Happy Birthday to Me!

My birthday was yesterday which means lot of fun! My mom stopped by and we all went out for lunch at one of my favorite places, Paxton's Grill, in Loveland.

As an appetizer, we got their pretzel nuggets with homemade queso sauce. These are always a great decision.

The main course for me was the "Big Paxton" which is a 10-oz burger topped with bacon, american cheese, and swiss cheese on a kaiser bun. The waffle fries that come on the side are amazing, better even than Chik-Fil-A.

After lunch, we came back home and I tore into the blogger packages that had come in over the past few weeks. In the interest of space, I'll feature my favorites. First up, a nice batch from Angus at Dawg Day Cards ...

This was my favorite out of Angus's Christmas card. It's an Anthony Munoz scratch and win card from McDonald's in 1986. 

This batch of commemorative Wayne Gretzky cards was really cool too. Judging by the back of them, it looks like they are some sort of oddballs from Kraft. Angus also threw in some Bengals stickers and a couple other random cards for a nice PWE.

Next up, a package from Julie of A Cracked Bat that I thought got lost in the mail! She contacted me the day before Thanksgiving offering up some of Reds throwbacks from the Update set and sent along a nice assortment of Reds!

These are the Update throwback cards that sparked this whole thing. Since the Reds don't do a whole lot of throwback days, these have to be from the game last April celebrating the 1990 World Series team.

Tony Perez cards are always welcome!

These two are absolutely beautiful cards. Triple Threads is a product that is always out of my budget so these are the first cards I've ever gotten from that particular product.

Diamond Kings are my favorite cards from 2015 and these framed parallels are just another reason why. These cards have great artwork and I'm completely fine with the fact that Panini can't use team names and logos.

Next up, a package from Tony at Off Hiatus Baseball who contacted me via Twitter about sending me a few things.

 

These are a few of the oddballs that were included. The Mathews card is from Circle K (and I had zero clue that gas stations had cards) and the Vic Davalillo coin is from the 1960s.

There were also a bunch of Indians cards from 1984 Topps that will help out with my set build. Any extras will go towards my Indians collection. Yes, I collect Indians cards as well as Reds cards now.

Being the Brewers fan that he is, Tony included some Brewers from both 1980 Topps and 1982 Donruss, both being sets I'm working on. 

Last, but not least, is a package all the way from France, courtesy of Kevin at The Card Papoy!

First up, this Aroldis Chapman memorabilia card which I was not expecting at all but was completely welcome.

I always dig mid 90s releases and these are really cool.

Kevin also sent a ton of 1994 Upper Deck cards, which is one of my favorite sets from the mid 90s. Some highlights from the stack are below.

A big thank you to Angus, Julie, Tony, and Kevin for sending these and making my birthday that much better! Hope everyone has a great Christmas week!