# Seasonal Picture Fun *anybody can join!



## travelmel

Hello Fellow dis-ers,

I'm just starting this thread because I think this is SUCH a fantastic time of year. I know we all like to do fun things and I hope this will be a thread that people will post on as if it were there own. I'd love to see all of your fantastic ideas and adorable kids/family/whatever!

Whatever you want to share you can do so here. Your lawn decorations, your costumes, your upcoming Christmas prettiness.. whatever! I'm going to begin with some photo's of one of our local pumpkin patches and our recent Halloween Party!

Please enjoy and contribute anything you like! 

First some pictures from one of the many SPECTACULAR pumpkin patches up here in the Portland area. I'm a native Californian and we just did NOT have fall so I am forever entranced by this lovely season.

This pumpkin patch is called Lakeview Farms and is really low-key and incredibley beautiful. For those of you reality TV fans this is about 5 minutes from the Little People Big World Rolloff Family Farms.. I'm not a fan of their pumpkin patch because it is too crowded and nowhere NEAR as pretty as the one I'm about to show you .....

*Face paint = $1 tip*








*Train to pumpkin patch*





*Shot of the cars on the train from last year*





*Return from Pumpkin picking by boat*





When I first moved to Portland I found this pumpkin patch. It has the most spectacular views of tall pines and rolling farmlands. In the lake there are little pop-up dragons and sharks that spray water. This is a pic I have to get of DDC every year. She's quite the ham.

*2005*




*2006*




*2007*




*2008*





Timing is crucial!

Coming up next is our Halloween Party... I hope you guys had fun! 

Melissa


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## travelmel

ahh well... 10 looks and no replies. This may die BUT I'll continue on until somebody tells me to shut up.  

Party time! 






*Upstairs*




*
We finished our downstairs room recently which made a fantastic party room.*





*later we turned on the disco light, fog machine, and strobe effects.*





The menu: Brains with Eyeballs, Graveyard Greens, and Snake Charm Bread
*Food porn!*





*The crew*





If you notice in the group pic there is a lot of Disney represented!  That's Snow White in the lower left.. Back Middle is Beauty and the Beast, and of course Pirates of the Carribean! 

*DH was a mad scientist*





*We almost look like Disney witches just based on the hair alone. Blonde, Red, Brunette*





*Oogie Boogie is on top*





Last year DH carved Jack Skellington for me





After trick or treating we came back to snack, dance, and settled down for a scary movie

*Lanterns lit are SO beautiful*





Course the movie wasn't TOO Scary

*Fun with Ickabod Crane*





I love Halloween. And next year it's on a Saturday... Amuck, Amuck, Amuck


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## tiggrbaby

Very cool!  Looks like you had a great time!  Thanks for sharing!


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## PNO4TE

Very cool idea.  I will have to hunt up some "seasonal photos" to share!


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## Lights_Out

Looks like you guys had A LOT of fun! 

I can't even imagine how amazing your Christmas Holidays are!


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## kaoden39

Okay I am here.  I will see what holiday pistures I can find.


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## travelmel

tiggrbaby said:


> Very cool!  Looks like you had a great time!  Thanks for sharing!



I'm glad you liked them.  Thank you for reading!  



PNO4TE said:


> Very cool idea.  I will have to hunt up some "seasonal photos" to share!



Fun!  I hope you find some and thanks in advance for sharing!



Lights_Out said:


> Looks like you guys had A LOT of fun!
> 
> I can't even imagine how amazing your Christmas Holidays are!



 I've actually never thrown a Christmas party. But I do like to go to them!

Thanks for reading and I hope there is more to come... 



kaoden39 said:


> Okay I am here.  I will see what holiday pistures I can find.



::  I'm excited to see them!


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## JaneJetson

Very cool pumpkins!

I love that you take a picture of your DD in the same spot every year.  Very good idea.


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## travelmel

JaneJetson said:


> Very cool pumpkins!
> 
> I love that you take a picture of your DD in the same spot every year.  Very good idea.



ha ha! Thanks! The funny thing is that I have had a hard time getting it on a couple of occassions and we have had to ride out again for another chance at "the shot." I missed it this year and I was so mad I almost threw my camera overboard  It's fun though!

There are a few things I do that with in terms of taking a picture in a certain spot at a certain place each time... I'm a SUCKER for tradition


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## wendylady36

I was one of those ten views with no comment, sorry!  Sometimes I don't feel like commenting at the moment so I come back later, like I'm doing now!

I love the Oogie pumpkin! 

That pumpkin patch looks like a lot of fun! I'm a sucker for tradition too, but what a great reason to go back every year.  

The girls face paint is really cute, and I'm a total sucker for candy corn. Their costumes are also really cute.

Looks like you had a great Halloween.


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## travelmel

wendylady36 said:


> I was one of those ten views with no comment, sorry!  Sometimes I don't feel like commenting at the moment so I come back later, like I'm doing now!
> 
> I love the Oogie pumpkin!
> 
> That pumpkin patch looks like a lot of fun! I'm a sucker for tradition too, but what a great reason to go back every year.
> 
> The girls face paint is really cute, and I'm a total sucker for candy corn. Their costumes are also really cute.
> 
> Looks like you had a great Halloween.



Ha ha!  That's ok wendylady! At least you didn't tell me to shut-up!   

I love the candy corn, too. I went to one of those paint your own ceramic places once during the fall season. I picked a big triangual serving platter and I sat down and began to create a very ornate fall setting, freehand. I was going to put scarecrows, a fence, corn, etc....I should have known that was a mistake!

Long story short it was HORRIBLE! I washed the pencil marks off it, drew on two lines and painted it into a Candy Corn. Even then, I got it wrong. Mine goes White, Yellow, Orange.  

It's pretty cute though!


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## DisneyLaura

Here's my contributions to your thread.  I love fall because of the colors.

We go to Jones Tree Farm every year.  They have pick your pumpkins, blueberries, strawberries and cut your own Christmas tree.  WE only go for the pumpkins but I want to go for the strawberries.

Here are the kids Christopher 9, Nicholas 7 and Elizabeth 2) in the corn maze






Some gourds











The kids in the pumpkin patch






My DD, Elizabeth, with some mums


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## travelmel

So pretty!

Thank you for sharing your pics.   How many pumpkin patch choices do you guys have in your area? We have MANY. Some are better than others.

I moved to Oregon about 10 yrs ago but just started getting into "Fall things" about 4 yrs ago when I moved to Portland. Being from California, originally, I just never had a chance to see anything fall. 

I think the "fall craze" has moved through that part of the world though (So Cal) because my aunt talked about going on a Hay Ride and pumpkin patch...   Maybe the popularity and commercialism is spreading?


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## tiggerfan1

Great pics, travelmel and DisneyLaura!   Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to contribute right now.


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## IDreamfDisney

Can I just say : I love looking at pictures! I am so happy to be seeing some much missed fall scenery. Great idea, Melissa! I hope people continue to post. As soon as my son gets back from a visit to Philly (to see the Phillies win the World Series and the Championship parade; he was so excited!) I will see if he can show me how to post pictures. I am computer/tech challenged , LOL.


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## JaneJetson

I don't have any recent photos.  I just have some photos of pumpkins we carved a few years ago.  We didn't really put out much Fall/Halloween stuff this year.

I love all of the photos so far though!


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## DisneyLaura

travelmel said:


> Thank you for sharing your pics.   How many pumpkin patch choices do you guys have in your area? We have MANY. Some are better than others.



Your welcome for offering me to share my pictures.  We have in our town three farms.  Then you have a church that now "jumped on the band wagon" and has pumpkins shipped to them.  It's right by the kids school but I don't think they did it this year, they used to have a lot of pumpkins left over.  The farm we go to the leftover pumpkins they use to feed the pigs there and they probably don't have that many left over.  I think people come from all over.  They also have a hayride that they now charge a $1.00 for and then the corn maze is $2.00 a person.  When my boys were smaller it used to be free.  But they love it and I'm sure soon or later they won't want to do things like that so I don't mind.


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## travelmel

JaneJetson said:


> I don't have any recent photos.  I just have some photos of pumpkins we carved a few years ago.  We didn't really put out much Fall/Halloween stuff this year.
> 
> I love all of the photos so far though!



Thanks! I hope you get back on soon and please feel free to post away. Carved pumpkins are fun!



tiggerfan1 said:


> Great pics, travelmel and DisneyLaura!   Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to contribute right now.



No problem, thanks for stopping by! If you think of anything you'd like to share (Holiday food porn???) please feel free.   



IDreamfDisney said:


> Can I just say : I love looking at pictures! I am so happy to be seeing some much missed fall scenery. Great idea, Melissa! I hope people continue to post. As soon as my son gets back from a visit to Philly (to see the Phillies win the World Series and the Championship parade; he was so excited!) I will see if he can show me how to post pictures. I am computer/tech challenged , LOL.



Go Phillies! I don't follow sports but I used to cheer when the first season of Survivor was playing on TV.. I would get so excited and turn the TV up really loud and hoot and holler like a mad woman.  I finally got what it must be like to be a "Fan"


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## travelmel

I'm going to share some pics from my last Halloween Party which was way back in 2004. I think that was the last time the holiday fell on a weekend. It's so fun to throw a Halloween party as the food can be so fun to theme. I don't have a lot of practice throwing parties.. but I sure have fun doing it!

I wasn't going to dress up that year but at the last minute I got the bug so I just put on a shirt that looked a little bit like spider webs and I put some ghoulish white make-up on and topped it with a preppy sweater and called myself a ghostly soccer mom. If you look closely those are spiders that are crawling up my neck. They looked super cute and were easy to draw. Circle and 8 legs. Done! 

*Demon Soccer Mom*






Can you dig those fancy decorations? I just took some pics from the pumpkin patch that year and sort of fancied them up with some scrapbooking paper and hung them on the wall. The witch looks cute but the ghosts are pretty pac-man-y!  I did them last minute and they were definitely cheap!

The next picture was the main table for the party food. The food was pretty easy to prepare but the little tags that I made to sit next to the food took FOREVER!  It really added to the ambiance to have the "name" of the food showing. 

There is: 
Bat Brain Jello -orange jello with raspberries that looked sorta like brains
Owls Eyes - Deviled eggs with black olives for pupils
Spider web soup - Tomato soup with piped sour cream
Mummy Dogs- hot dogs with refriderated bread dough wrapped around them
Spirit Sandwiches - quesadilla's 

*Food porn!*





Next is Black Cat litter... this was a favorite of mine. I put "grape nut cereal" in a disposable roasting pan. Unwrap some tootsie rolls and put in the pan. Next you sprinkle on some powdered sugar. Finally I wet some areas with something.. I can't remember what.. so that it looked like little pee spots. It was so gross! (but not as gross as Beth's cat litter cake.. that was gnarley and COOL!)

*Go ahead, dig in!*





These were really cute. I made gingerbread men cookies then piped on plain powdered sugar and water (like in the gingerbread house icing) into skeleton shapes.

*Gingerbone cookies*






The next plate had on just a hodge podge of foods that I found in the frozen food section. They were fried cheese (werewolf puppy bones!) and fried tortellini (gremlin ears!) I just made up names for them. 

*Gotta love that word art!*


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## travelmel

BTW, I posted the above pics on one of Beth's TR's so sorry about the fact that they are a repeat for some of you! 

Here's a bigger pic of the costume so you can see the spiders on my neck. They were so cool and easy!


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## nat1234

Mel, thanks for the pictures, this thread is a great idea.  It's great that you really get into the whole Halloween thing.  I not really into Halloween, but I love Christmas.  I'm hoping that it stays on the warmer side until the weekend, so that I can put up my Christmas lights.  I love the lights but don't like freezing my behind putting them up.  I'm not sure if I can post pictures yet but I will when I can.  Until them I'll enjoying seeing everyone else's holiday pics.


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## kathleen27

I love everyone's photos!!! 

The gingerbread skeletons look great! I think we will try those next year.

Mel, the food at your parties is amazing. We've had Halloween parties the last four years. And the main course has just been ordering pizza. Might have to try something different next year. We do have fun with dessert though.

My son Jacob is in charge of the Halloween decorations at our house. 
Here are a few of his creations for this year:
















A painted milk carton.





A trick or treat bucket.





He's almost 13, and this is the fourth year in a row that he has chosen to have friends over for a Halloween party instead of a birthday party.

This year we made bat cupcakes with peanut butter cups.





Eyeballs  mini cupcakes with a lifesaver and an m&m.





Cookies shaped to look like witchs fingers:





I love carving the pumpkins.  The kids and I each design a few and I carve them. The last couple of years Jacob has done some carving as well. He likes to use stencils. My daughter usually designs a cat or something with a heart or stars. These are from different years.


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## kaoden39

I so love your tree.  He did a really good job decorating.


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## travelmel

*Kathleen,*

What a wonderfully creative set of pics!  I love all the stuff you guys did! Especially the witch fingers.... <shiver> those are great!

I have that same huge spider!  LOL  Your DS is great at spiderwebbing.. that's a talent that you really don't even know you need until you try doing it!  

Thank you so much for sharing. I totally love all of your great ideas. 

Ok, I also have to mention those cool cupcakes... I noticed that eyes are really big when it comes to decorating food for Halloween  

And, and, and!!  Those are fantastic pumpkins!  I love them all.  That witch one is really cool, is it freehand? I love the negative image type styles. My DH can do it but I am hopelessly untalented. I'm an idea man (woman). lol


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## travelmel

nat1234 said:


> Mel, thanks for the pictures, this thread is a great idea.  It's great that you really get into the whole Halloween thing.  I not really into Halloween, but I love Christmas.  I'm hoping that it stays on the warmer side until the weekend, so that I can put up my Christmas lights.  I love the lights but don't like freezing my behind putting them up.  I'm not sure if I can post pictures yet but I will when I can.  Until them I'll enjoying seeing everyone else's holiday pics.



I love Christmas lights, too! I look forward to seeing your display  

We have some pretty fun things to do around these parts for the Christmas season. Zoolights is one of my favorites. What do you guys like to do?


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## DisneyLaura

Great pictures Mel and Kathleen.  Those foods are cute.  Might have to steal some of those ideas for next year.


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## mariezp

Great idea travelmel! You have some great photos that you have shared. Love yours too, Kathleen27 and DisneyLaura.  I just love corn mazes! 

We don't celebrate Halloween so I have nothing to offer there. And really the few Christmas ones I have are not so great but they do at least show the spirit of things around our house.

This is one of my favorite photos. I don't decorate a whole lot outside because I have to do all the work but I do put up a few icicle lights and some light up deer. My kitty, Ezri, thinks she's one of the deer.





I guess if I show you a shot of our cat I need to give the same consideration for our dog, Tess. Here she is dressed for the holiday. Just like trying to get a child to sit still, she wouldn't cooperate and smile for the camera!





We don't do the traditional meal of turkey and dressing. Instead our tradition has always been tied to whatever bounty my husband has brought home for the year. For the first 12 or so years we had chicken fried elk or deer. The last few years we have had fried dove. The greatest part is that if he hunts it, he cooks it! (I have never cooked a turkey in my life!) Unfortunately, the trade is that I have to clean up the mess which is always quite substantial! Anyway, here's the DH and SIL rustling up some Christmas dinner.





Here's what the younger boys do while the men do all the cooking.





Here's the sisters snuggling up together. Notice I used to collect the animated Disney characters in the background. 





We don't have much family anymore but we do invite our adopted granny. She usually comes sporting her Santa hat but I missed catching her with it on. The other haggard looking gal is me. Have you ever found that when you have young children who get up at sunrise to open Santa's gifts there is not much time for mom to even get dressed? I think all our Christmas photos have me in my pjs. While I don't have to do all the cooking, I do contribute by cooking the side dishes and spend the day running around doing stuff like a mad woman.... usually in my jammies!





I collect snowmen. Here's a few on our mantle.


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## travelmel

MarieZP,

FOUR MORE DAYS??!!  WOO HOO!!      

Cute pics!  Your dog is beautiful!  Your cat is typically smug and wonderfully camoflauged with the dear.   

I like dogs but cats are defintely closer to my heart. 

I can relate to the Christmas pj dilema. My hair is always so incredibley unmanageable (and I am NOT just saying that) that I have to take a shower shortly after the morning rush or I scare away the spirit of Christmas. LOL I do think back and remember that almost all hte pics of my childhood xmas' show my granny in her pj's though!  I typically refuse pics during any season. lol

We have an adopted granny that comes around for THanksgiving!  That's funny. I get along well with the old folks... I was raised by my grandma and an only child. I think that has something to do iwth it.

How lovely for you to have your DH cook.. OH! That reminds me, 
TODAY IS NATIONAL HUSBANDS COOK DINNER DAY!!! 
let's get out there and enforce this new holiday for all it's worth!


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## travelmel

DisneyLaura said:


> Great pictures Mel and Kathleen.  Those foods are cute.  Might have to steal some of those ideas for next year.



Sounds good!


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## DisneyLaura

Mariezp I would love to stay in my PJ's all day if I could on the holidays.  If I don't have to take my DD to preschool we both do sometimes.


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## kathleen27

kaoden39 said:


> I so love your tree.  He did a really good job decorating.



Thanks! Its in a great spot too, very visible.



travelmel said:


> *Kathleen,*
> 
> What a wonderfully creative set of pics!  I love all the stuff you guys did! Especially the witch fingers.... <shiver> those are great!
> 
> I have that same huge spider!  LOL  Your DS is great at spiderwebbing.. that's a talent that you really don't even know you need until you try doing it!
> 
> Thank you so much for sharing. I totally love all of your great ideas.
> 
> Ok, I also have to mention those cool cupcakes... I noticed that eyes are really big when it comes to decorating food for Halloween
> 
> That witch one is really cool, is it freehand?



Thank you! He gets really into Halloween!
Spiders turned out to be a big theme of his this year.  

My son made the witch pumpkin using a stencil. You tape the paper on, poke holes along the design, then remove and carve.
I've never tried the stencils. I like carving the faces freehand, because when I make a mistake, I can just change the design a little to accomodate it.  



DisneyLaura said:


> Great pictures Mel and Kathleen.  Those foods are cute.  Might have to steal some of those ideas for next year.



Enjoy them!



mariezp said:


> Great idea travelmel! You have some great photos that you have shared. Love yours too, Kathleen27 and DisneyLaura.  I just love corn mazes!
> 
> This is one of my favorite photos. I don't decorate a whole lot outside because I have to do all the work but I do put up a few icicle lights and some light up deer. My kitty, Ezri, thinks she's one of the deer.



Thank you!
Your kitty is too cute with the deer.  
And your dog is beautiful! I had a German Shepherd when I was young!
Nice pictures!
Great that your husband does the cooking!




Yesterday, Jacob was asking why we don't have lots of outdoor decorations for Christmas. We just have the lights on the house.  
I tried to explain that we had more indoor decorations.
It will be interesting to see what he wants to try.


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## hlrababy

What a cute thread!!! I will have tons of pics once I put out my Christmas decorations!!


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## mariezp

*travelmel*, I really am much more partial to cats than dogs myself. We have 2 outdoor cats, 1 indoor cat and one dog. The dog is so much more trouble than the cats even though she is a very good dog. I just think I like the cats best because they are so independent they do not require much from you. The 3 kitties we have all have such different personalities. One is half wild and very timid. The one inside thinks WE live in her kingdom. She is totally sophisticated. The one in the photo is just a complete nut. She had no pride and will make a complete fool of herself just to get your attention. 

Aren't those adopted grannies the greatest! I am not sure why I get along with the older generation better. It certainly wasn't because my grandmother and I were close. Our granny was just hard to resist because she is just such a character. She has the same sense of humor as my family so we just kinda clicked. 

So is there really such a holiday as NATIONAL HUSBANDS COOK DINNER DAY? Or did you just make that one up? Sounds like a good one to me! Yeah, DH cooks but you can be sure that holidays are the only time! He falsely advertised himself too! Before we got married he used to cook for me all the time. FOILED AGAIN!

*DisneyLaura*, I assure you I am in my pjs all day more often than I care to admit! I am a stay at home, homeschooling mom so most days I don't even leave the house so somehow getting all gussied up doesn't hold the priority it used to. Hmmmmm..... maybe that's why DH doesn't cook for me anymore!  

All right guys! We need more pictures! Somebody.... anybody?


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## travelmel

*Kathleen,*

Thanks for the help with the how-to pumpkin! BTW I'm going to check out your TR thread ASAP. (FYI? LOL lots of anacronyms there)



hlrababy said:


> What a cute thread!!! I will have tons of pics once I put out my Christmas decorations!!



:: 

Very cool!  I totally look forward to seeing them. There was a Christmas movie on tv "Jack Frost"... it's a cute movie but I'm not QUITE ready yet.. I like my seasons seasonal-ly LOL 

We are day after Thanksgiving people. Begining with chopping our own tree..

**Warning pre-seasonal pic ahead!  

 





Anybody tree cutters? We get an 8-9 foot pine for $10 here in Oregon. No, that's not a typo.  

When I lived in Cali the same tree was $109 and that was 10 yrs ago!



mariezp said:


> Hmmmmm..... maybe that's why DH doesn't cook for me anymore!



 Too funny! 

By the way, it really was National Husbands Make Dinner Day.. or at least that's what I heard on the radio! 



mariezp said:


> All right guys! We need more pictures! Somebody.... anybody?



Some more Halloween before we leave the subject....

Next is a cut and paste from my TR... sorry for the repeat....
Here is a little back ground about my avatar....I am cutting and pasting this post from one I posted on the "remember when" thread... 
puff'n what??

Here are my childhood buddies: Witchpoo, Puff-n-Stuff, Jimmy (the boy), and Freddie (The flute in my avatar)

*This woman is one of the best actresses of all time!
*





*McDonalds was sued and settled out of court after comissioning the same artist to design Mayor McCheese as the one who did Puff-N-Stuff. The guy showed McDonalds his ideas then McDonalds said, "no" and then came out with their exact look alike copy of Mayor McCheese.*





*Me and DH For Halloween!*





*DH made the Flute himself. It is an EXACT replica and sits in my Hutch today with our fine china and other hierlooms*





Poor DH, he looked like such a dork! What a sweetie for pulling that off with me!! I love that man!  

I'm going to go back and catch up with all this stuff on this site.. I am a nostalgia FREAK!

I keep threatening to buy the girls some chinese jacks.. remember those???


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## travelmel

EDIT: accidental repeat of the same post.. sorry!

bonus pics:

This is a Dental hygienist and friend of mine. Her boss and her made these teeth. They are realy crowns (caps).   


*What's up Doc?*


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## travelmel

*after the costume came off... *





*Her pumpkin that year*





*The culturally-inclined DD*





*DH's Harley Pumpkin... it just makes me wanna sing, "Get your motor runnin....(p.s. DH does not ride.)  *


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## travelmel

Just a quick note: 

I wanted to let you know that my DDB (age 12) and I saw the movie "The Secret Life of Bee's"

It stars Dakota Fanning, Queen Latifa and others. It's produced by Will and Jada Smith. It takes place in the south circa 1964. 

I give it a BIG THUMBS UP   and so did she  

We were both teary  but it was really good.

I hope you will go see it (and/or read the book, it was great, too).

Link to Trailer: The trailer looks a little hoaky to me but don't let that detour you. Your DH may not like this movie but we certainly did. 

http://www.fandango.com/thesecretlifeofbeesmovietrailer/1_19360/v427560


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## kdzbear

travelmel - I love all of the Halloween photos. I will have to try to find some more of the kids and post them later. I am trying to still finish my TR from October. It is hard to write with three kids! Thanks for the great thread!


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## travelmel

kdzbear said:


> travelmel - I love all of the Halloween photos. I will have to try to find some more of the kids and post them later. I am trying to still finish my TR from October. It is hard to write with three kids! Thanks for the great thread!



Sounds good! Thanks for stopping by!


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## travelmel

I'm also interested in cute THankgiviing Craft ideas. 

My DH's family doesn't like board games too much and I get bored hanging out there all day.


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## Tikitoi

I so wish I knew how to post pix.  I have so many from our trip to Hershey, PA.  But thanks for this thread.


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## travelmel

Tikitoi said:


> I so wish I knew how to post pix.  I have so many from our trip to Hershey, PA.  But thanks for this thread.



Posting pics isn't that hard.. it's just time consuming (until you get the hang of it then it goes pretty fast).

Go to photobucket, make yourself an account. Click "upload" then after a picture (or pictureS) is on the photobucket you just click on the IMG link and copy it (it copies automatically when you click on it) and paste it into your link. DONE! Very simple. 

The time consuming part comes when you upload several pics at a time. It's easy enough though. ... when you click "UPLOAD" just hit the CTRL key on your keyboard and highlight the pics in the file you want to upload and click enter and VIOLA. 

THEN...if you want to size them to a more manageable size you click "edit" then "Resize" and make it whatever you want then re-save it. That takes some time to do to EACH PICTURE but it's nice because then the pics aren't huge BUT you dont' have to!

I hope you are inspired. Would love to see your pics. I don't think I'll ever visit Hershey now that they've left PA. I'm boycotting them.   BUT I would still like to see what I missed!


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## Yakety76

travelmel said:


> *Kathleen,*




This is the cutest picture!!  Your girls look so beautiful.  It looks like it should be a holiday card.


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## travelmel

Yakety76 said:


> This is the cutest picture!!  Your girls look so beautiful.  It looks like it should be a holiday card.



Thank you! You're so sweet.   I absolutely LOVE living in Oregon sometimes.. and Christmas tree hunting time is one of them. lol  We live in the Portland area but this place is only about 20 min away. We get the most beautiful pics up there. :   8' tree or even bigger.. doesn't matter, the price is still $10 for a xmas tree.


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## TamTab

Here are some of our pictures from Halloween 2007 I don't have any from this year since we were on a cruise.

DH as Slooth and I was the Queen of hearts





Some of our pumpkins















My little ferret Tinkerbell










These were our pumpkins from 2006


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## travelmel

Wow! What a great set of pumpkins! Were those from one year? 

Great outfits, too! We have a pic of us in front of the "real" Goonies house

travelmel <----nerd


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## TamTab

travelmel said:


> Wow! What a great set of pumpkins! Were those from one year?
> 
> Great outfits, too! We have a pic of us in front of the "real" Goonies house
> 
> travelmel <----nerd



Yup one year.  We carved 6 last year and then 4 the year before.  We are both huge Halloween fans!


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## Yakety76

I LOVE the Sloth costume.  Goonies was one of my favorite movies growing up.


----------



## TamTab

Yakety76 said:


> I LOVE the Sloth costume.  Goonies was one of my favorite movies growing up.




Haha thanks.  DH was very proud of that costume!


----------



## travelmel

TamTab said:


> Yup one year.  We carved 6 last year and then 4 the year before.  We are both huge Halloween fans!



If I woulda come by your house I would have been oohing and ahhing over your homage to the "bad guy" pumpkins!  

I forgot to say how much I loved your ferret witch! SO DARN CUTE! I used to have a ferret long ago.   He was SO reeeeeediculously cute! So fun! I just love them but they are HARD WORK!


----------



## tiggerfan1

Hi!   I just stopped by to deliver some.............




Kabochas!!!







  ​





*travelmel-*  I love your daughter's Halloween costumes!  I had to laugh at that "after the costume came off" caption. 

*TamTab-*  Those pumpkin pictures are awesome!  




I'm not sure if this really belongs here or not, but I just wanted to share my pumpkin chocolate chip cookie picture.  It's my first pumpkin dish of the season.  (The canned pumpkin finally went on sale this past weekend.  I don't know what took them so long!)



*Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies*


----------



## travelmel

tiggerfan1 said:


> Hi!



Thanks for the Kabochas!

Yes, all is welcome here. No worries. Your seasonal recipes is like a sister-thread to this one!


----------



## travelmel

Hello again..

Here are some pictures from Halloween this year. I hope you enjoy!

*To set the mood*





We just painted our downstairs area. The stage we put up last year. 

*Party Room*





*Upstairs decor*





Party food consisted of: Guts and Eyeballs, Snake Charm Bread, and Graveyard Greens.

*Bon Apetit*




*Close up*





*DD's*




*Family shot*





*DH during the costume contest jude-off*





There were 3 prizes (ribbons from the Dollar Store) in each catergorie: Cutest, Most Unique, and Scariest (then also best adults). Adults voted for kids and kids for adults. The kids really got a kick out of doing some official judging. 

*Beauty and the Beast (and family)*





I love his homeade Beast outfit! So cool!

*Leatherface and his Mommy*





*Disney Princess Pic*





Well, ok, not _EXACTLY_ but I thought it was close due to the hair.. Blonde, red, brunette.  

*Group Shot!*





To be Cont.........​


----------



## travelmel

*I love tree lined paths.....Disney was well represented, of course*





*Cassidy's Cat Pumpkin*





*Bailey's Burl Ives-inspired Devil*





*DH tried something different this year*





*Oogie Boogie for me!*





I Found the pic online and DH printed out a scaled model then traced it and put it on the pumpkin.   

*Indoor Jack-O-Lighting (one fell down in the revelry)*





I found these awesome lanterns at the Dollar Store. They looked SO pretty BUT the batteries lasted for about 25 minutes. 2-AAA's in each lantern!  

*I love festive lighting!*





After Trick-Or-Treating we came back to bob for apples and watched Ickabod Crane's and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow! 

*Just scary enough*





The End!​


----------



## Lights_Out

Great pictures *EVERYONE*! 

It's almost Thanksgiving and Christmas is just around the corner


----------



## travelmel

Lights_Out said:


> Great pictures *EVERYONE*!
> 
> It's almost Thanksgiving and Christmas is just around the corner



Yup! I'm putting out a call now:

LOOKING FOR THANKSGIVING CRAFTS!​
Something fairly easy and preferably something you have done before. 

Let me know what you've got!


----------



## Disneygrl36

Loved all the Halloween photos.........
Can't believe Christmas will be here before we know it.
Here's my Thanksgiving contribution......you've seen this before Melissa on my pre-trippie.......




This was taken before we had a lot of wind last week & now there are very few of the pretty leaves left.


----------



## travelmel

I absolutely love that picture. It really captures the essence of the season. BAM!  oh brother.. get it, the essence?  Dumb. OK... lol

We decorated a little bit for the "Fall" now that Halloween is over. It's funny to me that I put up Halloween first then autumn but the Autumn decorations come out, in stores, before Halloween decorations do and are therefore on sale RIGHT when I'm putting them up!   

I'm easily amused.


----------



## travelmel

A VERY HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY TO YOU ALL!

*Thanksgiving 2004*








*Thanksgiving 2005-this time DDB's turn to be the piligrim. lol*





*Fall at the Japanese Garden.. the best time of year*





*The girls dressed as their favorite "American Girl" character*








*They were channeling Josephina and Samatha pretty hard that day*













*Leaf Gathering!*










*I love the pop!*


----------



## Disneygrl36

Melissa,
I decided to put my turkey day cake over here too!!!!





We decorated for Christmas yesterday.  I will take some pictures & post them over here.  I didn't put everything up as we will be gone for 9 days, but I put up enough to put us in the spirit.


----------



## travelmel

Disneygrl36 said:


> Melissa,
> I decided to put my turkey day cake over here too!!!!
> 
> We decorated for Christmas yesterday.  I will take some pictures & post them over here.  I didn't put everything up as we will be gone for 9 days, but I put up enough to put us in the spirit.



Thanks for showing off your cake on the Seasonal thread! I'm looking forward to the Christmas stuff coming up....  

I'm also gonna double post this Thanksgiving tid-bit as it was originally for the pumpkin/gourd thread... but, here goes!



tiggerfan1 said:


> [/SIZE][/FONT]




*Proof that the feud has ended!*





Pictured above: Sweet Potato's (we can't leave yam enough alone.), Pumpkin Trifle, and Twi-nips (yep, Twi-nips)

*But really, let's not get trifiling about it!*





The trifle turned out very well. I followed the directions, for the most part!  The directions called for cook and serve pudding but I accidently bought "instant" so I beefed it up with half a brick of cream cheese  

The cookies on top are a cinammon crisp. They're REALLY good. After they sat, however, they became soggy. I would prefer to crumble them over the desert in single serve doses.  

*Rootabuddies!*





I boiled the rutabega's until tender then I mashed them with a fork. I like some chunkiness so I don't "puree." I added some butter, some chinese five spice (nutmeg would surely have been fine), and some cracked pepper (but I use the "combo peppercorns" that have rose corns... they have more of a nutmegg-y taste and, as you can see, I like that.). 

The sweet potato's (*actually, beauregard yams... but really NOT yams as yams were a giant root from the carribean islands that didn't exist on the mainland of the US so when the carribean people came here they saw these things and called them yams.) I just quartered them, boiled them, threw brown sugar and butter bits over them, shot some OJ on top of that and threw them in the oven. I forgot the marshmallows this year!  

If these two can get along, there's hope for the Hatkins and the McGourds. 

*Smile gal darnit! *





*Turkey and Wine.. just like in my siggie*





The turkey my DMIL makes. It's in some kind of cheesecloth bag and then 2 or 3 bottles of red wine are basted over it all day. It makes for a tremedously moist (and drunken) turkey. J/K about the drunken, you can't even taste it! HOWEVER! It makes the gravy more of a "burgandy sauce." Next year I'm considering making the dinner at my house just so I can have beige gravy back on the menu!

I also made a green bean casserole this year. I tried to get fancy and use fresh green beans but they were hard. A real disappointment for me, a hardcore GBC person.  

Hope your holidays were happy ones! We were very thankful, indeed.






EDIT: My DH is too funny. He saw the pic below and said, "Ahhhh... look at that couple." 

".... of chins on my face."

 



​


----------



## DisneyLaura

travelmel said:


>



That picture is awesome.  I agree Christmas card!

A





travelmel said:


> nybody tree cutters? We get an 8-9 foot pine for $10 here in Oregon. No, that's not a typo.



We don't cut our own tree but we buy one already cut for $40



travelmel said:


> Next is a cut and paste from my TR... sorry for the repeat....
> Here is a little back ground about my avatar....I am cutting and pasting this post from one I posted on the "remember when" thread...
> puff'n what??



I REMEMBER THIS SHOW!



travelmel said:


> Just a quick note:
> 
> I wanted to let you know that my DDB (age 12) and I saw the movie "The Secret Life of Bee's"
> 
> It stars Dakota Fanning, Queen Latifa and others. It's produced by Will and Jada Smith. It takes place in the south circa 1964.



I want to see this too



travelmel said:


> Next year I'm considering making the dinner at my house just so I can have beige gravy back on the menu!



My DH's cousin told us that he heard at work to mix Bisquick with the turkey drippings instead of flour.


----------



## travelmel

DisneyLaura said:


> That picture is awesome.  I agree Christmas card! You are too kind!
> 
> We don't cut our own tree but we buy one already cut for $40
> 
> Ouch, I haven't spent that kind of money on a tree in years!
> Actually, what I remember is the $109 trees in California and that was over 10 years ago!
> 
> I REMEMBER THIS SHOW!
> 
> My DD's have the entire Puff boxed set. I highly recommend it!
> 
> I want to see this too
> 
> Did you read the book? It's a great movie. A teency bit mellowdramatic but hey... it's kinda a sappy story. I loved it. My DD12 cried, too. Maybe for the first time in a movie. I'm not sure about that though.
> 
> 
> My DH's cousin told us that he heard at work to mix Bisquick with the turkey drippings instead of flour.
> 
> Wow! That is incredibley interesting news! I am SO going to try that.. perhaps with a roasted chicken so I can do it right away! Thanks for the really awesome tip!



And!  Thanks for stopping by to chat!


----------



## tiggerfan1

Hi, Travelmel!  Tiggerfan1 here.  I thought I'd post my T-day pumpkin report here on your thread, too.  My Christmas decoration pics are coming soon!  






_Inspired by the Pioneer Woman's blog_...............



 ~*~ Confessions of a Tigger Fan ~*~ 


_How I Offended the Food Gods and the Sweet Potatoes_






*Warning:* Beware of crappy pictures.  I am not the greatest photographer.  








It was a bright, sunny Thanksgiving morning here in the State of Confusion when I started to fix breakfast.  I wanted to try one of the recipes from this thread, so I decided to make pumpkin french toast.  I figured it would be easy to prepare and could be made in advance.  Here's a picture of it:




Pumpkin French Toast w/ Maple Syrup







(The pumpkin french toast was really good.  Braided challah was my choice of bread.  I used half-and-half instead of cream and added an extra tablespoon of sugar.  Oh, and I used 1/2 tsp. of pumpkin pie spice and 1/4 tsp. cinnamon instead of following the recipe.  The french toast came out really well.  It doesn't have a big pumpkin taste, but it's still good.  I will definitely be making this again.  ) 




This year, my family and I had Thanksgiving with my aunt (she's not really related to me, but I still call her my aunt) and some of her family members.  My aunt, whom I will refer to as Aunt M, made the turkey, pumpkin crunch cake, pound cake and several side dishes.  My Aunt M is an amazing cook.  Her turkey was so tasty and moist.    I wish I had gotten a picture of it.  




We had two kinds of sweet potatoes this year.  My Aunt M and her folks prefer candied sweet potatoes (w/ no marshmallows), while my family and I like sweet potato casserole (w/ lots of marshmallows).  Unfortunately, putting marshmallows on sweet potatoes is considered to be highly offensive to the food gods.  Making green bean casserole can also incur their wrath. (I am an unabashed green bean casserole lover. )  How did I offend the sweet potatoes, you ask?  Well..........I forgot to take a picture of them!!!    I was so focused on the pumpkin stuff that I neglected the poor little sweet potatoes.  If you read about the pumpkin-turnip/rutabega feud, you'd understand my concern.  To avoid a potential feud between the sweet potatoes and the pumpkins, I decided to post pictures that looked similar to what we had.  


My aunt's candied sweet potatoes looked a lot like Travelmel's. (Sorry, Travelmel, I hope you don't mind me "borrowing" your picture!)  








My sweet potato casserole looked a lot like the picture below.  The only difference is that my sweet potatoes had more streusel topping and marshmallows on it.  It doesn't look very pretty in my opinion, but it tastes good! 






I repeat, this is NOT my own picture!







For dessert, we had..........



My Aunt M's pumpkin crunch cake 








(Here's an up-close-and-personal picture of a piece of pumpkin crunch cake.)







My pumpkin-swirl brownies:







(These brownies were pretty good.  To be honest, I think that I should have made my chocolate-pumpkin marble cake instead.   These brownies took forever to bake and it ended up looking more like a cake instead of a brownie.  The pieces were HUGE.  As you can see, I didn't do a very good job of marbling these brownies.   Yeah, I may not make these again.  If I do, I'll probably have to tweak the recipe a little.  Sorry Smitten Kitchen blog lady!  I still adore your recipes, though! )




My pumpkin pie:






The graham cracker crust was made especially for me by the Keebler elves.  


(As you can see, I used a store-bought pie crust.  I also used the same old Libby's recipe instead of trying a new recipe from this thread.  Yup, I offended the food gods once again.  To punish me for my laziness, they decided to mess with my pumpkin pie.  Before I baked the pie, I put it on a cookie sheet so that it would be easier to put in and take out of the oven.  I also assumed that it would keep the pie pan nice and level.  When I went to check on the half-baked pie about 20 minutes later, I noticed that something didn't look right.  Upon further inspection, I noticed that the pie was slightly tilted and the filling was uneven!!!     I was so upset, but I just let my uneven pie continue to bake.  While the pie was cooling, I racked my brain trying to figure out how to deal with this mistake.  I didn't have time to make another pie. Finally, I decided to hide the uneven filling with whipped cream.  It did the trick.  No one knew that there was anything wrong with the pie.........and they never will. )



I also made apple dumplings for dessert.  I have no pictures of them because I only took pictures of the pumpkin stuff.  You can see a picture of the dumplings on the Pioneer Woman's site, which is where I got the recipe. (The PW's apple dumplings look a lot prettier than mine did, anyway.)  http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/02/apple_dumplings/


Although PW's apple dumplings looked delicious, I couldn't bring myself to use all that butter, sugar and Mountain Dew.  That's totally ironic because I use lots of butter and sugar in my chocolate-pumpkin marble cake.  Hmmm....maybe it was the Mountain Dew that that scared me.   Anyway, I used half the amount of butter and sugar and used apple cider instead of Mountain Dew.  It still came out good.    Oh, by the way, I also made stuffing based on PW's half cornbread/half french bread stuffing recipe.  It turned out really well!   




Well, although there were a couple of mishaps along the way, we all still had a great Thanksgiving.  Thanks for letting me share my Thanksgiving with you all.  It felt good to get that confession off my chest.  The sweet potatoes have forgiven me and are no longer offended.  Wish me luck as I try to appease the food gods. ​


----------



## travelmel

tiggerfan1 said:


> Hi, Travelmel!  Tiggerfan1 here.   [/CENTER]







To the All Things Seasonal Thread! ​


I know, huh! our threads sorta pair together well, don't they??   

Thanks for your great Thanksgiving Day addition!


----------



## Disneygrl36

Wow great looking Thanksgiving food. 
I would have been happy to eat with you guys.

I will post a few Christmas decorations to start getting us in the mood.
We put up our tree on Thanksgiving day.




Here are some close ups of the tree..........It is not all Disney all the time, but there is a lot of Disney on the tree.  We usually put up a smaller tree in our dining room too that I decorate with all wooden Disney ornaments I have, but since we are going to be in California for 9 days this season we decided not to put that tree up this year.









Kermit is waiting to go on the tree after our trip since we haven't officially visited the Jim Henson studios yet.





The reason for the season.......I have had this Precious Moments nativity for a long time.









Kemit is waiting to go on the tree since we haven't officially visited the Jim Henson Studios yet.





And my kitchen window just like at Halloween......I try to decorate it for all the seasons.





Not much outside this year because of the trip too......we usually do icicle lights & wreaths on the dormer windows etc.  This year just the flag & wreath.





Enjoy............hope to see some others decorations soon.


----------



## travelmel

Thanks for the great Ornament pics! I love your Minnie Mickey star topper   

Woo hoo, Kermit riding onto a tree near you!


----------



## tiggerfan1

*Travelmel-* Thanks for the welcome!  What a gorgeous welcome picture!  How did you make that?


*Disneygrl36-* Thanks!  You can have Thankgiving with us next year.  You can enjoy a meal in Oregon with Travelmel and then come here to the State of Confusion for another feast.   

I love your Christmas decorations!  That Precious Moments nativity scene is so adorable.  I definitely want to get that some day.   


My Christmas pics will be posted in a bit.


----------



## tiggerfan1

OK, here are a couple of my Christmas pics.  Unfortunately, my pictures aren't the greatest.  Many of my pictures came out really blurry.  I took pictures of the Christmas tree, but when I saw the larger images on the computer screen, they weren't very good.  I'll try to get some better shots later.  



Our gigantic wreath _inside_ the house (Seriously, it's huge.)  








My Christmas stocking 








This is a Coca-Cola polar bear that we got a few years ago.  When you press the button, he plays a jazzy version of "Jingle Bells" on the double bass.  It's so cool!








Here's my Christmas tissue box.    It's so cute!  I love it!








Sadly, these were the best of the bunch.  Bad camera + bad photographer = no-so-good pictures.  I'm going to ask Santa for a better camera for Christmas.  I also really want to improve my photography skills.  That'll be my New Year's resolution.


----------



## travelmel

LOL  

I gave a tissue box like that as a gift to a 79 yr old friend of mine. She loved it!   

They're so pretty these days   

As for the welcome... 

1) there is a "welcome" graphic that I cut and pasted.. 

2) then I type the words in 

3) then I highlight each word and change the color -per word 

4) then I highlight all the words and enlarge them

5) hen I added the mickey graphic 

6) then I highlight EVERYTHING and center it. 

Easy as pie!    






thanks for posting your decorations. I have to get on the ball but we've been busy helping my DMIL put up her Snow Village (I accidentally typed Snot instead of Snow at first...  ). 

Here's a pic of her snow village from a previous year. This thing is NO JOKE!

She's very  about it having to be Area 51 or whatever... 

*More like Snow Planet!*




DH Didn't like his pic on that one.


----------



## travelmel

While I'm at it... might as well share a couple more from 2005!

So I'm weird... I like to "Stage" my Santa presents.   

Also of note are the Christmas Stockings.. we made them ourselves. I will post pics of mine and DH's later. 






I am not crafty.   I have the  and DH makes it happen 






We won these swords and shields at a White Elephant party... of course they were a bigger hit than the "real" gifts that year!  LOL  

*Sir Bailey*





*Quick, Sir Bailey....your Dear Grandma is being held captive by your arch nemesis, "Lady Lizzie Borden!"*

*::*






I cannot TELL You how funny I Find that picture. My DMIL... not so much.   

Ok, just so you don't think my DD is psycho.. here's a cute pic to get that last image out of your head




​


----------



## Disneygrl36

Melissa........I loved your comment about Kermit riding onto a tree near you. You have the kind of sense of humor that I wish I had.  Me=not so quick with the quips.

Thanks for the comments on my decorations Tiggerfan.......My Mom bought me my PM nativity probably about 10 years ago & I love it.  I have a ton of PM's as I used to be really in to collecting them as well as my Disney stuff, but they are mostly in boxes in the closet now except for a special few so it's extra fun pulling out my nativity set every year.
P.S.  I love your Kleenex....

Melissa........great pictures!!  Now that is a snow village.  Wow. 

Oh I didn't put this up this year because of the trip.......but I will show you guys my very small Disney village & PM village (this isn't all of it but it was all I could fit on the table-I used to have a big bar area in my kitchen in a former house & could fill it up with the village).


----------



## mariezp

OMG, travelmel! Your MIL's Snow Village is as big as some store displays that I have seen! Where do people store all this stuff?

I love the pic of your "Lady Lizzie Borden!"!  

Everybody has such pretty Christmas stuff! I need to get busy!


----------



## ty&brenmom

travelmel said:


> [COLOR="SeaGreen
> So I'm weird... I like to "Stage" my Santa presents.
> 
> QUOTE]
> 
> Glad to see I am not the only weird one, I also "Stage" Santa presents, and they all have some theme that goes together.  Makes it more fun for Santa​


----------



## travelmel

mariezp said:


> OMG, travelmel! Your MIL's Snow Village is as big as some store displays that I have seen! Where do people store all this stuff?
> 
> I love the pic of your "Lady Lizzie Borden!"!
> 
> Everybody has such pretty Christmas stuff! I need to get busy!



She stores it all in her rafters in the garage. We counted 75 storage boxes and 8 bags of "snow" came out this year. It's quite a process to get it all up!

I'm glad you liked my Ode to Norman Bates... ee eeee ee eee



ty&brenmom said:


> Glad to see I am not the only weird one, I also "Stage" Santa presents, and they all have some theme that goes together.  Makes it more fun for Santa



Do you capture it in a Kodak way?


----------



## travelmel

Disneygrl36 said:


> but I will show you guys my very small Disney village



I love your Disney village! So cute! Be careful.... maybe the PM and the Disney might have zoning issues??


----------



## Luvmic49

Great pictures and thread travelmel!!! Here is the link to our Disney Home pictures....keep up the good work.

http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/showgal...0/ppuser/33629


----------



## travelmel

Luvmic49 said:


> Great pictures and thread travelmel!!! Here is the link to our Disney Home pictures....keep up the good work.
> 
> http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/showgal...0/ppuser/33629



That link didn't work for me.. I'm going to try and reprint it for you with the "url" symbols in place... let's see if that helps?  

http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/showgal...0/ppuser/33629

EDIT: Nope.... that didn't help  

Thanks for the encouragement and I'm glad you're enjoying this thread!! :::


----------



## Luvmic49

Sorry that one did not work travelmel....lets try it again.
Thanks

http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/33629


----------



## travelmel

*Oh My Merry Dis-Mas!!

WOW!!!


You guys have to see Luvmic49's YARD!

Yes, that is a monorail... And it DOES go through the Contemporary Resort!





The Link is in the above post... You have got to check these pics out! 

There are many more wonderful pics in that link    ​*


----------



## tiggerfan1

*Travelmel-* More great pics!  I especially love that snow village!  Staging your Christmas presents is a great idea.  Holding a knife to your grandmother's throat......uh, not so great.     

By the way, thanks for explaining how to make the cool picture.  At first I thought that it was all one picture.  I didn't realize that it was separate pictures all put together.  Sorry!  


*Disneygrl36-* Glad you appreciated the Kleenex picture!  I loved your snow village and Precious Moments village.  Don't worry about any zoning issues that may come up.  I'll take care of that.  I've got connections.    


*Luvmic49-* Hey, I remember you from the Theme Parks community board!  Thanks for re-posting your pictures here.  They're awesome!  Where did you find all of those decorations?


----------



## tiggerfan1

I'm a big I Love Lucy fan and I love collecting I Love Lucy memorabilia.  Here are a couple of my Lucy ornaments.


----------



## ty&brenmom

travelmel said:


> Do you capture it in a Kodak way?



No I do it so late/early that I am to tired to think about a camera usually I wake up suddenly and shout some not so nice words about forgeting Santa presents, then I set them up quickly  having the fear of being caught I rush back to bed.  The rule at my house is if you get up before 7am you can open Santa presents and then wake me up at 7am, so by the time I am awake it's not set up any more. This year I am on a mission to take pics before I go back to sleep.

Luvmic49 - Love your house, we always drive around and look at lights and things and my youngest wants to know where that house is and when are we driving by it.


----------



## Luvmic49

Thanks everyone..we enjoy seeing all Disney Christmas decorations, there are some very pretty ones posted here.

tiggerfan1...My wife and I have been collecting Disney stuff since 1986. We buy a few new ornaments every year. Some come from local stores and some from Disney, either on line or from the Disney parks. (We're going again in Janurary). The yard stuff I made in my workshop including the Monorail which is twenty-one years old this year. It requires constant maintenance. My wife helps me with the painting,

ty&brenmom...we live twenty miles South of Baton Rouge Louisiana...that would be quite a drive for you guys. But we would be glad to see you if you passed by. There are many kids in our town who get very excited when passing, and a few who just have to come by almost every night during December.


----------



## travelmel

ty&brenmom said:


> No I do it so late/early that I am to tired to think about a camera usually I wake up suddenly and shout some not so nice words about forgeting Santa presents, then I set them up quickly  having the fear of being caught I rush back to bed.  The rule at my house is if you get up before 7am you can open Santa presents and then wake me up at 7am, so by the time I am awake it's not set up any more. This year I am on a mission to take pics before I go back to sleep.
> 
> Luvmic49 - Love your house, we always drive around and look at lights and things and my youngest wants to know where that house is and when are we driving by it.



Woman, you need to enforce the "NO PRESENTS UNTIL I GET UP AND START COFFEE" rule!    

Thanks for reading along!


----------



## travelmel

Today was the annual Breakfast With Santa at our local Mall. Now, we have been doing this for 3 yrs. Last year was the last year that DD11 going on 17 really wanted to go but DH and I love a good breakfast buffet and with a $5 price tag AND ambiance... how could we pass it up!!??

Besides... it's T R A D I T I O N!!  (insert Fidler on the Roof music)​
Last year...
*Patience for Mrs. Claus is limited*





*Shopping, however, is a different story!*





Ok, now for the true reason for this post... I know that Disers like FOOD PORN!!

So here is what your FIVE DOLLARS   gets you!

I was too embarrassed to take pics of the buffet.. go figure. So I made Cass stand in front of all the food stands like I was taking a pic of her. What?! It worked!

*The fruit course*





*Breakfast breads, pastries, and muffins*





There were eggs with onions, breakfast potatos, eggs and cheese along with three different kinds of quiche (behind DD in the next picture) and loads of yummy, crisp bacon out of the shot on the far right. 

*breakfast protein*





This is actually my favorite part. The juice bar! There is cranberry, orange, apple, and water poured, for your convenience, by a cutely dressed little helper. There is also 4 things of coffee and 4 seperate things JUST FOR HOT CHOCOLATE! So cute! The pic only shows about 1/3 of the drink offerings. 

*Long live the Drink Bar!*





*Merry Overstuffedness to you!*





I must admit I did not think to take a pic of the foods until we were actually done (which is why the food area is sorta empty of people and goods) but I thought you guys might like to see what $5 buys in the good ole state of OREGON!

Please feel free to post any/all traditions you and your enjoy for the holidays. I'd love to see. Or, continue to enjoy mine from the comfort of your own home. Your choice! ​


----------



## Disneygrl36

What a cool event!!!!  Soon I will be having breakfast buffets at Disneyland!!!


----------



## travelmel

Disneygrl36 said:


> What a cool event!!!!  Soon I will be having breakfast buffets at Disneyland!!!



I was totally thinking of you!  Lucky girl! Because I don't get to go to WDW I really enjoy kind of noticing the things that we do that mimic experiences I would have there. (Don't worry, I know I sound all sad that I don't get to go but really... I have it so good and I know that!  )


----------



## tiggerfan1

*Luvmic49-* Wow, you made all of those yard decorations!!  That's amazing!    That's so sweet that you and your wife work together on your Disney decorations.  You guys are like a real-life Mr. and Mrs. Claus!   


*Travelmel-* Love those Santa breakfast pictures.  Breakfasts with Santa for $5?  What an awesome deal!   That's so cute that you and your family have made this a family tradition.  You guys are such a fun family.


----------



## travelmel

A quick Christmas tree post

Another annual event. Chopping down the ole tree. The views where we go are superb. Usually it's very foggy but this year it was quite clear. We could see four different volcano's from our vantage point.

*Mt St Helens*





The place we go to is a private residence. My DIL's are friends with her. 

*People in glass houses shall have great views*





*A beautiful hillside view*





If my camera were better I could have captured Mt. Hood, Mt Jefferson, and something else I forget already. Portland Airport has to be one of the most unique in the world. As your flying in you see a whopping 4 plus HUGE VOLCANOS sprouting up from the relative flat lands of the area. It's an amazing sight... when the sky is clear.  

*Triumph over nature!*





Of course her dad had sweated half a quart of water before she sawed the last blade of wood.   

After tree hunting we stopped at Helvatia Taven for lunch. The home of the yummiest hamburgers in the PDX area. Then later that night we saw the "Little People Big World" show (the Roloffs?) and saw them driving right by the tavern. They live right out here near us. They were also the grand marshal of our local parade this year. I know some people like that show. In fact, my aunt and cousin may come up here just to go to their farm. Not to just to visit us. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh no.  

*Helvatia Tavern    *





This year we really reached a saturation level with how big of a tree we can get into our house. Next year I promise to scale back.

*It didn't look that big in the woods!*  





We finally finished getting our decorations up! We also have all the DD"s shopped for AND wrapped!   We're feelin' pretty good! We spent way too much money again. *SIGH* But we bought alot of things that they needed (clothes, undies, etc) as well as alot of games (family time) and so... well, that's just the way it is, right? ​


----------



## travelmel

I can't help myself

*2004* 
The Fog so thick we couldn't see the tree behind the tree much less the forest!





*2005*





*2006*


*2007* 





*2008*





I'm just indulging myself here. Sorry to bother you guys with boring pics. I am going to try and save these little things that I do and learn how to do a blog someday.


----------



## travelmel

tiggerfan1 said:


> I'm a big I Love Lucy fan and I love collecting I Love Lucy memorabilia.  Here are a couple of my Lucy ornaments.



I forgot to comment on these! They are SO cool! Halmark had a Lucy ornament out this year but it's from "the Christmas SPecial" and we have not seen that one yet.  

We LOVE Lucy! Last year we used to get up every morning at 6AM and watch Lucy for 1/2 hour while waking up. WE have slacked off but need to get back into it! Trouble is we can't think of another show we will all like and STAY AWAKE to! 

Thanks for sharing those!


----------



## kathleen27

Disneygrl36 your tree looks great! Love all your ornaments, kermit is adorable!

Luvmic 49 your yard looks Amazing!!! I love the monorail.

Tiggerfan1 Cute Lucy ornaments!

Travelmel that is quite the snow village your mil has!
The breakfast buffet looks good, What a great deal!
Love the Christmas tree photos! Too cute. The girls look so little in that first photo! Kids just grow sooo fast! 
Amazing views of Mt St Helens & the hillside! Ive never seen a volcano. 

I am sad to say we havent taken any decorations out yet.  I intended to start yesterday, but I forgot the kids had after school & evening activities, so we didnt have time. I have already bought a few new ornaments though!!! Tonight we are going to see Santa at the mall. The kids are probably a little old for this but we have a picture for every year since my oldest was born, and Im not ready to give up the tradition yet. They may just be going along with it because we always go out to dinner afterwards.


----------



## tiggerfan1

*Travelmel-*  Hi!    I've missed seeing you around on the boards.  I loved those pictures of you and your family going Christmas-tree hunting.  What a fun family tradition!     You're so lucky to be able to get your own Christmas tree instead of having to buy them.  I'm originally from Hawaii and all of our Christmas trees were imported from Oregon!   

I'm glad that you're a Lucy fan, too.  Oh, and thanks for telling me about the "Christmas Special" ornament.  I HAVE to get that!!!   



*Kathleen27-* Glad you enjoyed the Lucy ornaments.     I hope that you and your family have a great Christmas!


----------



## travelmel

kathleen27 said:


> Disneygrl36 your tree looks great! Love all your ornaments, kermit is adorable!
> 
> Luvmic 49 your yard looks Amazing!!! I love the monorail.
> 
> Tiggerfan1 Cute Lucy ornaments!
> 
> Travelmel that is quite the snow village your mil has!
> The breakfast buffet looks good, What a great deal!
> Love the Christmas tree photos! Too cute. The girls look so little in that first photo! Kids just grow sooo fast!
> Amazing views of Mt St Helens & the hillside! I’ve never seen a volcano.
> 
> I am sad to say we haven’t taken any decorations out yet.  I intended to start yesterday, but I forgot the kids had after school & evening activities, so we didn’t have time. I have already bought a few new ornaments though!!! Tonight we are going to see Santa at the mall. The kids are probably a little old for this but we have a picture for every year since my oldest was born, and I’m not ready to give up the tradition yet. They may just be going along with it because we always go out to dinner afterwards.





tiggerfan1 said:


> *Travelmel-*  Hi!    I've missed seeing you around on the boards.  I loved those pictures of you and your family goint Christmas-tree hunting.  What a fun family tradition!     You're so lucky to be able to get your own Christmas tree instead of having to buy them.  I'm originally from Hawaii and all of our Christmas trees were imported from Oregon!
> 
> I'm glad that you're a Lucy fan, too.  Oh, and thanks for telling me about the "Christmas Special" ornament.  I HAVE to get that!!!
> 
> 
> 
> *Kathleen27-* Glad you enjoyed the Lucy ornaments.     I hope that you and your family have a great Christmas!



Gosh! You guys are so darn sweet! I know you're virtual friends but you have brougt real feelings to my heart. Just so I don't sound like a blithering idiot ...well, I still might.. but anyway, I'm all wound up because Tiggerfan found the Lucy Christmas show on youtube and sent it to me. In the spirit of the holidays, friendship, and giving, I'm just so happy about niceness I could bust. I really am thankful to have met you guys. Corny as it is. 

More holiday stuff to come!  I have to try and take breaks from the computer as much as I don't want to.. my back and wrists. Just not a good match. I'm really looking forward to some GOOD voice recognition software!

P.S. Kathleen, how's the decorations coming along? Don't worry, you can always go with the "elegance"  of less is more. Also, good for you to have kids that are too old but will do the picture taking for you anyway. ::  I'm happy for you to have that and I have the same... SO FAR!  lol


----------



## tiggerfan1

travelmel said:


> Gosh! You guys are so darn sweet! I know you're virtual friends but you have brougt real feelings to my heart. Just so I don't sound like a blithering idiot ...well, I still might.. but anyway, I'm all wound up because Tiggerfan found the Lucy Christmas show on youtube and sent it to me. In the spirit of the holidays, friendship, and giving, I'm just so happy about niceness I could bust. I really am thankful to have met you guys. Corny as it is.



Awww, thanks Melissa!  You're a sweetie, too.    You're not being a "blithering idiot" or "corny".  We may be virtual friends, but we are still real people.  Well, I'm only about three-quarters real, but.......  I'm really glad that I met you, too.  Without you, there would only be one little pepita and that wouldn't be any fun.  It has been so much fun talking about absolute nonsense with you on my recipe thread.  I can't wait to do it all again next year!    I suggest that you post your seasonal picture thread on the community board next year so that you'll get lots of traffic.  You've got a lot of great pictures and you deserve to have a big audience, just like you did for your trip report.     Hugs to you!


----------



## tiggerfan1

Here are a couple more of my Christmas pics.  





Here's our Christmas tree.  We usually use twinkling white lights on our tree, but this year, they stopped working.  We tried to look for new twinkling lights, but they were hard to find.  I think that the multi-colored lights are pretty, but it clashes with the garland on the fireplace mantle.    Since we will be going away for Christmas, we're just putting up with it.  Even though we won't be home for Christmas, we still wanted to decorate the house a little.  









Here's the fireplace.  The three stockings are just there for decoration.


----------



## travelmel

SO pretty! I love a fully decked tree! I love your mantle decor, too. We have a fireplace but no mantle. DH and I were musing about a flat screen but then we'd have to buy a mantle that stuck out about 2 feet into the room in order for me to transfer all the Decorations I put on top of the TV. Where would they all go??? 

I was thinking about the community board.. maybe I should transfer this thread?? Maybe just do it as a Christamas seasonal? 

P.S. Night nite!


----------



## mariezp

*Travelmel*, I love the over the years photos of your girls! My favorite has still got to be the 2007! 



travelmel said:


> *It didn't look that big in the woods!*


Now, that's a tree! I am not even sure it would fit through our front door!

*tiggerfan1*, you got another Lucy fan here! 



Well, I still have not gotten our tree up but I did get out my Santas, Snowmen animated figures and some other decorations. Thought I would share.

Here is the view out my front kitchen this year. I used to have about a dozen of the light up deer but this year I passed them along for someone else to take on the headache of trying to keep all the bulbs working! This year we are going simple. 





Here are some other assorted items in my kitchen.
On top of the fridge.





I started a collection of old blow mold figures and have them set up above my cabinets.















Here is a close up of part of my Santa collection over my sink.






Heading into our living room there are various displays scattered around.















You all probably recognize this character!





I have a long shelf full of Christmas goodies.















Over the mantle.





Over my computer table.





DD wants me to share her decorations too!















Even a couple of the doors get some lovin!


----------



## LucyDingo

Hi everyone.  Thought I'd join in and share some of our Christmas photos....

Our tree (we still need to buy a tree topper though.)






Our fireplace.  We just put up the mantel the other day.  I'm happy to have a place to hang our stockings.  Next year we'll add lighted garland and some candle sticks to the mantel.






And here's my favorite Christmas decoration....


----------



## travelmel

LucyDingo!!

OMG that pic of your dog!!! Talk about an awesome Christmas card!!!  that is so cute it made me laugh right out loud!!

Thanks so much for contributing to this thread


----------



## travelmel

mariezp said:


> I started a collection of old blow mold figures and have them set up above my cabinets.



Marie!

I love how you have everything in little collections. Very cute!  I notice I gravitate towards the red and santa-ish decor but I love some of the frosty blue stuff, too. I dont' have a cabin so I can't figure out how to intigrate the "woodsy country" stuff but you've done a great job by sepearting and keeping eveyrything in a motif. I have no idea if I'm saying any of that right. Bottom line: Good job!  

I love, love, love that Santa and reindeer thingy up there! My grandma totally had that exact one and we had it on top of our TV for my entire childhood  

Maybe you could look underneath it and give me some info about the name/manufacturer? I would so love to get one. *SIGH* My mouth just dropped wide open when I saw it. I love those oldies but goodies!!!

You two have inspired me to get some pics posted of inside decor. My batteries keep dying in my camera!

Thanks so much for posting. It's really fun to see everybody's goodies.


----------



## mommaU4

I haven't been posting, but I've been reading along and I love all the pics!! So fun and festive!  

I thought I'd share a few from here in Vegas. (most of these have been posted on my TR or the Ladies Trip thread, so they might seem familiar to some of you)

These are from the conservatory in the Bellagio. The first set are how it looked back in Fall before Halloween and Thanksgiving. (should've posted those sooner, sorry!) It was really neat to see. 

This was so cool. They had two trees in the water, but they were actually fountains and while it's hard to tell, there is water falling down from the branches. 











They had water arches shooting across that you walk underneath. Very cool. 











The mill was really working, they had a little creek with water. 








































This thing creeped me out! LOL 





I had my DH take a pic of this. This is in the lobby where you check in. That's what those desks are. So as you are checking in, this is the view you have of BEHIND the person registering you. So in other words, their backs are to this and you are facing it.  How pretty is that??? Much better then some wall with lame pictures on it. 







To be continued..................


----------



## mommaU4

And these are pics from the other day of the same conservatory being redone for Christmas. It amazes me how they are able to make it look so different from one season to the next. You can see in some of the pics they were still working on adding some flowers.


----------



## LucyDingo

Love the photos.  And you look like you belong in the decor with your red sweater.


----------



## mommaU4

Also I thought I'd post some seasonal weather pics. This is the view from my bedroom that I usually see. Typical Vegas, hot, sunny, with blue skies. 











This was the scene here yesterday! Snow, and a pretty good amount too.
I took these around 12:30 or so. It continued to snow for another 2-3 hours, so we ended up with more than what you see here. 




































It was definitely a treat and all the kids, mine included, were all loving it!!


----------



## mariezp

LucyDingo, love your tree and the dog is tooo cute!

Thanks for the compliment travelmel. I am glad the santa and sleigh took you back to your childhood. Funny how sights, sounds and even smells can do that!
The name on the bottom is Empire Plastic Corp. I found mine on ebay. They always have a pretty good selection!

Wow mommaU4! Those decorations are pretty impressive! Of course, since it's Vegas, I guess I should expect no less than extraordinary. That tree guy is kinda creepy! I have to say I REALLY like the Christmas theme best.


----------



## mommaU4

I thought I'd also share our tree pics.  These are from last year, but everything is almost identical this year. 

This is the kid's tree in the family room. It's our little "Charlie Brown" tree because it's so small and scrawny looking. The kids decorate it entirely themselves with their ornaments. Some are homemade, some from Hallmark, from Disney, from various vacations, and from the Dollar Store.  
The only difference this year is it has my Tinkerbell tree topper on it and a few more Hallmark ornaments I bought on sale after last Christmas. 






Blurry close up of some of the ornaments:







Then this is the other tree that I have in the living room. It's got ornaments of various shapes and sizes, all in different shades of gold and bronze. It has gold ribbon, and white and gold poinsettias. 
You can't tell in the pics, but some of the ornaments are plain and some have different jewels on them. Definitely off limits to the kids since they are easily breakable. 











In this one you can sort of make out my Tink tree topper, which is now on the kids tree and instead I have a gold angel. And also last year I had no tree skirt! So after Christmas I bought a large satin gold one that is currently under there. 






These are from a visit to Ethel M's Chocolate Factory. If anyone is ever in Vegas over the holidays, this is worth going out to see. 

It's 2 or 3 acres and everything is covered in lights, they give free chocolate samples, and on select nights Santa is there. Best of all, it's FREE!


----------



## mommaU4

mariezp said:


> Wow mommaU4! Those decorations are pretty impressive! Of course, since it's Vegas, I guess I should expect no less than extraordinary. That tree guy is kinda creepy! I have to say I REALLY like the Christmas theme best.



Yes, the Christmas theme is really pretty. They also have Christmas songs playing and every few minutes it "snows".  

The Bellagio is one of the few hotels that really does it up big though for the holidays. The rest have a little something, but not like you would imagine. 
My theory is they don't want to remind you it's Christmas because then you'd feel guilty about blowing your money at the gaming tables when you should be out buying your kids presents! LOL


----------



## travelmel

mommaU4 said:


> My theory is they don't want to remind you it's Christmas because then you'd feel guilty about blowing your money at the gaming tables when you should be out buying your kids presents! LOL



 

You are so right! Thanks for posting your pics! That's a good idea to have two tree's... : 

One tree is WAY enough work at our house! lol  A couple years ago I sent my new nephew (age 2 or 3) his own little dollar store tree with some ornaments for just him to play with. His mom said he decorated it over, and over, and over, and over again. Twas a big $2 hit!


----------



## Luvmic49

We also had snow in South Louisiana last week...I'll try to post a couple of pics.


----------



## tiggerfan1

travelmel said:


> SO pretty! I love a fully decked tree! I love your mantle decor, too.
> 
> I was thinking about the community board.. maybe I should transfer this thread?? Maybe just do it as a Christamas seasonal?



Thanks, Melissa!  In my opinion, you should forget about the flat screen.  Like Ricky Ricardo says, "That's too 'spensive!"    Just kidding.  Go for it if you want.  You'll find someplace to put everything........even if you have to store it at your neighbor's house!    




mariezp said:


> *tiggerfan1*, you got another Lucy fan here!



Woohoo!  Another Lucy fan!!    We should start a fan club!

I love your Christmas decorations, Mariezp!!  Those Disney character decorations are so cute!  Where did you get those?



LucyDingo's quote:


> Hi everyone. Thought I'd join in and share some of our Christmas photos....



Your Christmas decorations are so nice, LucyDingo!  Your dog is too cute all decked out in those reindeer ears and lights!    He's looking at the camera like, "You're kidding me, right?"   





mommaU4 said:


> I haven't been posting, but I've been reading along and I love all the pics!! So fun and festive!



Awesome pics, MommaU4!!  Those Christmas decorations from the Bellagio are gorgeous!!  I love your tree pictures too, especially the one in your living room.


----------



## travelmel

Luvmic49 said:


> We also had snow in South Louisiana last week...I'll try to post a couple of pics.



Snow in Southtown?? Is Santa sick again??  (this would only make sense if you watch alot of Rankin and Bass cartoons)


----------



## Luvmic49

O.K I hope the pics come out alright.


----------



## travelmel

Snowing on the Conterporary! That's so funny   

wow, lots of snow! We got some, too, I will post.

Thanks for posting a picture of you guys (I assume that's you and your DH?). It's great to put a face to the pics.


----------



## Luvmic49

Thanks...We had fun in the snow.
Yea...snow on the Contemporary...that is funny.
Actually this is DW with Santa (brother-in-law) who just loves this time of the year.


----------



## travelmel

Luvmic49 said:


> Thanks...We had fun in the snow.
> Yea...snow on the Contemporary...that is funny.
> Actually this is DW with Santa (brother-in-law) who just loves this time of the year.



So you are the DH of this woman? Wow, I'm out of it, sorry!


----------



## LucyDingo

Here are some photos taken yesterday....

Taken while standing in the front door....





Taken looking out the back door...





The Husband shoveling the snow...





The dog loved the snow...


----------



## orlandothebeagle

cute dog.


----------



## mommaU4

LucyDingo said:


> Here are some photos taken yesterday....



Wow, you did get quite a bit. Looks like everyone was loving it though!


----------



## travelmel

LOL Lucy looks like she's having a blast! 

My aunt called me and she is now living in Seattle where they are snowed in! Her dog, too, is LOVING IT!


----------



## LucyDingo

We're supposed to get ice, sleet, snow, and thunder tonight.  we'll see what happens.


----------



## travelmel

Merry Christmas!  

I thought I'd post this years seasonal decorations at the Travelmel rez. (I've been reading too many LOL CATZ)  

We'll start with the one that started it all.  

*Commemorating our Disneyland 2004 Christmas trip*





This is not an awesome pic of our tree but it shows how big it is compared to DDB. I will definitely scale back next year. 

*It didn't look this big in the woods with all it's friends around*





These are ornaments that my mom painted when I was 7 yrs old. They're sentimental.
*
The Mr and Mrs.*





Even our little colage from our 2008 Flippant trip got some trimmings






My friend was over our house and she looked at that picture and said, "Oh, why does it say Disneyland on the corners of the pictures?" 

and I said, "Because I uploaded the pics onto the Disneyland photo thingy and I was able to purchase them like that" 

to which she said, "Oh, that's cool.. then you can remember where you were." 

To which I said, "Yea, not like that center picture of us in front of a giant Mickey head wouldn't have been enough of a clue."  

Moving on.

*More dis-friendly Decor*





*My little psuedo-mantle collection*





A close up of my recently acquired antique plastic santa! I bought this guy whilest on my Twilight TR at a small town antique store in Washington. See, tourism at work helping the local economy!

*It's not like My Grandma had but I like him*





Next are my personal favorites. My aunt made and gave us these stockings for Xmas. We decorated them ourselves. The whole thing is hand made. I'm very proud of them. Even the little elf toys my DH cut out and made all by himself!
















Speaking of homeade this is a blanket that my family made together to give to my DSIL.. she's a librarian at a University in CA.

*Love the little glasses and books!*





Up next: Snow Days!​


----------



## travelmel

*Happy Snowed-In Baking Days!*

I'm sending you all these virtual treats from my real kitchen to your computer screen!

*DDC on her way to deliver cookies and gifts to the neighbors!*





The following are treats I made using recipes found on the:
The pumpkin, fall/winter squash and sweet potato recipe thread 
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1992432.

What you will see here are the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies (page 5) and the Pumpkin Pie Bars (page 3). 

I had already made two kinds of chocolate chip cookies before I started my pumpkin baking so I didn't put the chocolate chips into the pumpkin cookies. I did have a few butterscotch chips left over in my pantry so we added those and they were BRILLIANT inside.

The pumpkin bars called for "1 cup chopped nuts." Well, I had a huge bag of shelled pistachios and so I used those. I think  it would have been much better with pecans (Or heaven forbid, walnuts ... if you like that sort of thing). Even peanuts may have been good?  

*Pumpkin Bars*





It also called for part of the base of the bar to be reserved for the topping but I didn't do that as there wasn't enough of the base to fill my tiny little pan so I used the "reserved" stuff as my crust. I love crust so I was happier that way anyway. I put in a little extra butter and about 2 Tablespoons of cream cheese into the crust mixture so that it wouldn't stick (I read reviews that this recipe was a stick to the pan one) and it seemed to do the trick. They were moist and did not stick at all. I used a brand new cookie sheet to cook it on as I do not have a decent baking dish.  

I went a little heavy on the spices for both recipes. I think I added clove and nutmeg to the bars that only originally called for cinnamon. I liked 'em. Everything came out great. 

*T H A N K S   T I G G E R F A N 1          ! ! ! ! !*​
*Gourd Goodies*


----------



## LucyDingo

Yum!  Looks delicious.


----------



## travelmel

Thanks LD!  We are snowed in something fierce here in the pacfic northwest. I've got cabin fever!


----------



## kathleen27

Hi everyone! All the photos on here look amazing!!!!
I can't believe Christmas is tomorrow!!!!

LucyDingo The picture of your dog all decorated is so cute!  

The Bellagio looks gorgeous Mommu4.

Your pumpkin bars look really good Mel, I may have to try those sometime soon. I spent the morning making Cinnamon bread. I lost count of how many loaves. We give some to friends and neighbors, plus serve it with other desserts, and its our traditional Christamas morning breakfast. Easy to eat while opening gifts. 

We did eventually bring up decorations and get a tree the weekend before last. Took a few photos:

We went to a local tree farm where we chose a tree and cut it down ourselves. This is our third year doing this.

Jacob was so excited to be there.





Hannah was in a mood.  
No tree was right for her.
We wanted something smaller than usual, We usually get something too big and have to cut it down to fit it in the LR.





Jacob carried the tree out.





Attaching the tag, so it doesn't get mixed up after they wrap it.





Hannah's mood was actually due to hunger. 
She had lunch and was happy again. 
We got the tree in the stand and it looked so funny all wrapped up, that we took a photo. 
Hannah was in a silly mood, hiding behind the tree pretending the tree had arms. 






Took some more photos yesterday:

The tree all decorated.





A new ornament this year - WallE





Jacob liked it so much he drew it. He loves art.





The little Disney train my in laws gave us.





The Disney clock. It plays music and Mickey, Goofy, Donald, and Pluto pop out of their doors. Pluto howls to the music. 





All our snow!!!





The kids in front of the tree:






I'll try to take some more photos later.


Have a Happy Holiday everyone!!!!


----------



## travelmel

Hi Kathleen!

Sorry I haven't gotten over here in a few days..I was away after xmas for another family get together! :arty::

I love all of your photo's, OF COURSE!

That Disney clock must be sooo cute to see in action!

Love the Xmas tree traditions! Cute pic of the kids with their arms behind it. I am with you.. I always get a tree that's too big. Next year I'm going to go with a tree I can carry myself! (good luck, right??!!)

That's alotta snow! We had snow 48 hours ago that required a lot of driving as though you were in Autopia or Indiana Jones but upon our return it was dry as a bone!

What a great pic that your son drew. What a wonderful thing to have talent, right??!!

I'll be posting more pics soon (including more food porn!)

Thanks for posting!


----------



## mariezp

kathleen27, we have a clock shop just like yours! I put out so much stuff at the last minute this year that I missed getting ours out.  

Your son is quite a talented artist. I love his Wall-e drawing. 

Brrr! It looks cold up there!


----------



## tiggerfan1

Hey, Melissa!  I'm back!  I hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas!    I loved your Christmas decorations!  I especially loved your homemade stockings.  So cute!   

That's awesome that you made pumpkin treats for gift giving!  You are a true-blue pumpkin devotee.  The pumpkin goodies look great!  I'm so glad they turned out well.   



*Luvmic49-* Those snow pictures were amazing!  I can't believe that it snowed where you live.  The snow looks very pretty, but it covers up all of your beautiful Disney lawn decorations.    This has been a really freaky year as far as weather goes.  I just came back from California and I found out that it snowed in several areas that rarely get snow!  


*Kathleen27-* That was a great drawing of Wall-E that your DS did!  Your Christmas decorations are adorable.  I really like that Wall-E ornament and the Disney train.    



I'm happy to report that my family and I had a great Christmas.  I'm even happier to report that I've got some more Christmas decorations to share!  Stay tuned..........


----------



## travelmel

Welcome back, Tigger!!

I'm so glad your Christmas was wonderful  

Ours was, too. We're a lucky lot, aren't we?? 

Looking forward to more. I've got some to share, too but I posted them on my ofoto.com site for my family first. Later I'll put some up on photobucket, too. 

I love your banner!


----------



## tiggerfan1

Here are some Christmas decorations that were in the lobby of the hotel that we stayed in while we were in Los Angeles.  
























































More to come..............


----------



## tiggerfan1

travelmel said:


> Welcome back, Tigger!!
> 
> I'm so glad your Christmas was wonderful
> 
> Ours was, too. We're a lucky lot, aren't we??
> 
> Looking forward to more. I've got some to share, too but I posted them on my ofoto.com site for my family first. Later I'll put some up on photobucket, too.
> 
> I love your banner!




Thanks, Melissa!  I'm glad you had a great Christmas, too.  Can't wait to see more of your Christmas pics!


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## tiggerfan1

Here are some Christmas decorations from Disneyland! 



Here's the Disneyland sign by the Main Street train station.








This is the Christmas tree on Main Street.









Here are a couple shots of the Haunted Mansion. There were lots of cool decorations in the line area, but the line was moving so fast that I could stop to take a picture of them.   















This adorable sign was right in front of Splash Mountain.









These gorgeous decorations were near the It's a Small World attraction.





















Here are a few from Mickey's Toontown.












This is Minnie Mouse's house and tree in Toontown.












This is Mickey's tree.  There were too many people out side of his house, so I wasn't able to get a good picture of it.  








Many of the lamp posts in Toontown were decorated with Mickey wreaths.  I want one for my house!! 









More pictures to come..............


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## tiggerfan1

Some of my favorite decorations were in New Orleans Square.  Here are a few of them.



































Here's a picture of the Christmas tree in the Plaza Inn restaurant. 








I couldn't resist taking a picture of the front and back of the napkins that we got at the Plaza Inn.  They were so cute!







Before we went back to our hotel for an afternoon rest, I got a picture of the last "A" in California from the California Adventure sign.  The sun was not being very kind, so I wasn't able to get a very good picture of it.








I attempted to take a picture of the castle at night.  It was so beautiful!  Unfortunately, the picture didn't come out so well.  Sorry!  I'm still learning how to take good pictures at night.   










Well, that's all folks!  My family and I had a great time at DL.  We can't wait to go back again!!


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## travelmel

For some reason I didn't realize you were going to Disneyland!  Duh, silly me. I thought you were just going away to visit family- not that it isn't a good enough reason, of course! Right on!

Thanks for sharing. How did It's a Small World feel since the new opening?

I thought they were putting in characters?


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## travelmel

*



HAPPY NEW YEAR 




TO YOU ALL!!!​*



















​


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## tiggerfan1

Hey, Melissa!  I just wanted to wish you a Happy New Year!!  









travelmel said:


> For some reason I didn't realize you were going to Disneyland!  Duh, silly me. I thought you were just going away to visit family- not that it isn't a good enough reason, of course! Right on!
> 
> Thanks for sharing. How did It's a Small World feel since the new opening?
> 
> I thought they were putting in characters?




Actually, going to Disneyland was a last-minute decision.  We had a pretty full schedule and we weren't sure if we were going to be able to go to Disneyland.  We went there mostly to spend time with family and friends.  Fortunately, everything worked out and we were able to go to Disneyland after all. 

Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to go on It's a Small World.  By the time we got to Fantasyland, all the lines were ridiculously long.  To be honest, I didn't even know that they were going to make any changes!  I hope the changes don't ruin the ride!!   


By the way, I love the all the dancing bananas and the fireworks in your previous post!!!    I hope that you and your family had a wonderful New Year's Eve and Day.  Did you do anything special to celebrate the new year?


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## travelcat

AH HA!!!
I KNEW IT!!!! MUAHAHAHA!!!!
dont worry i havent told bailey... yet.


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