This Epic Weekend In Pictures involved some delicious food and beverages. Even Domino's brought their A game for me Sunday night. LOL. This weekend we made some more fun memories while seeing safely some of our amazing friends. I also learned that while putting up a Christmas tree can be a challenge and hard work - it is much more harder work to put up a fallen, fully decorated Christmas tree. We will start our Epic Weekend with Friday night.
My normal Sunday night Happy Hour bestie crew were all able to make time to see each other Friday night and enjoy a round of some yule tide cheer. We were psyched to check out the new outdoor winter wonderland setup at Minerals in Vernon (on Campus as I love to say.) I learned that they have Santa at Minerals on Saturday nights, like Awesome Girlfriend Megan and I enjoyed last weekend, and Santa then goes to Crystal Springs Friday night. With how busy he is going everywhere in one crazy night and morning, I'm very happy he's not trying to spread himself too thin before the big day.
We were able to enjoy their outdoor structure with heaters and enjoy a fun round of drinks. I was very happy to see a good, safe crowd outside all enjoying the gorgeous winter wonderland setup. I may have to try out the axe throwing they have there in the near future. That might be an interesting Facebook live video.
This time of year is so crazy, in many ways crazier than ever. We humbly realized it was our first time hanging out with all four of us in almost two months. Is it me, or is this year kind of foggy? To me it feels like this whole year has just been one long period of fog. We had a great night, then ventured into Kite's on a high top table where they used to have their dance floor. We had a great time being great friends, busting on each other all night. It was almost like one of our hilarious Sunday Happy Hour nights. We all admitted we needed a fun night out with many laughs. I texted them the next day saying it was just what the doctor ordered for me.
Saturday morning we did behind the scenes work at our radio station 102.3 WSUS, and after we were done Steve Andrews offered to take me out to lunch in honor of my birthday a few weeks ago. I was thrilled. I picked Granny's Pancake House in Hamburg on 23. Once I told Steve Andrews he had the option of breakfast or lunch, he was even more thrilled. I got delicious buffalo wings, and he got a grilled cheese sandwich. Per usual when Steve Andrews and I go out for a meal or a drink, I don't think we talk about work a single time. Yet again, it was just what the doctor ordered. We had a blast.
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After lunch, I went back and retreated to my place. I kept reading that "The Dynasty," book on my Patriots by Jeff Benedict that I just can't put down. This book is like crack to me. It has so many behind the scenes stories that I never knew, and I follow them very closely. I'm still learning new fun behind the scenes stories on my Patriots every single day. It took some amazing people to pull off that 20 year run, and so many things had to go right especially behind the scenes to make it happen.
Our big plan was to help my work bestie Shawn Stinnett put up her Christmas tree. Shawn tends to get rather tall Christmas trees, and is also a very independent, strong-willed person. She'll never ask for help. Even when you offer, she's the type that usually comes up with an excuse to dodge your help. Awesome Girlfriend Megan knew that over a several week span we would have to keep offering and really force the issue. We made a date. Saturday the 12th, we would do a Christmas tree setup.
I was very happy to go over and be able to help. I called myself the muscle, which drew major laughs from Awesome Girlfriend Megan. To reward us for our efforts, Shawn treated us to burgers from Cow Patty's on 23 in Wantage, formerly Double S Diner. My bacon burger was good. I'm not a fan that you can't order burgers medium rare and they only give you medium as an option. Hopefully they change that policy someday. I can't be the only one who says Redder is better, right? The pickle they gave was fantastic. Meg yelled at me "really, you're complimenting the pickle?" Apparently it was my first pickle in awhile.
After some tender, love and care the Christmas tree came out fantastic. Absolutely beautiful. We celebrated with a couple of good IPAs. Not going to lie, I picked out a random 12 pack of craft beer to try, I think it was called Jack Abbey. It might be great for many others, but it didn't match my taste buds at all. The Shipping Up To Boston beer (I can't be the only one who sometimes picks beers for fun titles, right?) was not fitting me at all. Shawn and I had a great night trading radio bonding stories after Meg went back to Hackettstown. Great, relaxing night by the fireplace and a gorgeous Christmas tree. How can that not relax you, right?
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I told Shawn that I would be leaving Sunday morning early to get some errands done before football Sunday. It was 7:30, I was starting to leave her place. I then discovered the Christmas tree had fallen. I texted her, and upstairs I could hear her phone go off and seconds later she said "Oh no!" This took a ton of strategy and elbow grease to get the Christmas tree. I learned it's much, much more of a challenge to put up a fully decorated Christmas tree. This had never happened to me before but apparently several of my friends had been through this before. It looked like a Christmas crime scene, with water and needles everywhere, with some broken glass from decorations. I'm proud to say after an hour we successfully brought the Christmas tree back up again.
In an Epic Weekend In Pictures fail, I forgot to take a picture of the Christmas crime scene. I definitely should have taken a picture to show the challenge. Hopefully there won't be a next time on that. We were beat by 8:30am Sunday.
I was able to enjoy football Sunday with my friends Lou and Walt. We had a great time at The Cottage cheering on Tom Brady and Tampa. I actually said to friends at The Cottage "at least my Patriots already lost Thursday night, so I know they can't lose today." I can't remember the last time I've made a statement like that.
Overall, we had a wonderful weekend with memories we certainly will never forget. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my Epic Weekend In Pictures. Time to start planning next weekend. I get Awesome Girlfriend Megan, and she says we are going to make meatballs. #WhatCanPossiblyGoWrong?
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