'Tis the Season to be Jolly

I have two weeks of catching up to do and will probably get tripped up doing it in chronological order so let me just jump right in. The weather here in Northern Kentucky has been very unseasonably warm. And it is very hard to keep my mind on Christmas things without any hint of snow. I told someone the other day, I wonder where things would be today if Bing Crosby never got to sing, "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas". You all do know who Bing Crosby was, don't you. Yeah, that was like a half century ago.

Christmas Cards and Displays

This one came the other day. It is one of the prettiest Christmas cards I have ever seen.It reminds me of two things, we see lots of Cardinals here all year long and I planted some long-needle White Pines in our back yard.

I haven't set up a Christmas display for several years. Its been so long I almost forgot what we had hidden in the storage room so the other day I went in and emptied everything out. As I moved the boxes out I remembered two gorgeous Santa Claus sets and put them on the table in the hallway.

 

And a beautiful Nativity set.

 

This Nativity set looked so good in the photo I took that I had thoughts of turning it into a Christmas card so I tweaked it a little bit and got this.

Glory to God in the Highest, Peace on Earth, Good will to men.

Did you happen to notice my Rottweiler Christmas tree on the left side of that top photo of Santa's sleigh? I just found out it has become a highly desirable collectors item. One of them just sold on ebay for almost $600. We bought ours over 10 years ago from The Danbury Mint and it isn't being made anymore.

Last Tuesday was sort of a big day in my life. 

I wrote this on my Facebook page. This afternoon I go to pick up my two hearing aids. Hopefully now I'll be able to understand what people are talking about on TV and in the movies I watch.

One of the workplace hazards from being around jet aircraft is the exposure to very loud noise and ever since I retired 15 years ago my hearing has been getting progressively worse. So due to the fact that I am a big movie buff and my prime source of entertainment, other that being around my Rottweilers Ruff and Bess, is watching movies at home, I thought it was time for hearing aids. After growing disgusted with the high cost of cable TV I ditched them 10 years ago and started buying the movies I liked to watch. I have accumulated almost 500 titles. You can buy a lot of movies on the $1500 a year spent on cable TV. But this has not been so enjoyable when I wasn't able to understand the dialog being spoken by the actors. So I went out and had a new hearing test and ordered a pair of high-tech hearing aids.

First test with the new hearing aids came a few days ago. I sat down and watched a movie with Bess and Ruff. The hearing aids worked very well. I actually got to understand most of the talking but it needs a bit of tweaking. I also noticed they were set too sensitive for high frequencies and normally quiet things like paper and plastic began to sound like electrical sparks. 

During the entire movie Bess was laying on the small couch with her head resting next to my knee and I kept scratching her ears. Then after the movie was over the living room looked like the morning after a really wild party.

Got more photos back of Bessie meeting Santa

The company that took the Santa photos at Pet Supply Plus sent me an email with the rest of the photos they took of Bessie. Here are the two best ones.

That about wraps it up. Sunday night is Christmas Eve and the weatherman has predicted we will see some snow on Christmas Day. Hope it holds off until after I get home from Midnight Mass. I hate driving at night, especially on slippery roads.

Wishing you all a Blessed, Joyful and Merry Christmas