Tacky: (adj) not tasteful or fashionable; gaudy; flashy; showy

Growing up my sister Steph and I had this odd fascination with anything tacky. The more hideous, the better was our montra. For example, the interior ceiling of the car we shared in high school (a gold Crown Vic which was atrocious in and of itself) was covered with a collage of random crap we deemed worthy of display. Then when I went off to college, Steph gave me a fish pillow. It looked a bit like this one, except mine was a rainbow trout. I think Steph wanted to make sure I didn't make friends in college.

Well, we've aged a few years since those days. I think deep down we each are still amused by the truly tasteless; however, now neither of us wants it in our homes. Despite this, two Christmases ago, Steph and her husband Matt got us an inflatable twelve foot nutcracker. Hideousness at its prime.

Now I share Kara's disdain for inflatables ... to the point where Jonathan and I left the stupid thing at my parent's house in Illinois in hopes that it would be forgotten about by all. Sadly, my parents didn't forget and, when they came to visit us last summer, they flew Ol' Nutty down with them! (Seriously, can you imagine what people were thinking about them as they toted the Nutster through the airport?)

So when Christmas rolled around last year, Jonathan and I debated whether to release Ol' Nutty from his cardboard home and expose him to the world (i.e. our poor, unsuspecting neighbors whose home values would be placed in jeopardy). Well, we like a good joke so Nutty had his big debut in our front yard. No joke, when we looked out our second story window you could see his hat!


Needless to say, we got Steph and Matt back as best we could when we visited them for Christmas by setting up a Nascar Santa inflatable in their yard for them to come home to :)


Here we are a year later and debating what to do with Ol' Nutty, and I've decided to let you decide. In the right hand margin, there's a poll for you to determine Nutty's fate. Polls close Friday at midnight so don't debate your choice too long! And please only vote once.

And if it sways your decision any, Steph has said that if the results dictate that Nutso gets freed once again then she too will put out the Santa speedster.