a christmas story road trip

The hub and I planned to go up to Cleveland Saturday to visit the "A Christmas Story" house.  While the movie wasn't actually shot in the house, the outside of the house and the street were used in the movie, as was a school in Cleveland.  

Twinsburg hosts a Twin Festival every year, and one day Jessica and I will make it there.  In matching clothes!

The hub and I figured we had planned pretty well, since it wasn't the weekend directly before Christmas.  

What we didn't plan on, however, was Groupon offering a 50% off admission deal on Thursday.  So that little coupon turned into a ridiculous line at the house.  Complete with food truck, I kid you not.  But we didn't care.  See, since the house inside wasn't used in the movie, it's just been recreated to look like the movie.  So I wasn't keen on waiting in a line to see a mock movie set anyways.  The hub and I decided to head straight to the gift shop!

See that couple there?  I wasn't taking a picture of them, even though passersby probably thought I was, and how creepy is that?  No, I was just taking a picture of the leg lamp in the window of the house!

The gift shop is a small house located across the street from the movie house.  Look, I'll level with you - you're driving down some narrow street in a neighborhood that has probably seen better days, then WHAM - the house is right in front of you.  The house, the museum, and the gift shop are all in the same area, probably sold by grateful owners who just wanted to get away from the traffic and lines of living so close to the "A Christmas Story" house.  So the gift shop is tiny, and on Groupon 50% off day was just downright crowded.  We did manage to pick up a Department 56 Ralphie's house, a Department 56 figurine of the guy delivery the "major award," and some stocking stuffers.  

We did venture into the Museum because the Museum was included in the ticket price.  There was an actress there, a woman who played one of the elves at Higbee's Department Store.  She was saying that for the first couple of years after the movie came out, she left it off her resume because it was critically panned.  But as it grew a following, she gladly put it back on her resume!  Also, the guy who played the delivery man of the leg lamp was there!