Hello

I said I would be back "after Thanksgiving".

I'm not sure if I thought it would be this far after, but this is when I'm back. I needed time to heal and calm down and be angry. I went to protests. I protested. I protest still.

 I needed to watch Netflix ( I would have watched more Netflix but they don't have as much as they say they do to stream!) they lie about their catalogue of titles. I wanted to watch Legally Blond,  but they didn't have it! They had reams of titles "like" LB but they didn't have It and I really, really wanted to watch IT. I was like HAVEN'T I BEEN DISAPPOINTED ENOUGH! ARE YOU GOING TO DENY ME AS WELL? . I watched something else with the animals, but it wasn't the same. I've been watching a lot of holiday bake offs and Chopped. A lot of Chopped and Flip or Flop. I did get to watch Zootopia on Netflix and that was a pleasant surprise. I had wanted to watch The Secret Life of Pets but of course, IT wasn't available, but they had a zillion LIKE IT.

 I was also physically sick,  literally, I was sick, I was sick before the election but the results and the resultant lose of sleep, appetite and general steep decline in general didn't help my pre-existing condition - I should have gone to my doctor much sooner than I did, I ended up with a really good narcotic cough suppressant, that while the pharmacist gave me really dirty look and studied my ID long enough to make me worry about identity theft. I'm still coughing, not as much as before, but  still coughing, but now I just don't care about it as much. However, it persists and I can not by law get a refill of my cough syrup and I'm going to have to have a chat with my doctor.

I did more than watch movies with the pets while I was on my sabbatical .

-  I made  four varieties of dog cookies ( cheese, peanut butter, turkey gravy, and mint/parsley)  for a total of 1800 cookies (not distributed as yet)
- created this years Christmas card (not received back from maker, not mailed out)
-moved my bedroom/life from downstairs to upstairs
-finished my Christmas shopping
-put my tree up
-did the outside lights
-winterized the exterior of the house

I haven't finished the interior Christmas decorating, but I will. Its not going to be Christmas explosion it sometimes is because my theme for the coming year or until the Orange Menace is Impeached is : I do what I want, as much as I want, for as long as I want. I'm going to be more casual in my approach to things. I don't have to do anything. The only expectations I am going to live up to are mine. So if things don't get done, they don't get done. There is enough stress in my life, I am not going to add to it by forcing myself to do extra tasks that do not absolutely need to be done. I might bring the Santas down, I might not. I might bring some of them down but not all of them down. It will depend on how I am feeling about having to deal with rehoming my snowglobes.

So. In the interest of not adding to my stress, I looked to ways of saving time and energy in the exterior Christmas decor. I love this part! However, this part is stressful!  I slap lights everywhere! I have nets! I have strings! I have balls, I have little balls! I have nets that are narrow! My airblown that I bought last year that I was so in love with (briefly) , ended the season with a tear along a seam. Not easy to fix. Seams are highly stressed and my go-to airblown fix is to slap some tape on it and move on, you really can't do that with a seam.

Christmas of 2016, I am going with a no airblown Christmas, this is the first no airblown Christmas is over a decade! Its an adjustment . My neighbors were disappointed, my neighbors can go buy their own. I hung a single string of lights.

I bought this

Yes. As Seen On TV.  And It Is Awesome! It Works! Its Ammmaaazzziinnngggg! It does what it says its going to do and I looovvveeee it! You have to go out and get yours right now!

What is not to love? I mean really?  It is freaking awesome! I love it! It splashes dozens of patterns of lights onto the whole front of your house, it does single colors, multiple colors, it blinks, it flashes, it has a remote control! You will notice that the far right has a different look than the rest of the house - I have a large tree and a bank of shrubs that block the light from its work, so I added a lesser projector light from last year for just that section so that it could have coverage.

Republican Pat McCrory finally conceded defeat to Democrat Roy Cooper over a month after the election. McCrory is the first sitting governor to get reelected.  Cooper will be our 75th governor.