On The Christmas Story House

My family has loved the movie The Christmas Story for years.  We always have it on in the back ground at least a couple of times between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  This year, Tom and I finally drove into Cleveland to go see the house where parts of the movie was filmed.

"Only one thing in the world could've dragged me away from the soft glow of electric sex gleaming in the window."

"I want an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle!"

"Ralphie, you're lucky it didn't cut your eye! Those icicles have been known to kill people."

They were filming something while we were there!  Maybe we will be in the background of some movie soon!

"Holy cow, it's the fire department!"

On The CLE Clothing Company

My brother-in-law, Jeff, and one of his high school friends started a t-shirt company back in 2008.  It started out in the basement of Jeff's house and people would order their shirts online.  In 2009, they opened a Kiosk at a local mall for the holidays.  Now, in a week or so, they will be opening a store in the Waterloo Art District of Cleveland.  Check out their website at http://www.cleclothingco.com/ or better yet, check out the store opening December 4th.

The garland on this tree is made up of CLE buttons!

Jeff outside his store front...new sign to come!

On a Cleveland Thanksgiving

This year Tom and I traveled to Medina, Ohio for Thanksgiving with Tom's side of the family.  Both the company and food was excellent!

Aunt Mary Ann, Grandma Rees, George, Christine, and Tom relaxing after dinner.

Beth and Cole...he is almost one already...and walking!

Tom taking his turn at the dishes!

Some of the beautiful fall decorations.

Playing with some cars!

On Doctor's Appointments

I've been lucky in the fact that Tom has been able to come to most of my doctor's appointments so far.  It is nice to have him there so that he can meet all the doctors that may be on call the day I deliver.  It is also nice to have a second set of ears to listen to what the doctor has to say and how he/she answers our questions.

However, having Tom at one of my earlier appointments probably gave others the wrong impression.  We were in the waiting room with several other people and two siblings who seemed to be in the waiting room by themselves.  I would say the girl was about 8 and the boy around 6 or 7.  They weren't too badly behaved at first-just unable to keep still-normal for kids that age.  However, after just a few minutes they were chasing each other from chair to chair and crawling under and over the tables and chairs.  People were starting to take notice of their behavior.  I still didn't think it was too bad seeing as they were out there by themselves.  But, that's when Tom pointed out to me that everyone in the room probably thought they were our kids.  Confused, I looked at him and that's when he pointed out that they young boy had red hair about the same shade as Tom's.  It was at that moment that the boy went over to the fountain in the lobby and stuck his head in the waterfall.

Tom and I just laughed as we walked back for my appointment wondering what the people in the lobby thought about our "parenting" skills.

On Home Improvements

Since Veteran's Day, Tom and I have been busy trying to make some improvements to our house.

Tom installed two ceiling fans-one in the office and the other in the soon-to-be nursery.

Tom built a shelving unit and coat rod in the new closet in the basement.

Tom also hung up this coat rack in the hallway...which is much better than using the kitchen chairs as a coat rack!

We had a freezer delivered and put in our garage.  (Thanks Mom and Dad!)

You'll notice that Tom did a lot of the work here...I was the assistant.  However, we also cleaned the house, including organizing/cleaning out the fridge; grocery shopped; and bought a new kitchen table (Thanks Andrea and George!)