Laurie's favorite display in Las Vegas

I said this was Laurie's favorite part of what we saw in Las Vegas, but I enjoyed

seeing these cars too. This Pontiiac is a lot like the first car I remember Grandpa

buying when I was a kid.

This one was a lot like one my Aunt Lura used to have.

More pictures of Las Vegas

After this performer came down from the ceiling over the audience, they said
we weren't allowed to take pictures of the performance.




This sign is over one of the little shops in the hotel. They have pictures and remembrances
from the show.




Since I couldn't take pictures in the show, I took a picture of one of the pictures on the
wall in the shop. This is one of the performers in the show.




These are more of the performers in the show.

This is the sign out from advertising the show. We really did enjoy it.

The Bellagio

Nancy asked for pictures of the Bellagio Hotel. This is the first time I have tried to do a blog post without Angela at my side telling me what to do. We'll see how it goes.


This is the welcoming sign as you come into the hotel from the parking lot.


The ceiling of the main foyer is a display of colorful blown glass flowers.

They had a big display of Chinese art. This is a silver and gold horse in the main foyer.

The exterior of the hotel on a warm sunny day, lake in front, blue skies above.

The letter B for Bellagio on the exterior of the building.

Contrasts

Photos taken in our yard after a recent snowstorm. Trees in the front.



January red birds at the front door.





Red berries covered with snow in the back yard.




Grape arbor and vines.

View south across the pit.

Pictures taken in Arizona the week before. Desert west of Phoenix.

Lemons in Becky's neighborhood.

Cacti in desert west of Phoenix.

Pommegranites in Becky's neighborhood.

Geese and oranges in Becky's neighborhood in Mesa.

TopTenREPORTS

Last week I got to fill in for a segment called TopTenREPORTS. I wrote the piece and did the on camera stuff, and to be frank, I thought I did a pretty good job. What's funny is, if you go to the YouTube page for the video, the comments are merciless! Serious, some of the commenters were having a real freakout. "Where is the girl, who is the new guy!?"

Anyway, I THINK IT'S GOOD! Let me know what you think.

and I said, "YES!"

Do you remember the days when young men worked at the grocery store and helped old ladies out to their car. Well I remember watching these young men as a little girl bag the groceries and help people load them into their car. These days you don't see that very often. I shop at a grocery store that has AMAZING prices on food. Frequently my bill is $20 less than what I was expecting. But part of how they have such low prices is you have to bag your own groceries and load them into your car by yourself. This doesn't sound like such a big deal when you're shopping alone. But lets say for example a young mother does her grocery shopping with 3 little boys ages 5 and under.

Hypothetically speaking this is totally insane!

One day this young mother is at her favorite store, Trader Joes! As she is checking out the cashier asks, "Would you like some help out?"

What? Do I.....I mean, does THIS young mother look like she can't handle two bags of groceries while carrying her one year old and trying to keep the other two boys from getting run over? Well, of course she said, "No thank you." And proceeded to carry her two bags with baby in arms and head for the car. Now normally I have to admitt, this mother can carry it all to the car, but she had failed to remember how intense her weight-lifting class was that morning, and her arms had already reached their max. So when she was half way there, but fully committed mind you, she started to realize, "I'm not going to make it....I'm not going to make it!" So she picked up the pace, told Truman to pick up the pace, and with the help her lower abdomen and thighs she made it JUST BARELY and thought "You know, what's so wrong with letting someone help you out to the car? This whole thing would have been much easier and no one would have called you a whimp."

And so, on my next trip to Trader Joes when the cashier asked if I would like help out to my car I said, "YES!" for the first time ever. IT WAS AMAZING! The young woman pushed the cart out to the car. She loaded the groceries into the trunk while I buckled the boys into the car and then SHE returned the cart. It just makes so much sense!

I now love Trader Joes infinitely more. Who knew that was possible!
And in other news, check out the Puj Tub for sale at some of my favorite stores:

Giggle
Target
Amazon
Right Start
Tottini

And many other retailers!

Christmas Around the Craig House

Fancy red candle sticks made out of saved glass jars sitting on Grandma Nalder's old sewing machine.

Arrangements on the bannister newel posts.

Little blue angels on the china cabinet.

One of the colorful nutcrackers on the tree.

Another Nutcracker along with angels and cherubs on the tree.

Little red birds visiting on the branches in the pots by the front door.

Wisemen visiting Mary, Joseph and the Baby Jesus.

Ceramic Santa pitcher and mugs made years ago by Aunt Genia and painted wooden Santa.

Tiny Nutcracker and gold angel on tree.

Another colorful Nutcracker and pionsettia on tree.
Thanks, Angela, for showing me how to do this. We will see how long I can remember it all. But it has been fun. We hope you all had a Merry Christmas. We sure did.