HO HO HO!

This time of year is my favorite.  Granted my daughter was born just two days before Christmas so we get to celebrate her birthday every year.  Yes I also love going to my family’s house and my in-law’s home for thanksgiving dinner and Christmas.  It is so much fun to be around family and enjoy each other’s company.  Really, I don’t know what it is about this time of year but it always puts everyone in such good mood.  Everyone around you seems to put away the stresses of their jobs and lives and enjoy the holiday season.  All of this is great, but my favorite part about the holiday season is the family traditions.  I can remember doing these same traditions every year as a kid and it excites me to be able to continue those traditions with my own family.  The one tradition that stands out among the rest is the day after thanksgiving we would always put up the Christmas tree and Christmas decorations.  When I say put up the Christmas tree I mean we would go as a family and cut one down.  We never had a fake tree growing up.  Now with my family I can remember when my wife and I got married we would go in to the mountains with our jeep and another married couple and cut down our Christmas trees.  We would then strap them to our roof and take them home to set up and decorate.  It is so fun doing this in preparation for the Christmas season.

Legend Trip

Growing up in Iowa we would always hear of different places that were haunted.  Back in the midwest there are dozens of abandoned buildings for which we would challenge each other to break into and sleep for the night without a flashlight.  There was one place that no one would go into, the old run down insane asylum. This was a big building the size of a hotel out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by big brick walls.  I first heard of this location from my best friend Kevin Wailes.  With no one going in to the building and me just hearing of it at the time, everyone decided it was my turn to go in.  I really didn't think anything of it at the time because I had never heard of the horror stories.  As I proceeded to climb under the front gates I had a really bad feeling.  I got to the front gates and could not go in. It was probably because of the many movies I had seen that made places similar to this one look so evil.  I couldn't go in so I turned back.  I didn't want to be made fun of so I told them the doors were locked.  How would they know any better?  I mean I had gone under the gates which no one else that was friends with me had ever done.  All I know is that people have claimed that the place was haunted and those kids that lived near by would say they would hear screams in the middle of the night coming from this big abandoned building.  Whether it is true or not I do no know.  All I know are the feelings I got when I went under that gate.