It’s that time of year when the Christmas lights go up and houses and trees in the neighborhood look festive! However, each year I hear the same question “how much does it cost to have Christmas lights plugged in?”

Most people probably think back to Clark Griswold and his extremely lit up house in National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. His electric bill could be through the roof but that’s because he used more holiday lights than most people. For the average person you’ll only see a few extra dollars while running your Christmas lights.

Well the Thanksgiving weekend is over and we had a great one. Friday we went shopping and boy did we do a lot. We were up at 5am, no thanks to the Target wake-up calls that didn’t work correctly, and we were at BestBuy by 6 or so. I have to say that that was the busiest store we went to. We didn’t by anything there but did learn that Mario Party 6 was on it’s way! That has since been added to my Christmas list as I’m a big Mario Party fan! We hit many stores that day and three malls across the Twin Cities. But, everything we got wasn’t for us. We put some money in the Salvation Army’s kettles. Just the few dollars in our pockets but still, every little bit helps. We also checked out the sharing trees at the Mall of America. They were covered with tags of what people were wishing for for Christmas and hoping someone would get them. Again, we didn’t spend a lot of money but bought three gifts for people in need. And it’s fun as we got to go down the toy ails and ship for things we wouldn’t normally buy. And if a $12 item can make one persons Christmas then I’m more than happy to help out and I hope you do too.

We are very excited that the first snowflakes of the season are falling on Thanksgiving! I hope they continue all night.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I’m busy sitting in front of the TV watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and reading the ads in the newspaper. I hope every eats and eats some more today and has a happy start to the holiday season. Oh and put up some Christmas lights already.

It’s that time of year again. Time to get out the Christmas decorations. This year I’ve created some desktop wallpapers for your computer. You can download Christmas/holiday desktop backgrounds and get your computer in the spirit! From snowmen to candy cane stripes I’ve got 9 wallpapers to choose from. Don’t see one you’d like? Then let me know and I’ll see what I can design for you. Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

Insanity is the name of the new thrill ride atop the Stratosphere hotel in Las Vegas. And it does look quite insane. Spinning you around while your dangling over the strip below. WOW. X Scream looks a little more intense from the movies though. Just because of the motion towards the ground would be freaky! However, I wouldn’t doubt that Insanity may have some of that going on too. Checkout the Stratosphere’s Thrill Ride for facts, videos, and more.

We rocked out with Chris Cagle and Rascal Flatts at the Xcel Energy Center Saturday night. The concert was very good and highly entertaining. Chris Cagle is a great performer and has some great moves. It’s to bad that he as considered an opening act as he could have gone on for hours. Rascal Flatts put on a great show also. Their music and energy is non stop and their stage was one of the coolest I’ve seen. It wasn’t to big and complex but more like a scrap metal pile with neon signs, a long and skinny tv, and lots of lights to dot the background. Constantly changing in color, placement and even animated! It was a great show and I’d recommend it to anyone, even non country fans.

I beat the Hallmark system today! You know those Jingle Pals that they are advertising all over the TV? Well I went to get one and they are ten dollars cheaper if you buy three cards too. Well cards at Hallmark aren’t always cheap. You can easily rack up the ten dollar discount by buying three cards. Well I took a moment to look and bought three 99 cent cards and still got my ten dollar discount on the Jingle Pals! I feel so superior. Ha ha.

These just in. Pictures of the perpetrator and the damage he’s done!

In the first picture you can see the perp in this exclusive hidden camera footage. The second shows the damage he’s done! If you see this perp, or others like him, hide your vegetables or witness the destruction. Lucky for us, this pumpkin is still smiling.

The pumpkin abuse continues. So far the squirrels have taken and eaten probably 6 mini pumpkins. Today I saw one of them going for the smallest pie pumpkin sitting on our deck. He took a huge chomp out of the top of it, however it’s to heavy for him to carry away at the moment. Check back for pictures as I may take one or two. In other news I’m eagerly awaiting snow. So far nothing. And today I finally broke down and bough Shapeshifter from Unsanity. Now I can theme my machine at home and enjoy the many different Mac styles.