Pirates, Valor, and Tie-Died Jockstraps

I am throwing down some vegetable soup like a flu victim.
No, I'm not sick, but I had a load of produce I needed to cook so I whipped out the crock-pot and threw everything in there like I knew what I was doing.
I don't.
But its good.

I recently signed up to have crops delivered from local farms,...which is awesome by the way.  I'm all about supporting local farms.
Probably because I spent many-a-summer snapping beans til I had no thumbprint on my grandparents farm.  Its all fun and games until Mima hands you a knife at age 8 and tells you to start peeling an endless pile of tomatoes.  Its probably when I officially learned what an "ass load" was.....more than a lot...but darn if you didn't finish that bucket...

So, my produce box comes every Tuesday, and this last week they sent a large acorn squash.  Yes, I love squash and eat around 10 pounds every week, but dear Lord this thing was different.  I nearly lost my religion peeling it.
Longest 17 minutes of my life.
My forearm was literally throbbing by the time I threw it in the pot with everything else.
Apparently getting pissed off is part of the homemade-soup-process.
Sweet.
Count me in.

Busy weekend full of shopping and family events...
I was in rare form by the time we made it to my parents' house last night for Dirty Santa Part II.  The jockstrap I gave last year made a second appearance....however, my cousin tie-died it.
The fact that he even went to the effort is awesome.
I didn't quite stick to the crotch-theme this year,...but if creepy were a theme I nailed it.
I have a plethora of random photos of friends/family that should never make their way to the public, but for the sake of freaking a few people out or a great game of dirty santa, I will blow it up to an 8 x 10 and put a bow on it.

Nothing says Merry Christmas like a little zip-up valor mid-drift.


We had a blast.
My parents' house always trips me out during the holidays.
My mom decorates every room.  But its a different theme as you walk through the house, so my OCD was going nuts. 
Not surprisingly, Sparkles got a little carried away with the upstairs decor.

This is what happens when Mardi Gras mates with the circus....

She's out of control.
So excited she can't stand it.

There were numerous highlights of the evening.  One being when my 93 year old grandpa unwrapped a t-shirt with a pirate on it that said "Surrender All Your Booty!"
That was pretty great,....he'll rock that at the retirement home like a champ.

As the night wore on and it was just a few of us there, I look over and mom broke out a scrapbook of pictures to show my newly sister-in-law.
Somehow I knew this was coming.
Seriously mom, give the poor woman a few months in the family before you bombard her with all the dysfunction caught on camera.
Its enough to be overwhelming...

Ok, I've nearly got arthritis.
That's my weekend in a nutshell.  Game time tomorrow.  Looking forward to a full day in the gym.
Night folks.