Tony Brewer

Thanks for the guest post by Jo Levy

Yesterday was a fantastic day to decorate for Christmas. My boyfriend and I both gathered a bunch of large, fake candy canes and we started placing them in the ground going down the driveway. My mom was helping us too by holding the candy canes. After we were done with that, we took some bright red garland and strung it around the light posts that go down our driveway. We were all out there freezing because it was about ten degrees out. I was wearing about two different coats and my mom had gloves on. I guess sometimes you have to put with certain things in order to have the house look nice for Christmas.

After that, we took some glittery, silver garland and began framing the porch windows. I wasn’t really sure how it would come out, but it actually came out fantastic. The whole house looks so much brighter. Sometimes I wish we could leave the decorations up all year long. After we were done with the garland, we hung up the icicle lights around the porch top. In our old house, we could never do this because the roof was too high up. In this new house, the porch is low enough to allow us to string lights across it. After we were done, we all huddled inside and made some hot chocolate. We sat down and watched some Satellite TV offers and we all took naps.

I have to admit some people come up with some really cute videos! I really enjoyed watching this video of the dogs getting ready for Christmas!

My family has a tradition of putting up the Christmas Tree on Christmas Eve and taking it down on New Year’s Day. I’ve been told that the tradition dates back many generations and it has to do with the fact that in “the old days” children believed that Santa brought the tree AND the presents on Christmas Eve. And it had to be taken down on New Year’s Day or it would be bad luck. Bad luck because the tree would have dried out too much and become a serious fire hazard. After all, in “the old days” the folks put real candles on their trees. I cannot even imagine doing that inside a house! That’s just crazy thinking!

Posted by Jerold Austin

Black Friday is the traditional shopping day after Thanksgiving. Stores offer their best sales of the year. Of course in order to get them, you have to get to the store early. This year I planned ahead on Black Friday. I looked up all the advertisements online and found the store that would have the most things I needed or wanted. Since I wanted a Blu-ray player and home surround system I knew Black Friday was the only chance I would have to afford it.

I started heading out to Walmart around 1 AM. They electronics wouldn’t go on sale until 5, but I expected there would be a lot of lines. I came with a large cup of coffee and a couple of magazines. The store wasn’t overly crowded when I got there so I walked around and picked up a few small household items. Around 3 AM I waited in the electronics line in hopes of getting the item I wanted. Since Walmart had a lot televisions and video games on sale, I was hoping most people would be going for them. It turns out I was right. I was able to snag the Blu-ray player and home sound system for under $95 after taxes. In addition, I got a few other things at bargain rates. The lines at the checkout were long, but not too bad. After my shopping adventure, I returned home to watch sports on my satellite television from ExpertSatellite.com. All in all it was a successful day.

TLC has a new show called Police Women of Dallas that I’ve seen a few times and am starting to enjoy it more and more. I normally don’t enjoy “cop shows” but this one is just a bit different from the rest enough to keep me entertained and keeps me from feeling as if my intelligence isn’t being insulted by the writers, producers and directors and everyone else concerned.