PSoTD

ThePoliticalCat tagged me the other day with this - and now I'm doing my part to make the holiday last.

Da Rulez

1. Link to the person that tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share Christmas facts about yourself.
3. Tag seven random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Welcome to the Christmas edition of "Getting to Know Your Friends."

1. Wrapping or gift bags?
Gift bags, although I have a tradition of wrapping at least one gift for my wife with Sunday newspaper comics.

2. Real or artificial tree?
It depends on how we feel. I have one of those 1960s silver aluminum trees, with the color wheel, that I inherited from my Mom, and every once in a while that's fun.

3. When do you put up the tree?
First or second weekend in December.

4. When do you take the tree down?
New Years Day weekend

5. Do you like egg nog?
Yes, I'm normal.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
Electric football.

7. Do you have a nativity scene?
I think we have a small one around here somewhere.

8. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
One of these days I'll write about how my MIL destroyed a brand new Christmas collectible hobby my wife and I were embarking on by getting us practically everything we could think of.

9. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Mail. Mail. Mail. And early, so that the holiday is spread over December.

10. Favorite Christmas Movie?
It's a Wonderful Life.

11. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
Early December.

12. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
I love the Christmas cookies.

13. Clear lights or colored on the tree?
Either.

14. Favorite Christmas song(s)?
We Three Kings.

15. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
I hate traveling at Christmas. When we moved to Pennsylvania, we went to California for Christmas for the first four years to be with family. We ended up sick every time, plus you feel like Christmas is on an agenda. I much prefer being home with the kids, going slow, and playing all day.

16. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer?
Yeah.

17. Angel on the tree top or a star?
Star.

18. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning?
Both. We all open one gift on Christmas Eve, the rest the next morning.

19. Most annoying thing about this time of year?
Crowds.

20. Do you decorate your tree in any specific theme or color?
No.

21. What do you leave for Santa?
Cookies and milk.

22. Least favorite holiday song?
Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.

23. Favorite ornament?
The Chicago Bears ornament! (and they played Santa all year long, giving away games)

24. Family tradition?
Opening a present on Christmas Eve came from my Dad's side of the family. We have the Santa hat as well, which one person must wear when they are distributing gifts on Christmas morning.

25. Ever been to Midnight Mass or late-night Christmas Eve services?
Yes. But I don't make a habit out of it.

Hmmm ... Who to tag? How about Audacity, BearWaller Hollar, cannablog, Dizzy Dayz, Fiat Lux, Waiting for Dorothy, and Out of My Mind in Mechanicsburg.

Just wanted to revel in that feeling for a bit. Thanks for indulging.

There's some commercial out there that mentions "explosive diarrhea". After my son went to the bathroom today, he asked me if there was such a thing as explosive diarrhea. I said yes.

He then asked that if you had it, would it blow you up?

It happens.

When my parents were alive, the hardest person to figure out a Christmas gift for was my Mom, because she was a frugal person as it was, she lived in an apartment with limited space for storage or display, and she never really said anything about "wanting" anything. When I was in my late 20s, I decided one year to try "time and place" as gifts, as opposed to things, and one year I gave her and my brothers a weekend in San Diego, and we had a great time there, and after that, the issue was resolved, and I tended to give both my parents such gifts after that. A gift of a good time is hard to beat.

Today, my wife holds the place of toughest to shop for during the holidays. There are several reasons - first of all, I do want my gift(s) each year to be spot on for her, because it should be, and also because I've given her my share of duds in the past. I have a hit-and-miss history - either they are great gifts, or they're in the "what was he thinking" category. On the other hand, we're able to get pretty much anything we want or need within reason anyways, so a lot of potential gift ideas don't work just because they're either already owned or already judged to not be that important.

I hate the years where I feel pretty uncertain about the specialness of my gift(s) to her. This year I feel pretty confident I have a winner. I hope so. I just want to avoid that sensation of a lead dirigible plunging into your house, the one I had when I got her the camping stove for her birthday.

Floating around in the news today:

Men are naturally more comedic than women because of the male hormone testosterone, an expert has claimed.

I'm not about to claim that this is true, but I will agree that I will be using this blurb to pester my wife considerably this weekend.

I can't claim to understand the pathetic personality needs or relationship abilities of somebody who gets married and two months later files for divorce, but frankly, serial abusers of marriage such as Pamela Anderson probably need a better support system to prevent their abuse of the process, and their crappifying of the conceptual pool of "marriage" in the public eye.

We kinda thought we might buy the kids a Wii this Christmas. As we learned yesterday, think again.

It's pretty clear that there's a sturdy undermarket of Wiis being sold, on Amazon and elsewhere, at prices that are double or more the listed price of the item. This kind of speculation seems, at this time of year, very Scroogelike, and seems like the action of a pretty miserable personality. On the other hand, I see no reason to buy at those prices, either, and the kinds of senseless people that are doing so are responsible for this kind of speculation in the first place.

Maybe the senseless and the miserable deserve each other, but it's unfortunate that the rest of us have to be swamped in their wake.