Car Color Game

When I was a child, we sometimes traveled a from New Jersey across the country to visit my grandparents in Utah and uncles and aunts in California, Oregon, and Idaho.

In order to pass the time while rolling down the highway for several days in a row in the 1960's, we played games such as "The Alphabet Game," (click to see the rules. It's the first one on the list, followed by several others, most of which we never played) The License Plate Game, (4th on the list linked above) and the Car Color Game (not listed on the link.)

The Car Color Game involves choosing a color and counting how many cars you see in that color. The first one to whatever pre-determined number is set (1, 5, 20, 50, whatever you can agree on) is the winner!

I tended to choose my favorite colors: bright yellow, orange, green, or red, if one of my other many siblings didn't yell them out first. Funny thing about it, though, is that I don't ever remember winning.

As I recall, my older brother usually chose white, which, while at times a useful color (or absence of color, depending on who you talk to), is also one of the most boring colors on the planet, in my opinion.

But my recollection also serves to remind me that this brother of mine almost always won the game.

I wonder why?

Christmas Sights You've Never Seen Before!

While going out and about this Christmas season, I encountered some unusual sights. 

For example, while walking through the St. George Lin's store, I saw a family dressed in onesie pajamas belly up to the ice cream bar. When I asked them about their warm and woolly get-up, they explained their Christmas Eve tradition of going out for ice cream. This year, though, the children challenged them to all go out in their NEW CHRISTMAS PAJAMAS!

What did Mom and Dad say?

Why, YES, of course!

(Wouldn't it be fun to be part of the "Onesie" family?)

I only caught a glimpse of this truck decked out in more lights than the Rockefeller Center tree. (I snapped a quick shot through the window, hence, the reflections.) I think this is a marvelous idea, as long as you obey traffic rules.

(On police radio.) Set up a roadblock for a speeding truck covered in multi-colored lights.

Sounds like a sure-fire traffic stop to me.

Have you ever seen SINGING CHRISTMAS TREES? Besides making me laugh out loud for at least five minutes, they even change mouth shapes.

See? From curvy to rectangular...

...to circles! 

After all, you can't make all the vowels by holding your lips in one shape! (Try it... I dare you!)

The sweet thing about seeing a projection of Mrs. Claus through Santa's workshop window is that my little sister who has Down syndrome exclaimed, "She's waving at me to come in! She wants me to visit her!" 

As we drove on by, I told my sister that was so nice of Mrs. Santa, but we'd have to come back later because we had more houses to see, and there were cars waiting behind us.

(I didn't say how much later we'd come back, did I?) 

Besides, how would Carolyn feel if she discovered that the jolly Mrs. Claus was just a projection? Gotta preserve the magic, people.

And for a little Christmas un-magic, I present the small-hearted Grinch, in all his hulking shadowy nefariousness.

I'm convinced that our son's cat took some Grinch lessons, as she stole a gift from beneath our tree and clawed it open on one side. 

Guess whose name was on the gift?

Why, mine, of course.

I leave you with this image of a simple, beautiful white tree on a hillside. 

Christmas is simple, after all. 

It's all about love.

I wish for you peace, happiness, and no stolen presents.