Scattered Thoughts . . .

This past weekend...  a holiday weekend with an absurd amount of traffic and gridlock due to leaf peeping tourism...  we made our annual trek to The Christmas Loft with Lukey and Kenzie.  We headed northward earlier than most people were out and about so, for the most part, we stayed ahead of the crowds.   The scenery was typical autumn scenery...  like we are in an artificial Willy Wonka world of funky, overly fiery assortments of brightly saturated colors that appear more like infrared photography or false-color photography or someone's nightmare than real life.  To be honest, I prefer the late spring season for more awe-inspiring scenery.  Autumn looks a bit too wildly psychedelic   for me  (should be more appropriately spelled " psycho -delic" if you ask me).  Springtime after everything begins to bloom looks more natural and colorful.  Springtime colors are in distinct shades of light green to dark green with pastel shades of reds, oranges and yellows, complemented

After the cider mill early in the morning, then the train show late in the morning (my previous blog entry), and then lunch at The Olive Garden, we brought the kids to one of their favorite places... The Christmas Loft! There isn't much to explain when it comes to why the kids enjoy visiting The Christmas Loft... it is a place where it is Christmas all year long and they are kids... it really is a no-brainer! Of course, I don't mind visiting this store either since the Christmas season is my favorite time of year as well. We seem to visit this store a few times each year and we purchase a few things each time we visit.  The kids excitedly walk through every room of this sprawling store but, worth mentioning, is the mini Dickens-like village at the core of this large store. The kids are always fascinated with this kid-sized village and they always seem to find something new in this village with each subsequent visit.  It is safe to say that everyone enjoyed this visit