I would be remiss, with barely a week to go ‘til Christmas, if I did not share some of my favorite holiday décor that I see around town on my daily treks. This year I’ve not yet strayed down to Emmons Boulevard to see how those stately houses are decorated for the holiday season. My perennial favorites on the Boulevard are the pair of life-sized nutcrackers …
… and a display of a fairly simple crèche which is really beautiful. Did you know that the song “Silent Night” will celebrate its 200th anniversary this year?
The homeowners here were not yet aware that an Amazon package rested amongst its fake, gaily-wrapped packages with their festive bows.
And who doesn’t remember their first sled or toboggan and racing up to the top of the hill, red-cheeked, laughing and enjoying the all-too-quick ride to the bottom?
I started a teddy bear collection long past the age of playing with or admiring these stuffed toys. This is because I was allergic to stuffed animals as a toddler, so they had to be removed from my room. After years of immunotherapy for allergies, I could welcome bears back into my life again, but, I eventually had to stop collecting them as my collection grew in leaps and bounds and I ran out of room. Nowadays I appreciate a cute bear lawn decoration … on someone else’s lawn.
But my all-time favorite Christmas decorations are snowmen. Just like my affinity for the Autumn scarecrows with their cheerful smiles, that is the attribute I like most about snowmen.
And, just like these snowmen, I, too, am wearing a big grin. Today I reached 1,100 miles walked in 2018.
I was curious where I was on this date last year and so I looked back and my post celebrated that I had reached my goal of 1,000 miles:
The weather has been fairly cooperative, though I got out later Saturday due to the fog, but I encountered some black ice on the perimeter path, even though it was mild out and around 10:00 a.m. So, to avoid any ice mishaps, I left later yesterday and it was sunny and a balmy 43 degrees. The long walks the past two weekends helped get me to 1,100 miles. As of today, our weather is supposed to cooperate through Thursday and then rain, and even snow may be in the cards. The weather folks are even speculating about a white Christmas – a green Christmas suits me just fine.
I found Parker again yesterday, so he must’ve been hiding on Saturday, the little rascal. I sweet-talked him and rewarded him with extra peanuts, even though he was MIA the day before, because, after all – it is the holidays and it is good to be kind to everyone we meet, be they man or beast.
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
Awesome post:) It is amazing you do a lot of exercises. 1,100 miles wow:):)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks – the weather has cooperated lately so I pushed myself a little harder to get to 1,100, past my original goal of 1,051. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is wonderful you are pushing to hard and doing exercise:) It is good to know the weather is fine so it will help to do lot of exercise:)
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m going to see how many more miles I can get by year end … we are supposed to have some rain Friday morning and Sunday night a little snow – was hoping no snow to walk more, but because it is a holiday, I can wait until later in the day – maybe it will melt. I know our real Winter will arrive and then no more walks, so I’m trying to get in as many as possible now!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Keep it up!! Do a lot of exercise before more snow. I don’t know what to say. I am not sure how will you feel. I can just suggest. But exercise is good.
You are already doing so much exercise:)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you – today I didn’t walk – lots of rain so slept in. But I’ll keep chugging along … just 10 more days in this year to go. Thanks for all your encouragement. I wish I knew your name – we’ve been corresponding all year and I don’t know your name … will you please send it to me?
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you so much:)
Bablee.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for telling me Bablee … I have wanted to ask you for a while as you often mention Michigan and we have that little item in common. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
:):)
LikeLiked by 1 person
With all that mileage, don’t forget to rotate your tires!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks Fred – I may just borrow that line and attribute it to you!
LikeLike
Nice pictures on Christmas decorations.😊 Unbelievable that you have walked so long. Reminds me that I have to leave the sofa in the evenings.😁😁😁
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks – those were my favorites and it’s hard to take pictures of the decorations if the background is too busy … I liked the bear … wished I could wipe out the background. 🙂 I have to admit that walking in the evening would not work as well as the morning, especially in the heat of the day … I made my original goal of 1,051 miles so this is just “gravy” as that expression goes.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I really like the Christmas Decorations you get to experience. We in Texas do things differently, There only a few days left and you may set a greater record on the miles walked in 2018. Great job on your part,
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you John – I guess it would be different in a warm weather state – I’d prefer the heat and no snow if I had my choice. I’m no fan of snow and especially driving in it … I took the bus for decades, first to school (my last two years of college were in Detroit) and then to work, and my car stayed in the garage. I am better on foot than on four wheels when it comes to snow … (I was typing this reply and my internet went out for some reason – at least my message was here waiting for me) … my original goal last year was 755 and I was able to exceed it by 200 miles; I kept making new goals and surpassing them – we had beautiful weather in the Fall of 2017.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are welcome. You should meet the South.
LikeLiked by 1 person
My father interviewed in Oklahama and Anaheim while we still lived in Canada – I wish he had chosen a warm weather state to move us to instead of Michigan. Our weather here in SE Michigan is about the same as what we had when we lived in Oakville, Ontario (about 25 miles from Toronto).
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was raised in South Bend, Indiana. I understand the gloom of Winter. We did make the best of what we had to experience.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This past year has been very strange weather-wise John, but it has been like that all across the U.S. We had 62 inches of snow for the 2017-2018 Winter season – snow lingered into April and then we had eight or nine weekends in a row of rain, and not just a small rain and you go outside later and it is dried up … these were all-day torrential rains, one weekend it never stopped the entire weekend. I had several walking events that were torrential rain and I didn’t go and had paid in advance. Then we had a month of oppressive humidity and no rain and had drought-like conditions. The furnace was on in early September and we had a hard-freeze in late September. It rained most of October and we had sleet and ice in November and even a couple of minor snow events … right now, the last few weeks have been better than we’ve had in months. We never got that coveted Indian Summer that Midwesterners enjoy and look forward to – I understand this is the new norm weatherwise. Not happy!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hey, look at it this way. As with everything, it is only temporary.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I hope so – friends in Virginia and North Carolina posted pictures of their recent snow debacle and it was a good-sized snowfall they had!
LikeLiked by 1 person
My son is in Tryon, NC and they were without power for three days.
LikeLike
You know I think I remember hearing about that city on the news. That’s terrible. I have a friend who lives in Cary and I saw her pictures of all the snow – amazing!
LikeLiked by 1 person
You deserve a giant 🏆 for all those miles Linda! 😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Sabine and my mileage for the year 2017 … the original goal was just 755 miles … we had a beautiful Fall 2017 and I just kept on going like the Energizer Bunny. I kept setting new goals … 800, then 900, then 1000 and when I realized my WordPress blog posts could be around 1,050 by year end, I made my mileage goal the same as my blog posts total goal. Unfortunately we got bad weather, but I kept going. I hope you get good weather where you are going for Christmas – awhile back you told me you were getting away. You will need it after the renovation, and your little accident with the driver who hit you – some nice R&R!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s pouring rain here today! We got two inches over night! Our escape to the Oregon Garden had to be postponed because the day after Christmas the carpet installers will be knocking on the door first thing in the morning. After that the blinds will be re-installed and then we can start to put everything back in its place. It will feel so good to get it all done!
As for your walking all these miles I feel inspired and will have to be more serious and consistent in my efforts to get out! 🙋
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh Sabine – that is such a shame and you were looking forward to it … now you will have to plan for next Christmas then? It is so welcome after a big renovation project to be done. I remember my mom and I had our whole house painted and papered and we hired a woman to do it since the painter/paperer we had used in the past was retired. She rolled in about 10:00, every day, many smoking breaks in the backyard, lunch at noon, and left for the day at 2:30 to pick up her grandchild from school. She said nothing about special hours and to be honest, we just assumed she would work the same hours as the previous contractor – 8:00 –
5:00 with an hour for lunch and he just went home as he lived nearby. This is a small house and it took four weeks for the job to be done and probably another three weeks to get everything back together again. We did not decorate for Christmas that year as she began the job the day after Labor Day and it was near Halloween until we finished. My mom told me “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to see anything out of place for a very long time.” We would have to move things around to put out Christmas decorations – I agreed with her.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We’re just going to go sometime in the new year! We just go through talking to the painting contractor about some of the things we thought were part of the job but then weren’t. Anyways, we’ll get it sorted out and taken care of. My husband spent many working years in litigation and is a great mediator, negotiator and detail oriented guy. My preference would have been to not have any hiccups, but oh well. Now we know for the next time!
I am looking forward to have it all done soon and we will take our time to put things back together. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s good Sabine – you’ll still get your trip in and you’ll need it after all the disruption. Hope the rest of the renovation goes smoothly. It sounds like your husband is a lawyer – I used to be a litigation secretary for years and now I’ve worked for Robb, a traditional labor lawyer for management, for 18 years. I had plumbing issues downstairs and upstairs last year and the whole-house insulation job and I had messes in the house from June 9th (the insulation and the next day the first plumbing issue – they jack-hammered the laundry room floor) and those jobs and the other plumbing messes persisted all the way through October. To calm myself, I walked, and walked, and that is part of the reason I got so many miles walked. It helped me to keep my sanity!
LikeLiked by 1 person
No, my husband’s not a lawyer. He handled lawsuits for an insurance company where he assigned his cases to attorneys and supervised the process of getting to a resolution. Now we’re retired and just enjoying life when we’re not remodeling! 😉 Glad you got your basement plumbing resolved Linda.
LikeLiked by 1 person
My boss before Robb left the Firm after we were acquired by a larger law firm in Virginia. But he used to do personal injury and auto negligence cases for Auto Owners Insurance Company … I don’t know if they are only in Michigan, but I dealt with the nicest adjusters there and I spoke to all of them on an everyday basis. We had a large caseload and in 1995 there was a law in Michigan that capped the amount of money that Plaintiff attorneys could get for damages. So, before this tort reform law went into effect at the first of the year, all the Plaintiff attorneys hurriedly filed their lawsuits – we were swamped with negligence cases and I had to go in every Saturday for almost two years to try to keep up. I was so busy that it seemed I just got to work and it was time to go home. Retirement is something I am looking forward to very much … a fellow blogger’s husband is retiring today, leaving his job after 40 years. Laurie retired this time last year. They plan to travel and are active sports enthusiasts. My contractor issues about drove me up the wall Sabine. They had to tear up the basement floor twice and the second time, after I had already painted it and it looked half-decent again. I didn’t retile it as the tiles were old and I never could have matched them again and so put a rug over the part they tore up in the laundry room. It has discouraged me against having anyone in, except for an emergency, for a very long time!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Parker took some presents over to his cousins.He lives across the river.
LikeLiked by 2 people
No wonder we all get along so famously! We all have that “Canuck thing” going for us. 🙂
LikeLike
Canucks have antifreeze & maple syrup running through our blood. We can stand the cold & be sweet about it.
LikeLiked by 2 people
We are a hardy bunch. With a warm toque and our Sorel boots, we will take on the world!
LikeLike
as we shout “GET OUT OF THE WAY” tobogganing down the steepest hill!
LikeLiked by 1 person
No slouches are we!
LikeLiked by 1 person
We’d be slouching after hitting the one & only rock or telephone pole right smack dab in the middle of the field!
I swear they put those things there to cull the herd!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes that toboggan never went the way it was supposed to and the more kids on the hill, the icier it got and it would careen … you’d go over, the toboggan too, Good thing we didn’t end up like Sonny Bono … he skied right into a tree.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow. That’s a lot of walking! Good for you. Every day is a good day to be kind to man or beast 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Sarah – I totally agree with you about kindness. There is not enough of it to go around these days.
LikeLike
1100 miles is equal to 1770 kilometres. Next year do 1243 miles as thats 2000 kilometres!
LikeLiked by 1 person
You know Wayne, that would be a great change of pace and fun to do and I have to tell you that I likely have as many fellow bloggers here who use the metric system as the non-metric system (I had to Google to see what we call our system as I didn’t know … it is the system of weights and measures or U.S. customary measures … who knew?). I would like to put it out there on 01/01/19. It will inspired me to get out there even more. In 2017 I only needed to reach 755 miles and kept walking (we had a beautiful Autumn) and I ended up walking to 1,050 miles. After I passed 755, I began setting little 50-more-mile goals and I put it on my blog that I’m going to make a new “mini goal” and people encouraged me. So I kept at it. If I can get myself to embrace the rain, I think it is doable. I stayed in too many days due to the rain. The weather folks say the global warming will make our weather as we know it, non-existent and we should plan for weather that is inconsistent, not necessarily volatile, just wacky. Plus, I am not shoveling two houses like last year and I’ll walk in the snow at our nearby park, on the grass, even if not in Council Point Park. This morning we had two black ducks in the Park, diving for breakfast. One of the walkers came over and said “go down to the cement ledge as there are two black ducks there – they are huge and you can’t miss them!” Saw them but didn’t take pictures – it was a grey morning and most of the time they were dabbling. Who could tell what kind of duck it is then?
LikeLike
Americans use the old system of measuring,the “Imperial” system. All the industry down there do use the Metric system.I think America is the only large country in the world that still uses the Imperial system.
As for that diving duck,It might of been a Cormorant but you should of taken a shot just for ID purposes.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You know what – I have heard the term “Imperial” and I think it was in conjunction with an “Imperial gallon” (for gasoline). My father was a tool-and-diemaker … all his tools were metric and he had to do conversions and he used to grumble about it – it was not as lucky as now when we can convert on a computer in a 1/2 second. We had a Cormorant there at the Park about two months ago – it was fun to watch it as it spent more time diving and I could see the ripples where it was underwater. I could not see the Cormorant underwater as the water is very murky. I took some seagull pictures and there were some ducks there – it was quite gray when I got to the Park. I’m going to look at my pictures tonight and see how they turned out. Maybe a black duck was in there too. There are trees that hang over the water and even though there are no leaves on them, they act like a canopy over the water and it looks quite dark when you take pictures.
LikeLike
you do know how to boost your ISO? When it gets darker,use something around 800 or 1000.Use a F-Stop around 2 or 4.5 as well. As long as your subject isn’t moving fast that should take a good picture.
Yes,the term “Imperial” comes from England & with Canada being a colony we use many terms they do.Our gallon is 160 ounces & yours is 128.Our quarts were (I should use the past tense here) 40 ounces & yours are 32.
So if you someone asks if you want a Imperial quart of beer,grab it as its 8 ounces more!
My father worked in the same industry.He worked for the Canadian General Electric (CGE).Many of the men he managed were tool & die guys.Those guys could build anything!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I had the compact camera with me and it has no settings (except far/close) and I leave it set in the middle all the time. But even if I had the DSLR, I still have not studied how to adjust the ISO or F-stop – I am going to write this down … pound it in my head for when I practice over the Winter. Then I must read the manual and my “Canon T6 Rebel for Dummies” book.
I’ll take it to the Park and practice there after I read the manual. However, I am loading my pictures from the past three days … no black duck(s) in the seagull photos – one duck but it was dark and I think it was a female mallard. However, I’m happy – I got a picture of the heron with a big fish in its mouth – that was Sunday, the day I saw him put his beak in the water and come up with a fish several times. It was taken across the Creek, shot between the branches … that was a goal of mine to get that heron with a fish. One heron today, just sitting like a bump on a log, but I got some good up-close pictures of a cardinal who was watching me form a low branch … he was waiting for me to put peanuts down for the squirrels, which I did, but it never made a move down to the path like it usually does. There was no one on the path – the squirrel ran off … it was staring at me for about 10 minutes, not moving a muscle, as it was giving me free rein to take its picture. It was almost eerie. It usually watches me to snatch a peanut, then off it goes. Or it hops from branch to branch … it just sat there … moved its head a little. There is a saying that if a cardinal comes to see you, it is a loved one who wants to be close to you … my mom collected cardinal figurines. That male cardinal was very beautiful.
I have not heard that term about imperial in ages … my car had a little switch that you pushed to go from miles to kilometers on the speedometer, so I’d do that toggle switch when we drove in Canada and the gas tank had the gallons/litres shown as well.
My father worked for Anchor Cap and it was associated with Anchor Hocking over here and then he last worked at Ford Motor Company of Oakville who transferred him over here to their new Woodhaven Stamping Plant. When I was a kid my father would bring home calculations to do at night – he would sit for hours using a slide rule and then the calculator was invented by Texas Instruments … a few taps on the numeric keyboard of the calculator and he had the answer to what used to take hours to figure out..
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for sharing the Christmas decorations with us, Linda. I didn’t know you collected teddy bears. Do you still have your collection? My MIL collected frogs. She had stuffed frogs, frog statues, frog pictures, frog jewelry, anything frog-related, she loved.
Congrats again on reaching your walking goal! 1000 miles is a lot!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I do still have all my teddy bear collection Laurie and I had to stop at 52 as they were like the title of this blog “here, there and everywhere” … I have them in my mom’s room and the den. I took pictures of all of them one day as a friend of mine collects china dolls so we showed each other our collections. I had to stop buying them as there was no more room to put them. Interesting about the frog collection of your mother-in-law. My mom collected ducks and the house has a country motif so we went to a lot of country-like stores shopping for rustic items for the decor, especially in the kitchen. So, not only did she collect the hand-carved small ducks, but there are several resin duck that look carved, duck decoys and ceramic figurines as well. Most are mallards. My mom also liked cardinals and had some figurines of cardinals … today I saw a beautiful cardinal in the Park. I am uploading my pictures from the last few days and I just looked at the photos; this cardinal was really up close to me – he was looking for a peanut when I feed the squirrels, but usually he sits up high and today he was probably 10 feet from me, if that far, and sitting down low in the tree. I was happy to see the picture as he had his head turned, showing off that beautiful crest and vibrant red color. I do think of my mom when I see cardinals and there is the tale of a cardinal coming to see you means a loved one is looking down from Heaven at you. Did you ever hear that story? Well this cardinal was very close – this bright red bird in the dull and bare tree – it sure made my day.
LikeLike
Miss Linda…………………..Congratulations on your 1,000 miles of walking so far……………….your ahead of last year too………….thank you for telling me about Silent Night being 200 years old……………………….
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Ann Marie – onward and upward and just 13 days left in this year and I’ll see how many more I can rack up,. It may be a little icey Saturday morning they say, so if so, I’ll pass and wait til Sunday. I wondered if the 200th anniversary of Silent Night was mentioned at your church or not. Hard to believe, isn’t it?
LikeLike
You did it!!! 100 miles more…AMAZING! I can’t wait to see your grand total. The Nutcrackers were my favorite but they all were pretty!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I did and I will try to get as many miles in before the end of the month Diane and my last post of this year will have the total. I like those Nutcrackers too – they are life-sized and very festive looking.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Slow down, Linda! My goal for the year was to walk at least half as much as you did. I’m at 540 miles today.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ha ha – I’ll have to walk backwards then … I am at 1,108 as of today!
LikeLike
LOL! Parker would be confused if you walked backwards.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, I would love to see the look on his face … I have to learn how to video things because I would like to share how sometimes I will be looking at some geese or the heron and get the feeling someone is near me … I look at my feet and there are a couple of squirrels looking up at me. Believe me, they are not starved … more people are feeding them because they are cute and they see how much fun I have with them. I am going to write about this over the next few days … it is a blog post bubbling around in my head.
LikeLike
Bubble away!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Congratulations on your milestone of 1100 miles!! I’m glad you found Parker on the walk, too. Hope the weather holds up so he gets to see you throughout the winter. Wishing you clear walkways!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Shelley – I am hoping that El Nino Winter comes to fruition for both of us!
LikeLike
Thank you for sharing the beautiful holiday decorations with us. Well done on your extra miles that you have done this year. I always wonder each day where you will end up walking and what you will end up seeing. You are amazing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Zena – I have done better walking in the last month … October and November we had horrible weather, it has been cold but at least dry. (Except last Friday – an all-day rain.) I am going to see how much further I can go and top that next year. I hope your knee is feeling better and not causing undue problems. I did a long post today and hope to get over to Reader tonight, if not … tomorrow for sure as my boss is on vacation until next Friday. It gave me a little more time to write some longer posts.
LikeLike