Here, there and everywhere ...

I would be remiss, with barely a week to go ‘til Christmas, if I did not share some of my favorite holiday décor that I see around town on my daily treks. This year I’ve not yet strayed down to Emmons Boulevard to see how those stately houses are decorated for the holiday season. My perennial favorites on the Boulevard are the pair of life-sized nutcrackers and a display of a fairly simple crèche which is really beautiful. Did you know that the song “Silent Night” will celebrate its 200th anniversary this year?

The homeowners here were not yet aware that an Amazon package rested amongst its fake, gaily-wrapped packages with their festive bows.

And who doesn't remember their first sled or toboggan and racing up to the top of the hill, red-cheeked, laughing and enjoying the all-too-quick ride to the bottom?

I started a teddy bear collection long past the age of playing with or admiring these stuffed toys. This is because I was allergic to stuffed animals as a toddler, so they had to be removed from my room. After years of immunotherapy for allergies, I could welcome bears back into my life again, but, I eventually had to stop collecting them as my collection grew in leaps and bounds and I ran out of room. Nowadays I appreciate a good bear lawn decoration ... on someone else’s lawn.

But my all-time favorite Christmas decorations are snowmen. Just like my affinity for the Autumn scarecrows with their cheerful smiles, that is the attribute I like most about snowmen.

And, just like these snowmen, I, too, am wearing a big grin. Today I reached 1,100 miles walked in 2018.

I was curious where I was on this date last year and so I looked back and my post celebrated that I had reached my goal of 1,000 miles:

The weather has been fairly cooperative, though I got out later Saturday due to the fog, but I encountered some black ice on the perimeter path, even though it was mild out and around 10:00 a.m. So, to avoid any ice mishaps, I left later yesterday and it was sunny and a balmy 43 degrees. The long walks the past two weekends helped get me to 1,100 miles. As of today, our weather is supposed to cooperate through Thursday and then rain, and even snow may be in the cards. The weather folks are even speculating about a white Christmas – a green Christmas suits me just fine.

I found Parker again yesterday, so he must’ve been hiding on Saturday, the little rascal. I sweet-talked him and rewarded him with extra peanuts, even though he was MIA the day before, because, after all – it is the holidays and it is good to be kind to everyone we meet, be they man or beast.

You can catch up on my blog posts before I started blogging at Patch in August 2013 by going here: http://lindaschaubblog.net