{"id":58277,"date":"2021-11-27T02:40:40","date_gmt":"2021-11-27T09:40:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/?p=58277"},"modified":"2021-11-28T09:45:25","modified_gmt":"2021-11-28T16:45:25","slug":"goodbye-thanksgiving-hello-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/?p=58277","title":{"rendered":"Goodbye Thanksgiving; Hello Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

What do they sing at a snowman’s birthday party? Freeze a jolly good fellow!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

We are ready to meet the challenge!\u00a0 Undecorating has been completed, and today we bring Christmas down from the attic, all 50 boxes!<\/p>\n

But first, on a retired Saturday morning, we rise at 5:30 AM and get ready to go to an 8:00 AM soccer game in Whittier.\u00a0 We were invited to join Amy and Joe watch Charlie and Alex do their magic on the soccer field; the boys are rather good!<\/p>\n

We even got thank-yous from the boys via text messages from their cell phones!<\/p>\n

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Alex takes on the champs!<\/p><\/div>\n

The girls talked and cheered on the guys.\u00a0 Amy and Mary get along quite well.\u00a0 We watched an 8:00 AM game and then Charlie’s game at 10:00 AM.\u00a0 After four hours of sitting, we had to head home because our car wash guy was coming over.<\/p>\n

On the way home, we stopped at Subway and shared a turkey sub; it was perfect!<\/p>\n

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Mary and Amy cheer the boys on.<\/p><\/div>\n

Mary fixed a care package for Bill, who is in Costa Mesa.\u00a0 He has stage four cancer and is going through some tough times.\u00a0 Without family, we attempt to keep him fed because cooking for two is not easy!\u00a0 \u00a0I did a fly-by while Mary stayed home and got everything ready to go into the attic from the Thanksgiving\/Halloween activities.<\/p>\n

Juan showed up about 2:30 PM, and he washed our three cars. Then I asked him and his two helpers to take down Christmas.\u00a0 He thought it would be just a couple of boxes; he was surprised when he looked into the attic!\u00a0 Mary accumulated 27 years of decorations, and I had another 35 years.\u00a0 This year we will combine our decorations and hopefully reduce the couldn’t of boxes by a few, or at least we will organize the contents by room.<\/p>\n

I mentioned to Mary that I used to decorate a twelve-foot tree and loaded it with goodies; she was still surprised when six large containers labeled “tree decorations” came down the ladder!<\/p>\n

While watching all the work, I did mention to Mary, “If you’ve ever watched a butcher wrap pork chops, you’ve seen me wrapping Christmas presents.”<\/p>\n

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They are almost done.<\/p><\/div>\n

Once Christmas was down, Mary went up to make sure everything was done.\u00a0 Then she told the guys where to put the ten containers of Thanksgiving\/Fall.\u00a0 Up it goes not to be seen again for eleven months!<\/p>\n

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The guys load ten boxes of Halloween\/Fall back into the attic.<\/p><\/div>\n

That was the best $100 I ever spent!\u00a0 After sitting a while, we decided to go to Jan’s and bring her a care package.\u00a0 Leaving the house, I saw the front, and the trees had just turned on (they are on an Alexa-powered timer set to go on at sunset and off at sunrise).\u00a0 It looked pretty good!<\/p>\n

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We are started; red and green trees in the front windows.<\/p><\/div>\n

The sun was setting, and I slowed down and took a snapshot of the street going to Jan’s house; she is only a mile and a half away, so we see her 2-3 times a week.<\/p>\n

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We are on our way to Jan’s house.<\/p><\/div>\n

Jan has also been decorating, and she is ahead of us already!\u00a0 Her little friends were sitting on the bench awaiting visitors.\u00a0 I had an urge which I could NOT control.\u00a0 I turned to Mary and blurted out the following:<\/p>\n