Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 11:00 p.m. in "The City."

Most adults of a certain age probably would tell you that Christmas is for children. But I beg to differ. I think that Christmas and all the holidays that are celebrated throughout the year are for children of all ages. That's why, after many years of not having a Christmas tree in our house, I asked Mary if we could buy one to put up each year and she agreed. That's also why we borrowed the ornament idea that Adam and Steph have used to commemorate their travels and life events.

Our tree here in the manse now has numerous mementos our trips throughout the United States and the state of Michigan. We have driftwood pieces from Beaver Island in Michigan, shells from Pensacola Beach, FL along with several ornaments from that state. We also have ticket stubs from sporting events, souvenirs from our trip around "The Big Lake", and pieces of programs from theatrical events here in GH too. In short, our tree allows us to revisit those times and places that are special to us as we set up the tree and as we add new items each year.

All of the above is a long-winded way of saying that earlier today, we crafted some new items and added them to our tree and our Christmas display that is in the same room. In order to accomplish that feat, we traveled to Hemlock Crossing County Park earlier to make the ornaments/decorations pictured below. We had a great time and learned a few things along the way.

There were several choices to make and so I chose to make a reindeer and an owl. Mary made a snowman and also another owl. 

The owls now reside on the lamps in our foyer, the reindeer stands adjacent to the trolley beneath our tree, and Mary's snowman is hanging proudly on the branches of our tree. All in all, it was a fun afternoon and was representative of the many activities that are available to residents of Ottawa, County, MI under the auspices of the Ottawa County Park System.  Since there was an official parks photographer snapping pictures during our session, I believe that the pictures will be posted on the Ottawa County Parks Facebook page in the near future. I've included a link to their Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/OttawaCountyParks

Elsewhere, we took a morning safari with the fur-children before we set out to go to the big-box home center to get some distilled water for our bedroom humidifier. Since this big-box chain allows dogs to bring their humans, we took Ginger along for the trip. She got lots of "How cute" comments and a few doggie treats during her visit. We're betting that she'll be glad to go back anytime. It was after we dropped Ginger off at home that we traveled to Hemlock Crossing for our crafting activity.

Tomorrow, we will be dropping Ginger off at doggie daycare before we travel to Newaygo, MI to pick up Mary's bag of goodies that she had the store accumulating for her knitting activities. This is something that this store does every year to encourage knitters to indulge their habit. Otherwise, we have nothing scheduled except for lunch in Newaygo.

The current temperature is 33° under partly cloudy skies. Tomorrow's high is forecast by the NWS to reach 40° with a 40% chance of showers in the morning. The sun will rise @ 8:11 a.m. and set @ 5:11 p.m. Ciao.