The Weather Outside Was...Frightful...No, That's Not It...

On Saturday the weather was beautiful for late November. St. Louis has had some perfect weather this year. Not too hot, not too cold. My wife and I had plans to go to St. Louis and do some shopping with her brother and his wife. First, we went to the Central West End to a store my wife wanted to go to called Ivy Hill.  She found some earrings that she liked there and we also went to a couple of other stores.

Then we headed downtown to the Syndicate Lofts on Olive for an art show. These were all local artists and my wife found out about the show from one of her co-workers. We had a card, but left it someplace though I remembered the address somehow.  After driving around a little we found the address. We had to be let into the building and went up to the 5th floor. There was an artist with some jewelry, pottery, metal sculpture and paintings. After looking around a little my wife found some earrings and our sister-in-law found a pendant.  While we were downtown we decided to stop in the new Culinaria (Schnuck's) grocery store and check it out. We bought a few snacks for the ride home and headed back to my wife's brother & his wife's house.

Before heading home we stopped by the Record Exchange to look for some Christmas 45's for the jukebox. We searched through about 4 boxes stuffed with 45's and found a few gems to go home with us.

Gene Autry - Rudolph, The Red Nosed Reindeer b/w If It Doesn't Snow On Christmas (Columbia)
Pearl Bailey - Five Pound Box Of Money b/w Jingle Bells Cha Cha Cha (Roulette)
Booker T. & The M.G.'s - Jingle Bells b/w Winter Wonderland (Stax) [Promo]
Johnny Cash - The Little Drummer Boy b/w I'll Remember You (Columbia)
Charles Brown - Merry Christmas Baby b/w Lloyd Glenn - Sleigh Ride (Hollywood)
Clarence Carter - Back Door Santa b/w That Old Time Feeling (Atlantic) [Promo]
Nat King Cole - The Christmas Song & Mrs. Santa Claus b/w Frosty The Snow Man & Little Christmas Tree [Picture Sleeve]
Perry Como - Silent Night b/w O Come, All Ye Faithful (RCA)
Bing Crosby - White Christmas b/w God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (Decca) [Picture Sleeve]
Stan Freburg - Green Chri$tma$ b/w The Meaning Of Christmas (Capitol, 1958) [Picture Sleeve]
Bobby Helms - Jingle Bell Rock b/w Captain Santa Claus (And His Reindeer Space Patrol) (Decca)
Eartha Kitt - (This Year's) Santa Baby b/w Hey Jacque
Donny Hathaway - This Christmas b/w Be There (Atco)

I cleaned the records on Sunday and made the title strips (green) on Tuesday and got them into the jukebox on Wednesday for the holiday season. Now if we can just finish decorating the tree.

Christmas 2007

A good Christmas was had by all in our family. From my parents, I received some money that I will use on the 1968 Cougar project. Hopefully, soon "Jack" will have a rebuilt transmission and some tires that will hold air and I don't have to worry about and the car will be moving around when needed. Then the work on the suspension, body, and undercarriage can begin. From the in-laws I received a very nice Coleman steel-belted cooler to use for all those picnics and barbeques over the next 20 years.

Little Tikes - Push and Ride Doll Walker (left)

After the baby was around a while my dad started asking about Christmas and after some discussion about tricycles and other options, my wife and I thought that an appropriate toy for our daughter. We thought this would allow her to learn to walk and she could ride it sooner than a tricycle or something that she would not be able to ride for the first couple of years. I knew that my parents had ordered it because I was talking to my dad on the phone one day when the special delivery at the front door came. I thought that was good and I did not think much of it after that.

However, my dad, as mentioned before is a car guy, went above and beyond and bought my daughter a Christmas gift to grow into - a pedal car. This pedal car evokes my dad's stylings rather than my daughter's but is very cool nonetheless. She has 2 + years to grow into this car and by age 6 she'll be wanting to know when she can drive her own real car! Thanks dad!

InStep Pedal Car

Birch Lane Brewing Co. - Winter Ale

A new, limited batch of beer is now available from the brewmasters at the Birch Lane Brewing Company.  The Brewmaster has carefully selected the finest ingredients for this Winter Ale just in time for Christmas.  A limited edition of 36 bottles are available.  Look for the label above.  Contact me for more details on where to get yours!