Odd Thanksgiving... but the Creepy Christmas Ornaments are back!! (and oh, yes, there ARE pictures) in shiny things

I am apparently never ever going to finish my England Entries, but I'm in the mood to actually make a real entry. I'm bored out of my mind at work, which is just bizarre. I don't know when it's been this slow. Usually it's like this during summer months. This past summer we were so busy we were all annoyed by not getting our normal slow-down time. It's like November and December switched places with June and July. Finals start next week and then grades post, and we'll be busy again. I'm trying to enjoy this.

We had a very strange Thanksgiving, in that we really didn't have one at all. I've had such a stunning lack of success with writing about anything other than the trip that I don't think I ever mentioned my brother getting a new job. This happened back in August. He's been a self-employed insurance adjuster for years and years -- over 20, maybe 25-- and although his business did very well for a long time, in recent years it's slowed down dramatically. Insurance companies apparently use their own adjusters now, instead of going through independent ones like his. (This actually does have something to do with Thanksgivingless Year)

So for quite some time now he's been in a money crunch, not helped by having three grown kids, two of which also have kids, none of which have very good jobs either so he helps them out too when he can. He's a car repair genius and he's done body work on the side for as long as he's been an adjuster. Back in July he was checking out want ads, and saw one for a body work instructor at a community college in Chattanooga, Tennessee. And applied for it, pretty much on a whim, never dreaming he'd even get an interview - he doesn't have a college degree. To his complete and utter shock, not only did he get an interview- he got hired. Even more shocking, the pay is REALLY good - more than I make, and although I don't make much and am vastly underpaid for what I do, it's darned good for a community college instructor, especially with no teaching experience or college degree. But body work is a technical trade path, and what they want of course is experience with body work - which he's been doing since he was in high school, and he's pushing 50. Actually, I just realized he'll be fifty TOMORROW. Wow.

ANYWAY, the point of this whole long story is that he's been driving back and forth from Asheville to Chattanooga every week, coming home on the weekends and staying in an apartment down there during the week. His wife is planning to join him down there and they are hoping, I think, to sell their Asheville house, but they are kind of waiting till he is sure he likes it.We usually have Thanksgiving with them (they live beside my dad) but this year they decided to go to my SIL's mom's house, because her health is not good and she didn't want to come to their house. So Baker B and my dad and I were on our own.

Hahahahaha - just realized that actually that long tale of my brother's new job is really NOT why we were stranded at Thanksgiving- but it's in the mix of Weird Changes Going On and is indirectly related. In that I did expect this to be the last one we'd spend with them, unless we went down to Chattanooga. Which is a long way for us and would involve overnight stays and my dad probably would not want to.

ANYWAY, we figured we'd take Daddy to Cracker Barrel. We did that a few years ago when Daddy and I planned to go to Delaware at Thanksgiving to see his sister, then backed out at the last minute when I realized how hellish the traffic would be (that was before we started taking advantage of airplanes) and by then my brother and SIL had decided to spend Thanksgiving at Myrtle Beach. I think Daddy would rather go to Cracker Barrel anyhow- he has a low tolerance threshold for the chaos of a bunch of people and small screaming children running around.

Then we got kind of a mini-blizzard on Tuesday, and the weather was still terrible Wednesday. Only a couple of inches of snow, but bitter cold, and weirdly our neighborhood road never got scraped. Which meant there was ice and snow all over it on Thursday morning, when we set out in the Fit for Asheville. It's not a long road, but plummets straight downhill at one point, and is curvy and steep at a couple of other spots too. Being us, we don't have very good tires on the Fit (I'd love to know why a car that's only a little over a year old already has worn tires, by the way). We DO have brand new snow tires with studs on the Civic - but the Civic is 16 years old and we don't like taking it on long trips.

SO we ended up spending Thanksgiving day in Boone and going down to Asheville the next day. And having dinner at a Chinese Buffet, which was actually really good and a whole lot better than Daddy's beloved Cracker Barrel. That also meant avoiding the Thanksgiving crowd at Cracker Barrel, which I dreaded. It was weird, but I was almost relieved. I was already really sorry about not spending it with the little family we have left to spend it with. We hardly ever see my brother and SIL and nieces and nephews and the greats other than individually for a few minutes here and there - Thanksgiving is the only time we all got together. So I was kind of depressed about that already, and okay with just skipping the whole thing.

But it's sad. Thanksgiving was always our Big Deal holiday, since we didn't keep Christmas while I was growing up. It's been somewhat sad in the last few years because of losing my grandparents first, and then my mom, but it was still fun seeing the "kids" (and now their kids) and making Onion Bread and dessert, and doing the whole family thing. And now... now we'll never have a family Thanksgiving again!! WAAAHHHH!!! Well, that may not be true. Who knows what will happen next year.

But we spent Friday night at my Dad's and then went down to my MIL's the next day and put up her Christmas tree. That's also turned into a tradition in recent years. She's not able to do a lot of the decorating herself, so we do it. And I enjoy it, because....

I get to see my friends the Creepy Christmas Ornaments again!!!!!

Girly Santa!!!! (Baker B hung him WAY back inside the tree and I had to move him to a prominent spot. Because I love Girly Santa beyond all reason.

He's bringing YOU nightmares for Christmas, little children!

And... Malevolent Nutcracker!!! I literally gasped with delight when I found him in the ornament box. (You must understand that my MIL has some ten million billion ornaments, and they are in a number of big plastic bins, and only a fraction actually get used each year. But I make sure to dig until I find my favorites)

Red Eye, Half Moon Santa:

I only took a few pictures with my iPhone since it was late and we were exhausted and needed to get home, so I'll post a few more from past years. Because you cannot have too many Creepy Christmas Ornament pictures.

Staring Santa:

Black bottomless dead-eye Santa:

Exasperated Nutcracker Santa

Pissed-Off Santa:

Bald Santa who appears to have just come from being tortured on The Rack:

And one of my very favorites...

Malevolent Nutcracker, Angry Santa and Murdered Angel

Despite all this scariness and mayhem, it's a gorgeous tree. Just don't get too close.