Christmas 2012

[Yegolev]

I had a good time, even though there was the usual stress of being a parent during this time, etc. etc.  I'll not bother people with the details but for those of you who had a shitty season, if I ever run into you I'll give you a smile/handshake/hug as appropriate.  Certain ne'erdowells can expect alcohol as well.  I hope the best for all of you.

[Ginaz]

Good lord, so many horror stories.   I guess no one wants to hear that I've been off work  since 29 Nov., don't go back until 14 Jan. and had my flight home paid for.   Granted, I was off the first 2 weeks because I had my gallbladder removed, but its still been pretty awesome.  Its going to be so hard going back to work, though.

[Ghambit]

Like I said, there are silver-linings, which is what xmas is all about.  I get to be home for once and catch up on things that I've neglected, my family being one of them.  My nephew almost killing himself on the corner of a table might get him to slow down some, and he's fine.  Inlaw's divorce was sorely needed years ago (before they had a child).  And now my bro-in-law can spread his wings a little (he's already lost 20lbs.)  My uncle was suffering for a while and was mostly an ingrate alcoholic... but he was one of those semi-famous "most interesting man in the world" types and his funeral will likely draw throngs of people together who haven't been together in a while - all this is done very N'Orleans style (parties, wakes, etc.).  My uncle hated formalities, church, etc... so much drink and carryin' on is required.       The place I live is frakkin awesome, but a bit pricey and the neighbors turned out to be semi-deaf rocker-douches who care not how much noise they make...  so instead of just getting out of the lease normally we now have an option that'll net us some cash for the lease breakage.

And now, I'm gonna take my little 12 yr. old brother to the hobby-store and then the comic/game store for the 1st time.      Never been able to do that before really.

[RhyssaFireheart]

Merry Late Christmas or whatever to all you folks!

Just got home a bit ago from mom's house.  Her place down near St. Louis missed getting a foot of snow dumped on it by a few miles, which made us glad since we had to drive home today.  It was windy as fuck driving back north though.

Spent some good time with mom and actually got to see my asshole brother for the first time in about 4 years.  He couldn't be bothered to see us when we were down 2 years ago.  Had Christmas eve at the older brother's place.  SiL is a good cook for all that she can be a bit whacky other times.  Plus she has a great Christmas morning breakfast that we go to which I love.  Got some nice gifts.  Generic candle set from the asshole bro, gift card from the youngest, and from the older bro a box of Frangos and some photos of my niece and all my nephews together, which was really cool.  It's neat looking at the 5 of them and seeing the family resemblance in a photo.  Oh, and mom gave us a bunch of fruit to make up for helping us blow our diets with cookies and chocolate, which I loved.

I was surprised that the niece and nephews apparently really do like the themed ornaments I get them each year and my niece was upset when she thought this was her last year of getting an ornament.  I said that no, she still gets one next year.  I stop giving them after the year they turn 18 (she was 17 back in August).  And my youngest nephew was so excited about the sparkly race car ornament, he thought it was a toy to play with, lol.

I didn't give out any other gifts really, except for the husband and I fixing mom's back deck.  The "quality" union carpenter who'd built the deck 7 years ago only used one nail on the top of the bottom railing to hold it in place.  Of course, over time, the railing have started to fall down and one railing was entirely off, so we got out the ladder and fixed things so it's safe to go out on the deck.  And I spent an hour flattening nail pops because the asshole carpenter didn't use screws like he was supposed to.  Still, mom was thrilled (since we didn't tell her we were going to do the repair and hadn't even known about it until we got down there) and said it was the best present she'd gotten. 

[rk47]

Submitted leave request for 31st Dec 2012
and boss was all like 'what for? did something come up? what happen?'

FFS 

'Well. The end of the year 2012? Party and stuff? Stuff that I missed on Xmas Eve?'

He did approve it in the end.

[ghost]

That requires an Xbox Live Gold membership. Get a PS3 instead.

PS3 makes a fine bluray/dvd/amazonvideo/netflix player -- it's my primary living room video playback device.  Grabbing the BD remote for it is worthwhile - I love the ps3 game controller for gaming but it makes a crap video transport control interface.

I would second this.  It's great for basically everything we want to do.  I love my PS3, even though I haven't put a game in it in probably 6 months.

[Sky]

That really sucks about the gold sub. My dad has a 360 and I told him he should have bought me one when he moved to florida. I won't sit on the phone, but I'll talk with him for hours over games of madden or tiger woods.

Otherwise a PS3 is a no-brainer, other than the whole next gen starting in less than a year probably thing.

[Yegolev]

Submitted leave request for 31st Dec 2012
and boss was all like 'what for? did something come up? what happen?'

FFS 

'Well. The end of the year 2012? Party and stuff? Stuff that I missed on Xmas Eve?'

He did approve it in the end.

Some of my contractors were not in the office on Veteran's Day.  I found one online and he said he thought Veteran's Day was a company holiday.  I said: "Did you fight in a war?"

[Nerf]

Pretty awesome christmas around here - got some sweet loot I'd been wanting, and spinning out on the ice 4 times, putting a nice little dent in my fender turned out well too.  The wrecked jeep stuck up against the barrier I barely tapped after spinning out on the first bridge I crossed happened to be owned by a cute, thin, single, 22 year old chick.  Went out after work last night, best Christmas present ever 

[Bzalthek]

Oh shit.  Can't wait for the punch line.  Keep us informed!

[Sir T]

You planning to rent a house together from a crazy landlord again?

And sod all that. WE WANT CHRISTMAS PICS OF THE DOG DAMMIT!!

[lamaros]

Nothing like car accidents to bring the mentally unstable together.

[Merusk]

Oh shit.  Can't wait for the punch line.  Keep us informed!

It's the crazy landlord's niece!

[Fordel]

My friends all got me the flu for Christmas.  One even imported it from Canada.

That's my family's story as well. Dunno if it was actually a flu or what, but we all got horribly sick one after another starting a few days before Christmas and still continuing now. Every 12 hours or so, someone new would catch the plague just as the first patch batch began to recover.

Hurrah  


-edit- how u werds

[murdoc]

First Christmas that the boys kind of "got" so that was fun. I built them a train table and got a pretty great reaction to it when they came down on Christmas morning.

I didn't ask for much other than some time to play games and to go to the movies and I got both of those, so it was all good.

[Morat20]

I had an excellent Christmas, mostly from watching my three year old nephew. Who, at one point, declared "These are my pants and I don't have to wear them!" and proceeded to celebrate pantsless Christmas.

Finally picked up XCom, though. :)

[ghost]

Just cracked open the Xbox.  The case is all decked out like R2D2 and the controller is gold plated to look like C3PO.  It's awesome.  Now I just got to get some time to plug it in.   

[Lantyssa]

That's my family's story as well. Dunno if it was actually a flu or what, but we all got horribly sick one after another starting a few days before Christmas and still continuing now. Every 12 hours or so, someone new would catch the plague just as the first patch batch began to recover.

Still waiting on the recovery bit.

[Signe]

My sister and brother in law had this flu or whatever it is for ages.  Brni is just getting over his and it's been three weeks.  However, I didn't get it.  I can only surmise that it's because I was very very good this xmas.  In fact, I stayed perfectly still and will remain perfectly still until January 6.

[Ginaz]

Good lord, so many horror stories.   I guess no one wants to hear that I've been off work  since 29 Nov., don't go back until 14 Jan. and had my flight home paid for.   Granted, I was off the first 2 weeks because I had my gallbladder removed, but its still been pretty awesome.  Its going to be so hard going back to work, though.

Fuck me!  I must have jinxed myself posting that.  Flying home has been fucking nightmare.  Missed flight yesterday due to plane breaking down in Toronto.  Missed plane this morning in Toronto due to over booking.  Missed second plane in Toronto due them changing the gate number with me waiting at the gate number that was printed on my ticket.  I have another ticket for a flight at 4pm so let's see if this works.

[Yegolev]

Recommend staying out of Toronto.

[Surlyboi]

Just flew back into New York ahead of the bitchy storm front that flooded parts of Palo Alto and dropped a shit ton of rain on the in-laws in the central valley. Now I get to experience it again in the form of snow. In the grand scheme of things, not bad but I should've stayed in California a few more days. 

[Pezzle]

This year holiday season has been lots of partying.  It has gone well!  I have been watching Farscape again because it is awesome.  It is entirely possible I lost my wallet last night, or had it stolen.  But, crackers don't matter!