hour unpacking, walking around the resort and getting settled in. It was around 75 degrees, so the weather made you want to stay outdoors. We finally got settled in so that we could get rested for Monday.

Our aim was to get up early(er) on Monday, November 16, but it wasn't as easy as we thought. We did manage to be in line to get on the bus heading to Hollywood Studios by 9am. Lots of things were just as I remembered, but some things that I wanted to see had been changed. I was disappointed that I couldn't take Brooke's photo with Woody again in front of Al's Toy Barn, because it was now Tow Mater and Lightning McQueen in front of Mater's Garage.

They say we learn something new everyday...and today I learned that I am getting old. The rides scared me more, they made me qweezy and made me nervous.  Brooke made comments about all of our candid ride photos. I told her I just can't handle being slung around like I used to.
The drop on the Tower of Terror got me, but I tried to maintain my composure because I know from the past that it takes a photo as you drop.

But, the Rockin' Roller Coaster is a whole other story. I can't hide the fear. I can't hide the panic and I can't hide the G-Force pulling my head back as we take off 0 to 57 mph in 2.8 seconds.
I don't know how Brooke kept her yes open, but she looks a little creepy.

The weather was amazing though!!! Sunny and 80 degrees.

We were followed by the Hollywood Studios paparazzi throughout the day calling Stroker "Kanye West". It was pretty funny how we ran into them throughout the park.  They kept rolling out the red carpet. LOL. At one point they were calling Alyssa "Reece Witherspoon".

We ate an entertaining breakfast at the Sci-Fi Drive In In Hollywood Studios. It's one of our favorite restaurants (but not for breakfast).

We had  great day!... and by nightfall, it was Christmas everywhere!!!