haunted mansion

My family adores the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland! I'm serious, it's their favorite ride! SO a few years ago when we went to Disneyland in December, they were in heaven because you see, the Haunted Mansion combines my husband's two favorite holidays... Halloween and Christmas! And while waiting in line they had all the Christmas carols written along the concrete walls using fun, scary lyrics. So like any musical family would do, we started singing these songs in four-part harmony and well, the reaction was quite flattering. Everyone applauded cuz, well, we sounded pretty darn good. So we spent the rest of our time at Disneyland singing Christmas carols while waiting in line. And can I just say, we were even getting requests! We actually toyed with the idea of proposing to Disney that they hire us each year to entertain while waiting in long lines. What do you think... we'd be sorta like undercover employees that sing while walking around Disneyland... think about it.
Oh, the Larson Mill was found at Big Lots a couple years ago. My maiden name is Larson so I had to have it!


So anyway, it has been Randy's quest in life to find the ultimate Haunted Mansion for Halloween. (um, the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland is like over $300.00) So as we were heading back to Phoenix from Wisconsin, we found ourselves in this little town in Kansas and we're eating at Country Kitchen and I mention to Randy that I had not gone to a thrift store in over two weeks. We had gone to plenty of yard sales while in WI, but no thrift stores. Just as those words came out of my mouth, I see across the street a big sign that says "Nifty Thrifty". My heart starts racing, my hands begin to sweat, my husband sees where this is headed and bless his heart, drops me off at Nifty Thrifty while he gases up the van. Love that man.
I walk in and I quickly sense that I have hit the motherload of all thrift stores. *Oh*my*gosh* Vintage sewing notions galore! The coolest 4-H mug with the 4-H pledge on it! (50 cents) A huge zip lock bag filled with packages of rick rack! Fall decorations and other real cool stuff.
As Randy and I were checking out I notice this Haunted Mansion on a table in back of the register. She tells me it's for sale but doesn't know how well it works. But in our eyes, it's perfect. We'll fix it if it doesn't work! She sells it to us for $20.00. We are so aware that we have uncovered a one-of-a-kind treasure. All the way home, we wonder what happens when you push the button. Well, wonder no more. Randy puts in fresh batteries and we were stunned! This computerized song begins to play in sync with various colored strings of lights and creepy, scary sounds and flashing, spooky, lighted windows. We were blown away! What a treasure! All we could imagine was our little grandchild pushing that button one day! How fun will that be!
Here it is! Be sure to turn up the volume!