Category: Holiday
End of the Daily Adventures
It was mostly fun to share daily photos of all the adventures I went on throughout 2011 and I know many enjoyed seeing them. But the task that started as a challenge became a chore by the end of the year and while I am happy to have a year’s worth of pictures to look back on, I will not be doing the same in 2012. I still intend to share many photos along the way, but definitely not every day. I’m considering doing 52 Adventures, one each week, but may not even complete that. I won’t let this blog go to waste (again), but the daily thing is all done.
But today I leave you with a Christmas bonus: a Walking Dead zombie action figure posing in front of our Christmas tree. Merry undead Christmas.
365 Adventures in 2011: Day 365 – The Final Adventure
A second story balcony near our house gave me and Michelle our final adventure for the year. We watched the Magic Kingdom’s New Year’s Eve fireworks show from around 15 minutes away from the park, staying away from the crazy crowds and instead enjoying them completely by ourselves. From that vantage point, we not only saw that show, but at least 10 other small local displays from people shooting off fireworks in their yards. It was a great way to end the year and to conclude these 365 Adventures in 2011.
Happy New Year!
And a video of the finale too:
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365 Adventures in 2011: Day 362 – The Pumpkin King
Christmas may be over, but while enjoying our Christmas tree I spotted one particularly well-lit ornament hanging out on the side. It’s none other than the Pumpkin King himself, Jack Skellington, offering a few season’s screamings. This ornament is part of a 6-piece set from the Disney Store, new this year. And they look great when illuminated by the tree lights.
365 Adventures in 2011: Day 361 – Valentine’s Day Already?
We went to Toys R Us two days after Christmas, and I emphasize two days after Christmas, to return/exchange a few items and just inside the entrance was a display of Valentine’s Day items. I seem to remember Valentine’s Day being on February 14, not December 27. They couldn’t at least wait until 2012?
365 Adventures in 2011: Day 360 – LEGO Darth Vader
My favorite present of the year was a surprise from Michelle: an oversized LEGO Darth Vader store display from Target. There were only 200 of these produced and they were not for sale, intended only as displays to be destroyed/discarded after a certain amount of time. But some weren’t destroyed and ended up on eBay instead, where Michelle nabbed one for me after I had told her repeatedly that I wish I could have one, every time we saw one in the store. And now I do!
It arrived with two red/black pairs of wires hanging out of the back. In the store, it was part of a larger display with lots of LED lights, a plexiglass front, and a battery pack holding 16 D batteries. So I had to figure out on my own how to power this thing. After wire cutting, splicing, electrical taping, and testing, I determined only 4 D batteries were truly needed to make it work.
So off to Radio Shack I went, the day after Christmas, in search of a solution. I came home with a project enclosure box, battery pack designed to hold 4 D batteries, and a toggle switch. After a couple hours of cutting, drilling, twisting, splicing, twisting (and scraping my hand with a drill bit meant for concrete), I assembled a perfect little battery box with a handy switch on top that turns on both the red light saber as well as the head/arm movement. But that wasn’t enough.
I also grabbed a Darth Vader breathing sound effect box I had previously purchased at Party City a couple months earlier, rewired its switch to allow it to toggle the sound loop on and off, and placed the whole thing in the back of the display. And in the end, it moves, it breaths, it lights up, and it’s awesome.
