Christmas and the Door To Hell

We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving, courtesy of our friends Russ and Roe. I made mac&cheese, chess pie cake, pecan pie...and Roe made everything else (including a 30 lb turkey - well, she didn't make it...she prepared it, I guess...). A lovely time was had with our NY friends, and (Roe's) Cousin Richard from Jersey (boo-yah, my Scene-It partner!)

Friday, we did what any sane person should do after Thanksgiving...we slept late. Saturday and Sunday...well, we got busy.

We needed to clean up the attic for the heating folks to come out and redo the ducts. Joe had already spent a good deal of time reorganizing, trashing, and shifting various boxes. Saturday we thought we'd do some final touches.

For those of you who haven't had the pleasure - this is our attic. Or, about 1/3 of it. It's basically a 3rd floor of our house with walk-up access. It's also where we thought we'd work out with the weight machine. Didn't happen.

Our attic has been the source of many cool discoveries. Doors were removed from the first floor, stacked against the attic wall - we're grateful the bunghole didn't destroy them. One "treasure" we recently unearthed was the slew of bed frames that were stored in another part of the attic - we were going to pay the heating guys just to take them away, but there was a headboard/footboard combo that looked promising, so Joe & I went to town.

Here are the items, removed from the corner they were in for about 7 years. That little orange-ish square in the middle of the picture is actually a DO NOT REMOVE UNDER PENALTY OF LAW tag attached to a metal box spring - with a 1913 date. It's safe to say the previous owners didn't remove the tag.

We had also noticed that there was a mattress behind all the box springs. Yes, a mattress. Ew. I suggested we should at least take a look behind it, because I didn't want the heater guys to be exposed to something horrid...

The mattress wasn't bad, actually. Thin and a bit damp, but no critters. What intrigued us was the door.

Here's the part where we had to take a break, and I wasn't about to take pictures of inside that door without someone else with me. As a beloved friend once said, "I’ve seen this movie and it does NOT turn out well." All I need is for this to be a portal to hell, the awakening of some evil spirit, or at the very least a very pissed off school-teacher ghost. Am NOT going back up there alone.

So I waited until Joe got back from the hardware store (again), and we opened the door...

...to a bunch of wood scraps. Less exciting - yet much better - than unleashing hell on earth, don't you agree?

We spent the rest of the weekend decorating the house for the holidays. I took charge of the interior lights while Joe took the exterior. It must be noted that while Joe had to be outdoors for his, mine took much longer, what with the hammering and extension-cord-logistics and all. Ptoooey.

Here are some non-flash shots that - while showing the lights - kinda look creepy...

Here's the front, from the street

And the side, further down the street. Moon an added bonus.

From the side yard - note the mini-trees...and the moon again :)

Same shot, with flash. Less scary.

That's about it for tonight - hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!