I hope everyone out there had a great Thanksgiving holiday. I spent Thanksgiving dinner with some wonderful friends again this year. I don’t know if I every mentioned it here at The Park, but I am an only child so I consider these friends my brothers and sister. They are my family. We got to watch some football (well, at least that what I thought it was in Detroit) as is tradition on Thanksgiving. I have to say the Dallas Cowboys are starting to get back some things they had early in the season. I caught a little of the UT/A&M game. Poor A&M…NOT! I didn’t dare venture out at o’dark thirty on Friday morning. I don’t like to give my sleep up for shopping escapades. I am sure everyone out there got some great bargains, I got caught up on some much needed sleep.

I didn’t do much on Friday except play a little PS3 Lego Batman. If you have a PS3 I highly recommended the game. I also like the Star Wars Lego game as well. I did watch my Red Raiders beat the Baylor Bears. They looked good in the first half, but we came back on them and won. We are now sitting at 11-1. Not bad considering the previous week, we got out assess handed too us in Norman on National TV. With that being said, Red Raider Nation was cheering on the OSU Cowboys to pull one out over OU. Why? Well, if by some chance OSU beat OU, my Red Raiders would move on to the Big 12 championship game against Missouri. Well, looks like the only way Red Raiders will see that game this year is either buy a ticket and head to KC or sit at watch like I will be next Saturday. Since OU, UT, and Tech had a three way tie, the tiebreaker (which is the 5th tiebreaker) was the highest ranking team in the BCS would head to KC. Well, I really thought UT should have gone since they did beat OU earlier in the year, but OU did score 60+ points in the last three games and thus…OU will be playing Missouri next week. Where does that leave Tech this year? Well…11-going into bowl season…where will we play? Can’t really say, but I have heard the Cotton Bowl. No matter where Tech ends up, it has been a great season. We did have a few casualties from last night’s game…Michael Crabtree out in the 2nd quarter, came back with a boot on his right ankle. Graham Harrell will have surgery on his fingers on his non-throwing hand. Here’s hoping everyone gets well by the time bowl season kicks off.

As tradition, I put up Christmas decorations and the Christmas during this weekend. This year was exciting because this would be Little Smoke’s first Christmas with us. As we kept pulling out the ornaments, he got more and more excited. Here are some pictures from our Christmas decorating day.

Of course…I couldn’t forget those NASCAR elements to our Christmas tree and room decorations. I bought a new NASCAR ornament from Hallmark commemorating the 50th Daytona 500.

Here are the NASCAR ornaments on the tree.  The tire ornament says “Gentleman Start Your Engines”.  Of course no Christmas tree of mine is complete without that ever popular Tony Stewart ornament.  I didn’t take a picture of it, but I do have a Redneck ornament on the tree…which states “You might be Redneck if you think the last four words of the National Anthem are gentleman start your engines.  Please note the sign behind the Christmas tree…”The Bar is Open”.  Actually it says, “The Tiki Bar is Open.” (part of it is hidden by the tree branch). This is a decoration from my birthday party back in June.  I like the sign so why not have it up year round.  Of course some of you may now be thinking…”you might be a Redneck if….and to which I respond…there is no “you might be” because I am one..and damn proud!

Here are the stockings hung by the chimney with care…I am not going to say who’s stocking is who’s, but if you are a regular visitor to The Park, then you know which stocking is mine.

I am still working on the 2008 Trixies. I have been through most of my postings and I am tallying the votes. I am hoping to have them posted this week, but as with anything sometimes it can get crazy.