So Santa Came and We Now Enjoy

So after talking to Bob, Jim, and John on the phone...... who knows where Joan is, Ed is at the out-laws so didn't bother those two.

So the Little Princess has been bouncing off the walls since I got home. All the gifts are wrapped and under the tree. Papa and NaNa are leaving tomorrow on their trip, so she wants to open gifts tonight.

After watching the evening news (weather of course), I turned the boob toob off and made the annual statement that illicits squeels of delight in every little girls voice. "Let's open the presents".

Now that takes precedence over everything and we soon had the big coffee table that the Long Roof Fan delivered to us from Florida in his Truckster wantabe (check it out here) http://oleragtop.blogspot.com/2008_06_01_archive.html
and we commenced to opening gifts.

Now to digress a little. When the Little Princess's mom was her age, I was on submarine duty and seemed to never be home for Christmas or her birthday. So we would have the tree up at all different times of the year. In Hawaii one year we left it up all year (went over cool at Hallowean). So we never waited till the day to open gifts. Open them as soon as they were wrapped and under the tree for two days.

So for the past two weeks, Shark's Angel and Little Princess have been trying to get me to utter those famous words "Let's open the presents". But I stood my ground this year. No opening under Christmas Day. Yeah.

With the upcoming Bronco Run that the Barngoddess1 and I are taking, we leave Christmas Day for 4 days, I finally relented and we opened gifts tonight.

I got a new pair of carhart bibber insulated overalls. My old ones saw the end of their life expectancy about 4 years ago. Barngoddess1 got a new carhart jacket with hood to wear over her bibbers. Shark's Angel got some really neat stuff that granddaughters give to mothers (earrings, etc), AND the little Princess got a couple shirts and sweat shirts that say "The Princess" on them. Plus all the other stuff.

The best gift goes to the Barngoddess1. Her birthday is 12/31 so growing up Christmas and Birthday were too close together. Anyway, every year I get her something along the line of an Aunt Mary gift (check it out here
http://fredleo.com/fredblog/backgrounder

one year we were living in Hawaii: after 6 months of endless searching, I finally found a snow shovel (excellent Birthday gift).
another year it was a wheelbarrow, another time... well you get the drift.....

So this year I buy her a 1966 Ford Bronco. We travel to Wellington MO to pick it up and it is exactly what I want. So we get it at half the asking price and trailer it home. there are some major problems with it (no heater) large gap between windshield frame and door, front seats shot, back seat missing, shifter is too stiff.... no problem for me, just let me drive it.

Wrong. The Barngoddess1 tells me that she wants a TURN-KEY 1966 Bronco and she wants it before her Birthday...... Boy am I in trouble...

So the saga of the "Bronco Run" begins......

But first, the Bus and his private RN told me long ago that they take trips by the dollar. Take $500, travel away from home until you spend half of it. Turn around and come home. Interesting concept.
So the Barngoddess1 and I do it one step further. Let's take a trip out 8 hours, go another 8 hours the second day, and return home in 8 hours the third day.

Needless to say, the "Bronco Run" is a run to get parts for MY Bronco. It is also a run to pickup the 1966 Bronco she wants.

Now the trip will be detailed here, but rest assured it will involve about 20 some hours of driving, in a triangle fashion from Springfield MO. And will probably involve traveling in snow, rain, and anything else. We are taking the Big Little Mule and should enjoy the trip.

Who said life wasn't fun. More later.