Guard Dog

Sammy is guarding the presents this Christmas Eve.

Twas The Afternoon Before Christmas Eve

Caffe Europa
Laurel Mall - Hazleton, PA
Grandma and I stopped for coffee while doing some last minute holiday shopping.

Hershey For The Holidays

The Hershey Lodge has a coffee shop and cafe called the Cocoa Beanery, so we stopped for coffee before we checked out.

This has been a very nice place to stay for the holidays.  I hope that we get to come back here again.

Angie loves museums, so our first stop of the day was The Hershey Story.  It was a lot of fun and we took a bunch of pictures that I'll have to sort through and share after the holidays.

In addition to the museum, The Hershey Story has a kitchen called The Chocolate Lab where you can learn how to make a dessert.  We made chocolate bowls and decorated them with frosting and sprinkles.

Next stop was Hershey's Chocolate World, which is an attraction not far from the entrance to Hersheypark.  There's a massive Hershey store, a Chocolate World ride that I've been going on since I was a little kid, and newer attractions like Hershey's Really Big 3-D Show.

This year, they've introduced a Create Your Own Chocolate Bar activity.  We made one stuffed with crisped rice, chocolate cookie bits, butter toffee and vanilla chips sealed inside a bar that's coated with red and green sprinkles which we're going to give to Grandpa as a Christmas present.

One of the coolest things we saw at Hershey's Chocolate World was a candy cottage is made up entirely of snacks.  Chocolate bars made up the siding and the door, the shingles were made out of upside down Cookies n' Creme bars, and Kit Kats and Kisses were used throughout, including massive Hershey Kisses on the roof.  We picked up a tabletop statue of this from the gift shop that we're going to put out every Christmas.

Last, but not least, we went to Hersheypark which was all decked out for Christmas.  They even had a stable of reindeer.

We brought the video camera with us too.  Sometime after the holidays, I'm going to see if I can get some footage from the tapes on YouTube to share on here.

Christmas in Chocolate Town

Christmas in Chocolate Town
The Hershey Lodge - Hershey, PA
This was a dinner musical show held in the Great American Hall at the Hershey Lodge.  The show was a very nice mixture of Christmas music, skits and stories, and an appearance by the giant Hershey Bar in a festive Santa hat.

Dinner was served before the show and it was delicious.  As you might imagine, the dessert was especially good - a Yule Log made with Hershey's chocolate.

After the show, we went back to our room for a long winter's nap.

When we got there, we found that there was milk and chocolate chip cookies waiting in our room for us.

Chicken Of The Hawaiian Sea

Tuna Ahi
Outback Steakhouse - Wilkes-Barre, PA

The Legend of Charlie

Christmas Boulevard
Berwick, PA
Charlie's Angel looks like she's going off to fight Ganon for the cure.

Songs About Angels In The Home Of The Devils

Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Prudential Center - Newark, NJ
I swear, I will never get tired of seeing TSO during the holidays.  Unfortunately, they tend to come to my area of Northeast PA several weeks before Thanksgiving, so I'm not quite in the mood to listen to a couple hours of Christmas music.  Thankfully, it's not too far of a drive to Newark, so I got to see them at the Prudential Center where the New Jersey Devils play.

Santa Tux

Tux
Mohegan Sun Arena - Wilkes-Barre, PA
Every year during the last home game before Christmas, the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins invite fans to participate in the Teddy Bear Toss between periods.  Fans throw new stuffed animals onto the ice and the staff gather them up for the Tobyhanna Army Depot who distribute the toys to children throughout Northeast PA.

The Penguins mascot, Tux, dressed up like Santa for the game and collected some of the teddy bears.

From The Forbidden City

Bok Choy Boy toys
Super King Buffet - Wilkes-Barre, PA
I wonder what the folks who work at this Chinese buffet think when they walk in and see these in the lobby vending machines.

Can I Cast Silencio On The Audience?

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: part one
RC Theatres Movies 14 - Wilkes-Barre, PA
They made the right decision by breaking up The Deathly Hallows into two films.  There's way too much content to try to shoehorn it into one.

The Kube in New York

Rubix Kube
The Canal Room - New York, NY
We saw Rubix Kube for the first time in Jim Thorpe back in April, and they were so incredible that we had to check them out on their home turf.  They have a standing gig at The Canal Room for most of the year.

Bryant Park at Christmas

The Rink at Winter Village
Bryant Park - New York, NY

The Sub at Dusk

Henry Student Center - Wilkes University
Wilkes-Barre, PA
The third floor is where the buffet is.  If I'm not in class or in the library, that's probably where I am.

Colonel Tree

Wilkes University
Wilkes-Barre, PA
This is the Christmas tree outside of Einstein Bros. Bagels in University Center.

Phone number

Study Break Selfie

I swear, I'm happier than I look.  Just a little sleepy from studying for finals.

Last Week of the Semester

Wilkes University Department of Psychology
Breiseth Hall - Third Floor
Wilkes-Barre, PA
Finals week starts on Monday.

Breakfast of Champions

Tastykake
Limited Edition Pancake Krimpets
Technically, I can say that I had pancakes for breakfast.  That's healthy, right?

Happy Holiday Season

Thanksgiving is over, and the tree is up.

Break Room Selfie

Wegmans
Wilkes-Barre, PA

The Duel

The Duel
by Aaron Jasinski
An acrylic on wood panel work that will be shown at the Screaming Sky Gallery.

Zombies and Space Junk

Wang Chung
Space Junk
From the Wang Chung's Greatest Hits album (1997)
This was the perfect song to end the premier episode of The Walking Dead.  Eerie, ominous, and a fitting entry to this universe.  "Welcome to my world..."

Secret Squirrel

Wilkes University greenway
Wilkes-Barre, PA

The Loss Of Another Icon

Standard Speaker
Hazleton, PA  (October 29. 2010)
After 73 years in business, Knotty Pine on Route 309 in Hazleton will be closing their doors.