Hey there everyone, it's Christmas time once again. Ahh Christmas, a time for family, presents, food, specials, cold, lights, and all sorts of fun. My local city hall has this pretty neat light display on it's yard, everyone's in the spirit. So what did I do this year? I'll start with the wild lights with Mskate, because that's the first Christmas-like thing I did. I won't go into full details here (because I already made a blog about it), so here's the quick. Mskate and I wanted to do something together, and this was something we could do together. We saw some animals and nature art, and of course a lot of lights. It was really fun.
Now for Christmas Eve. As we do every Christmas, we exchanged gifts with my grandparents Christmas Eve. First we went to McDonalds like we do every year, and then we exchanged gifts. I got a monopoly game (Monopoly Empire), peanut butter protein bars, peanuts, various chocolate candy (mainly in the Reese's variety), Uncharted the Lost Legacy, and movies; Tag, Ready Player One, SpongeBob Sponge out of Water, Wreck it Ralph on 4K Bluray, Hotel Transylvania 1 and 2, and Shawn the Sheep Movie.
I gave my grandparents a red lobster gift card and chipped in on the build a bear present. After their house we went to church at my parents perish. It was a good service. Afterwards we had Chinese dinner at my parents house (because they're the only ones open on Christmas Eve). I played with my hamster at my parents house. He was doing really bad. I think he recognized it was me, but he didn't want to crawl, or sniff, or investigate, or anything. He was doing really bad, but I'm glad I got to spend some time with him (for reasons you'll find out soon enough).
After my parents I went back to my place. I went to midnight mass to get my Christmas Day needs. I also watched some "ready to expire" content on hulu and crackle. I got a good night's sleep and got ready for the following day.
Now for Christmas Day. I packed up my gifts for my family and read the birth of Jesus story in the bible. I made it to my parents house and we exchanged gifts. I'll get into what I got, but first what I gave everyone; I got my brother a roll of duct tape and Homer bucket from Home Depot, I got Dad a bottle of Rib Rack BBQ Sauce and a coffee tumbler, and I got Mom a gallon of hand sanitizer and peace of mind getting the sty on my eye checked out a month ago. Now here's what they got me; 2 ornaments, a robe, funnel cake maker, a set of A Christmas Story glasses, a nerdy wall clock (every number is a math expression), candy canes of unusual flavor (lemon head and atomic fireball), Reese's cups, amazon gift cards, lemons, and a star note $20 bill.
And now it was time for, as my mother put's it, "spring into action." They were hosting Christmas this year, and we had to prep the house for everyone to come over. Thankfully all I had to really do was put the leaf in the table. I was able to watch some of A Christmas Story on TBS thankfully. I don't think I saw the entire movie this year, but I saw at least 75% of it.
Now for some shenanigans. My aunt and her family weren't going to make it this year because of illness, and they are normally the ones that bring hour d'oeuvres. This meant we needed to get some, which meant finding a place that was open on Christmas. First I went to Meijer, and they were closed, then I went to Target, and they were closed, and then I went to Walmart, and they were closed. Eventually I went to RiteAid and got chips and dip, because that's what they had available. I got home and then my grandparents showed up.
This is where it gets kind of sad, with a little bit of "sitcom wackiness to lighted the mood." Remember how I said my hamster wasn't doing too well? Well, mom said "go pick up Upsilon and have him visit with everyone." I went to pick him up and knocked on the glass like I normally do. I picked him up, and he was cold and stiff. I held him close to my ear, and he wasn't breathing nor was his heart beating. After I broke the news to everyone, my family got what we needed and had a little funeral for him in our back yard. Well...not before other things happened. My brother went down to the basement to get his shoes and there was a loud crash with him yelling. Mom told me to ask if he was alright, and I did and he said yes...but he wasn't coming up stairs. Turns out, he knocked over his computer and it fell on the floor. I don't know if there were any problems, but it could be REALLY bad. By the time he finished setting up the diagnostics, the rest of our guests arrived, while we're trying to have a hamster funeral. It was like something out of a sit-com. We said our goodbyes and went back to the party. Now we were just visiting for the most part.
Dinner was pretty good. We had pork tenderloin and ham, and a bunch of other fixings. Afterwards we gave my grandpa his birthday gifts (because he was born on Christmas). We also sang Christmas songs played on the accordion. One song was Santa Clause is Coming to Town, and I wanted to sing the Jackson 5 version, lol. After the festivities I took the plate of goodies meant for my aunt and her family over to Mskate's family, because "they'll enjoy them," and that they did.
Now for the period between Christmas and New Years. I had plans, fairly big plans for my online presence. I was going to update my website (I still have some videos I need to link to my website, and fathom reviews to upload), film some of the more ambitious ideas I had, edit together vlogs I made that are years old at this point, and some other things. But then, I got sick. I don't think it was the flu or anything serious (my temp was either normal, or a little low), but I was REALLY lethargic and didn't feel like making anything. I was able to watch all the stuff I wanted on hulu and crackle before they expired, so there was that. I did film a review to something a friend sent me, so there's that. Hopefully it ends up being good. I drank a bunch of orange juice because I think it was a vitamin C problem, and that seemed to help.
Now for some more festivities. December 30th was when I went to see my grandpa. Here's something that was pretty cool. I was still a little congested when I went to church; not lethargic anymore, but still a little sniffly. Since my grandpa is 91 years old, our family is really careful about "don't see him when you're sick, you'll get better but he might not," so it was really touch and go if I would see him. Well when I took communion, my nose instantly cleared up, and all that was left was traces of being sick. It was a tiny miracle, and was too perfect to just be a coincidence. Visiting with grandpa and my aunt was really fun. He has the same career background I have, so I'm able to talk shop with him and he really understands what I'm talking about (unlike the rest of my family who just nods along at things that sound impressive). It was a fun time.
Now for New Years Eve. Normally New Years is hosted by one of our friends, but 2 of their kids were sick or injured, or something. Oh well. So that I wouldn't just watch Dick Clark's alone, I invited over ZeldaMaster93. I haven't seen him in a long time, so we basically spent 3 hours catching up with Dick Clark's in the background. We watched the ball drop, and it was the ball drop. We reminisced about our New York band trip and how we saw time square and the ball. I also made us cocktails of my own creation. He doesn't really drink, but that's because he doesn't like the bitter taste of alcohol in things like beer and wine. But when I make my mixed drink, you can't really tell there's alcohol in it, because it tastes more like the mixer. He was good to drive though; 1 ounce of alcohol over 3 hours, even for a lightweight that's nothing.
Now for New Years Day. Remember how I said I had family that wasn't able to make it to Christmas? Well my parents threw a make-up party New Years Day, and that was fun. I brought my NES Classic and SNES Classic, because my aunt and cousin are fans of 8 and 16 bit Nintendo. We played that for an hour or 2, mainly just jumping around between the 2 player games on the NES. We also talked about my cousin's doctoral program, because we're all impressed with the only doctor in our current family. It's not "medical doctor," so that makes things all the more interesting. While talking about how my cousin basically has her masters now, my aunt and mom started talking about how they got their masters and what they had to go through, and I just kind of joking said "I got my bachelor's." We did some gift exchange, and it was nice.
Faster forward to the 5th (everything else is just work), and it's time for another and final party with my parents. A little "last hurrah of the season" if you will. First thing my brother and I did was take down my grandparents tree. We took down all the decorations and such. It was OK. Then afterwards I went back to my parents house and waited for the final guests to arrive (my mom's best friend from childhood and her kids). While my parents and brother were busy straitening the house for the party, I watched TV. I didn't feel any guilt; none of the mess was mine, and I moved out so now I'm a guest. Since I have playstion vue I don't have all the Viacom channels (nickelodeon, nicktoons, paramount TV, etc.), so I watched the cartoons I don't get at home. It was just like going to my grandparents house and watching cable when I was a kid (we didn't have cable until I was 8 or so). When they got here we visited, talked about their dogs (because their dogs are fun and funny), and it was a good time. We did a gift exchange. My aunt got me some glassware and Pokémon stuff (including a vintage pin that she found when cleaning). Though the best was when she gave my dad something in this gag box. It was this "nap hood" thing that "covers your head so you can nap wherever you want." I saw the boxes on Shark Tank, so I knew what it was and that dad had to open it (and inside was a gift card and ornaments), but mom and dad were actually excited for it because dad likes to nap in the living room and pull his hood over his eyes. Yeah that was funny.
And thus marks the end of my Christmas season festivities. All in all it was quite fun. I also did this OC week thing on a meme website I'm a part of. I'll probably make a video or blog about those later. I also got my first patron, so right now I'm working on my first patreon backer milestone video (everything wrong with cinemasins Jurassic World). I'll catch you next time, but until then, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.
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