Pokematic's 2025 Christmas Extravaganza

Hey everyone, it's that time of year again, the time when I talk about my Christmas fun. Things kind of started on the 15th when my department had a little Christmas party; nothing super big, just some people from various other locations coming to our place. I did get a poinsettia flower for our friend since they had extras after the party and I knew someone would want it. Nothing too spectacular though, but it was technically the start.

Things really started on the 20th when I went to my parent's house to do chocolate dipping with my mom, and help our accordion friend set up her life alert and give her her gifts. We got her a bag of hot hands hand warmers since those are good for her arthritis and a PF Chang's gift card since she likes to take us there. She got mskate socks and me a Pokemon Time magazine. I had 2 of them and now I have 3; Pikachu, Charmander, and now Arcanine. In addition to helping her get the life alert watch set-up I also installed a lock box in her door frame. She was really happy to have us all over.

After that we went to my parent's house. I started the chocolate in the double boiler, and as I'm melting it down it was getting kind of clumpy. That was not great since you can't really dip pretzels and potato chips and cookies in clumped chocolate. Mom pulled about half of it out and we tried adding water according to multiple sources. Well, that only made it worse, so we made what we call "Christmas crap;" when chocolate gets ruined, it still tastes good, so we clump it and stick pretzels and m&ms in it to make something fun that looks like poop (hence the name). We put it between parchment paper and flattened it out to add the stuff. We were able to melt down the other parts by putting it in the microwave. With that done we cleaned the pot and dried it REALLY good before melting more. That went along much better. It was a fun time and we made a lot of treats for the upcoming festivities.

After our dipping fun we went back to our accordion friend and finished setting up the life alert. We didn't know her son already got everything and we just had to activate. We showed her how it works and tested it. It worked in the house, so that was great. After that she took mskate and I out for pizza. We got a salad to split and it was quite good. Instead of pizza I got the barbecue cheese burger, and our friend was surprised I was able to eat it all. Mskate had some left overs so that was good for her. That was the end of that little fun.

It's now the 23rd, and I used my final vacation day. I had the day off, but not mskate, because she works for Santa at the mall, and I was going to see her, but only at the end of her shift. This meant I had some time to myself before I had to go up to the family. Well I filmed a "food review" of building a snap together model that I got last year and has been sitting on my dining room table waiting to be built. There was also a 2 hour window where bio and I could record a podcast, and so we did.

Going to the mall to see mskate was fun. She does stuff for the mall when there's a seasonal thing, and apparently I was wearing the same thing I did when I saw her last time. Kind of funny. After that we went to her parents house and got set-up for the half week. In the evening we went to the bar vikingpolak works at some time. It's a little local microbrewery where they make their own beer; and I really like their sour blueberry beer. They also have some pinball machines and a couple arcade machines. I got $5 in quarters and played the pinball machines. I also kind of accidentally ended up paying for everyone's drinks; I originally opened a tab just for mskate and I, but then she put her mom's drink on the tab (no problem there, I am staying at her house this half week), and then IRA got added (again, unexpected but his parents are putting us up), and then my parents showed up and they ended up on the tab as well (which is fine, they're my parents so I'll buy their drinks), so I guess I ended up starting the giving lol. There was actually something kind of funny with the pinball; I was playing the x-men table and the ball got stuck in the ramp. I told vikingpolak about it and he said he'll let the guy they rent their machines from about it. I could have fixed it myself, but that could have voided their warranty or something. That was it for the 23rd.

It's now December 24th, Christmas Eve. The morning at my in-laws was pretty calm, nothing super exciting. Noon is when things really started. Just a reminder, on Christmas Eve we go to McDonald's for lunch because when I was little that was when Santa would come to my grandparents, and we keep the tradition alive, even though my grandma is no longer with us and that was her thing. Mskate wanted to get a Grinch Meal but they were all sold out. We still got a happy meal with my points, and then got deals with everything else; a $2 large fry, a $6 10 piece mcnugget meal, and 20% off $10 or more (which we used with a quarter pounder meal and value cheeseburger meal). In total we saved $17. The food was good, fast food, nothing special but filling.

We now did the gift exchange with my parents on Christmas Eve since we didn't have my grandma this year. We set-up the living room moving the coffee table and positioning the presents with everyone getting in their positions. We got my mom a helium tank at the Party City going out of business sale since she likes balloons, and since it was big and would require a lot of wrapping paper we put it in a bicycle bag, along with all her other presents that were wrapped. Since it was a bike bag and was called a bike bag the joke we said was "we got you a bike since that's what comes in bike bags, some assembly required." We also got her some mylar balloons to inflate with her tank, and that was fun. We also got her a box of variety coffee pods since they recently got a kcup coffee maker and like the options now and princess plates and napkins, and a Disneyland sweat shirt. For my brother we got him some things that were of his interests; a power bank thing for camping, emergency blankets, a VHS copy of Strange Brew (he loves Bob and Doug McKenzy), and a Hot Wheels Barbie McDonald's cup based on a story from when we were kids. For my dad we got him some Peanuts comic things (socks and a magnet), decaf coffee pods, and speed racer. Now for my presents; I got peanut m&ms, peanut butter m&ms, spongebob socks and Patrick socks, Napoleon Dynamite socks, nerds clusters, a drone, a puzzle vase, some switch games (epic micky, hello kitty, and pacman world), a tigger jersey, some different PS2 gmaes that I bought on black friday, sunflower seeds, bullets, and star bills.

Christmas mass was Christmas mass. We went to my parent's church since we were in the area. Apparently at our home parish the priest gave the children snow wands, nothing like that at my parent's church. Mskate and I got there first so we found space for everyone. After mass we went back to mskate's parents for diner and some early Christmas. We had the spring rolls we got from a church acquaintance and meat balls. The spring rolls went over very well. Early presents went well. I got a voice modulator microphone, a gameboy lego, and a spongebob mug that IRA bought me when we went to Universal Studios. Funny thing, he bought it when we went to the Spongebob store and I was busy playing in the musical pineapple. The big winner present of the night ended up being the Go On DVD set we got IRA. I watched it back when it was airing and thought it was entertaining, and I knew he would enjoy it. Little did I know he would REALLY like it as does my father-in-law; we watched 3 episodes before bed time and the laughter was heavy. I also made my vase puzzle and it looks quite good. Before going to bed I started my "watch A Christmas Story on TBS" tradition. I came in with about 30 minutes left, and watched the first hour of the next airing, so all I had to do was watch the 3rd quarter to have seen it all.

Now it's Christmas Day, we slowly wake up as IRA is super excited to open presents. I watched the remaining quarter of A Christmas Story after waking up, so now I had completely watched all of A Christmas Story on TBS. We all gather in the living room and start passing out the tree. We got a letter from Santa about how the dogs were gone now. A lot of the things we gave were from Disneyland, and everyone was happy. I got gift cards to McDonalds, Chuck E Cheese, and Visa, a capsule machine lego, a table vice, a Gaston shirt, Rocket Power the complete series on DVD, warhead candy, chocolate marshmallows, some other candy, a Disney pressed penny book, a stitch rubber duck, a rabbit Ralphy stuffed animal thing (that I initially thought was a labubu), and many socks (popeye, kirby, snorlax, and yoda). One of mskate's highlights was a stuffed animal tower since our stuffed animal hammocks are getting kind of full. Afterwards we had breakfast, eggs and bacon with some cut fruit.

After playing around with some stuff and just relaxing, we went over to my parents for Christmas. Mskate and I went to CVS to get a present for our friend's Aunt Bird; she specifically asked for coloring books but all the coloring books were really expensive, so we got her a little lego creator stocking stuffer for $5. Mskate looked up the set online and it's going for a lot more online, and then because it was CVS I had a coupon on the receipt I was able to get another for 72 cents. We went to my parents and it was kind of different. My dad came down with something on Christmas Eve so he spent the entire evening upstairs in his rooms. It was still a good time. Our accordion friend came and our other friend with their Aunt Bird. PepperBC's family was going to join us, but they decided against it since my dad was sick and they have some health problems. It was really fun, we put on A Christmas Story to just let it run in the background, and we facetimed TanMan since accordion friend is his grandma and they're expecting. Dinner was pretty good, we had ham and chicken, green beans and green bean casserole, corn, and rolls. After dinner we did our sing-along with the accordion. The fun thing is we have these bell sticks that we made back in cub scouts with the other friend as our pack leader, so that was fun to say "look, the bells are still working." Whenever there was a song that mentioned bells we all shook the jingle bells. Then there was one song where I pulled out my new voice modulator microphone, which got a good laugh from everyone. IRA and mom-in-law came over for this as well. After the sing-along we gave the gifts to IRA and Aunt Bird, and they really enjoyed them. IRA got a special disneyworld football that was signed by the characters that was found while cleaning out another aunt's house, and a Courage the Cowardly Dog DVD set. It was a really fun time. Afterwards we just went to my in-laws and hung out until the end of the night.

The day after Christmas was pretty calm. Mskate, IRA, and I went to different stores for after Christmas sales. We went to CVS, Meijer, Target, and Walmart. We found some things, but nothing too spectacular. Later in the day IRA and I went to see Spongebob Squarepants the Search for Square Pants, and mskate and mom-in-law went to see Wicked for Good. It was a pretty funny movie. We had dinner at the movies, I had a Freddy Fasbear spicy pizza (pepperoni, jalapenos, and a "sweet drizzle" whatever that was). It was pretty good, and they delivered it to our seat. IRA had loaded French fries (fries, nacho cheese, and bacon). The next day we loaded up the van with all our presents and I'm loving having a minivan, and now it's just finding places for all our new stuff. I've found a place for about half of it, yay. Well, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

Pokematic's Christmas and New Years Story

Hey everyone, Christmas time is here, time for joy and cheer. My last day of work was December 18th  or something and then I was off until January 2nd. There were a lot of fun things that happened this year, and one of the fun things is that mskate worked for santa this year with my mom. I went to see her and my mom one day and it was fun seeing her. I also don't remember exactly when this happened, but at some point we went to see mskate's aunt who is now in assisted living for their holiday party. We got her a stuffed flag heart that is also an ornament. At the little party I sung Christmas song karaoke and did some songs in my goofy voice. That went over well with the residents. Mskate and I also went to see The Nutcracker as presented by the Royal Ballet and Orchestra at fathom events. Review experience here. We also did dinner with the accordion friends early in the vacation before the vacation where we gave them some small presents and one of the call blockers from my grandma's old house.

I think I should start things off with the Christmas party my mom has with her old college friends and their kids on like the 20th. All her friends had kids around the same time, so all of us are around the same age, and back in the day we'd all play together, great time. Now though, there's only like 3 of us that are still local; myself, my brother, and one of my mom's godsons. Still fun though, the godson has 2 kids, 7 and 5 years old, and they're really fun to play with. We played with the playmobile Christmas sets that my parent's have had since I was a kid that they still put out as part of their Christmas displays. Mskate and I also brought some happy meal toys for the kids that we got from our fast food meals (I try to not eat big meals when I go to fast food, which typically means kids meals with a toy that I'm not always collecting). The kids really liked the toys we got them, though a lot of it was probably just that it was a "new toy." The hospital by my parents does a community thing for the children that are hospitalized over Christmas, people come with flash lights and other lights and shine them at the windows (it's like 5th story 100 feet from the building, so it's not like people are sticking flashlights in the window and blinding the kids), and then they shine flashlights back at the people outside. Most of the time the police and fire department gets involved, bringing a car or truck to shine their lights since that's a fun thing for kids. Since my parents live 4 blocks from the hospital with a path to the hospital mskate, godson, his kids, and I walked there to shine the lights. Since mskate worked for santa she got a snowflake wand that we let the kids borrow for the event, along with the snowflake wand that my in-laws got when they went to see mskate. They really liked the wands, and I made sure to remind them that they were borrowing them so they wouldn't get too rough and accidentally break them (because they did get a little rough some of the time). We shined the lights but didn't stay the entire time because it was below freezing and snow everywhere and everyone was getting cold (I could have stayed a little longer, but everyone else didn't want to stay the entire time). Rest of the party was fun, but nothing else super worth discussing.

Not sure exactly when this happened, but I think it was between the college friend party and full festivities. We went up to my aunt's house and did some Christmas celebrating. It was the first Christmas without my grandpa, and was pretty hard on my aunt. Grandpa had lived with her for the last 7 years and died in October. It was a bit of a rough celebration, but we still had good dinner and some gift exchange. My aunt basically gave everyone some valuable-like things from my grandpa's condo (mainly super old ornaments). Then we were able to pick an animal wood carving from my grandpa since he was a master carpenter (maybe not "fully classified," but he was quite amazing). Mskate and I both chose the moose, and now he looks down on the front room from on top of one of our curio cabinets. Speaking of wood carvings, my grandpa would carve a Santa every year and instead of putting up a tree my aunt puts up a Santa village with little fake trees and cotton snow. Mskate and I made her 2 Santa ornaments to add to her village and she puts them up (not this year, but I think she just wanted to put up grandpa's this year). We gave her a banzai tree kit as a present this year and she really liked it (she gardens and this inside gardening kit is perfect for her). Hopefully there's a sprout next time we see her. It was originally going to be a present for my dad but then we had enough things for him and nothing for her, and afterwards mom told us that dad would like a kit as well (we ordered him one and had it shipped to his house).

Lets fast forward some days to the main Christmas festivities. Since mskate and I were in the same school district and met in highschool our parents are pretty close to each other, and since my in-laws have a "real guest room" while my parents have "a twin bed in the spare room," we stay with my in-laws for the Christmas festivities. We went to my in-law on December 23rd in the evening and unloaded all our gifts for everyone. Nothing super exciting this day, just packing up the car and organizing our gifts for who they go to and the different parties.

It is now Christmas Eve, the day we celebrate with my grandparents. This was a different than normal, since my grandma is no longer in her town house and is in memory care. Little backstory, this year my grandma moved out of her townhouse condo and moved into memory care since she can't live on her own anymore. We still did McDonald's lunch, and Mskate and I picked up the orders for everyone since I have the app and get points on orders. Little backstory on the tradition for the new readers, my grandparents lived 1 block away from McDonalds and on Christmas Eve we would go to McDonalds for lunch and then Santa would deliver presents to their house when we were out to lunch, and we continued the tradition up to when she moved out (and still do as I said). It was really good that we brought food because grandma wasn't eating her lunch at memory care since she didn't like it. We got her a happy meal and that was enough for her (she only ate about half of it actually). I got a mcrib since they have that again, and everyone else had different meals. It was a good time. After eating we did our gift exchange. We got grandma some noomio stuffed animals from our Disney adventures since she likes "her babies," one of her valentines day stuffed animals that somehow ended up in our gift stash, and some snack foods. She got me a crystal growing kit (because I want to see what happens if I let it sit for like a year), pokemon sun and moon DVD set, pretzel trail mix, a pin board for my pin collection, a lows gift card, krabby patty candy, and star bills. After all our gift exchanges we went to church at my grandma's home parish. She hasn't been there in a long time, and it was great for her to see everyone and everyone to see her. It was a little hectic getting her in the church (because she struggles with walking and sitting), but still good. After all this we went back to the in-laws and did a night before gift exchange. I got some lego sets and socks, and maybe some other things I'll explain in the tomorrow bit. I finished off the night by watching some of A Christmas Story on TBS (because I always watch A Christmas Story on TBS as part of their 24 hour marathon).

OK, it's Christmas day. We wake up and go out to the presents all spread out, everyone finding their presents spread around. IRA's favorite presents from this was the Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends DVD set we got him. Mskate really liked all the lulu lemon clothes and Disney animated movie DVD set she got (though it's region 2 since dad-in-law doesn't pay much attention to regions and he has a region free player). Delilah really liked the dog sweaters we got her, one a dragon costume and another a Christmas tree sweater. I got Pokemon megablocks both mini pokemon in balls (that I like to use to decorate my work desk), a dragonite, and pokedex, a magicarp nanoblock kit (a brick toy imported from Japan), a Tangled TV show DVD set, animal crossing lego sets, a Disney lego set, sonic shirt (specifically for the day after Christmas, you'll see why), a water ring game, and some candy. IRA also got a nanoblock kit (him blastoise), but he was having trouble building it so then I spent about an hour building it for him. Some time we had breakfast, and it was nice and relaxing because we didn't have to pick up mskate's aunt (the one in assisted living). It was a fun calm morning.

After the in-laws it was time for my parent's Christmas party. Mskate and I were like the last to arrive, meaning we didn't have to help get my grandma in the house. We started off just catching up with everyone. PepperBC and her mom where there which was great. I told them all about our Hawaii trip and they filled us in with how the cousins are doing. MMT may be getting proposed to before the end of the year, which means that my wedding streak is maybe still going. Our accordion friends also came, and we had a fun sing along with everyone. We sang all the Christmas songs, sleigh bells, let it snow, santa clause is coming to town, and so forth, and some Disney songs since mskate likes them and they're fun to sing. The accordion friends thanked us a lot for the call blocker since it blocks almost all of the annoying spam calls now. Cousin M joined us for dinner which was great, and dinner was pork tenderloin. It was a fun party with everyone. Getting grandma to and from the dinner table was something since she has trouble with the ups and downs. After the party was really difficult getting her out. We had to instruct her on how to get out of the chair and get into the wheel chair, and then when we got her out to the car how to turn around and sit down in the car. It was like a 30 minute ordeal. According to mom, when they got back to the assisted living facility the workers were able to get my grandma out of the car, in her room, and ready for bed before mom was even able to get the car parked and say goodnight. Professionals at work.

Now it's the day after Christmas, where we did a gift exchange with my parents and brother. My brother got a lot of different beers (because he likes beer), and a Coors Lite sign that I found. We game my mom a fancy silicon like pool noodle on season close out (normally like a $20 pool toy for only like $5), and lots of cotton candy (because she loves cotton candy). We got my dad some Peanuts Snoopy things since he loves that, a folding emergency shovel, gloves with flashlights in the fingers, a stripped screw removal kit, and some other things I'm forgetting. Mskate got lots of Disney gift cards. I got a Rokr globe lamp, rokr owl clock, a microwavable ramen bowl (because I like to have ramen when traveling), spongebob socks, elf goldfish, multi-connection charging cables (I call them "multi-taps"), a santa chocolate guy with a smashed penny, Fall Guy on 4K (great movie), a Power Puff Girls ornament, a chuck e cheese gift card, star bills, and silly putty. Later we had some left overs for lunch, great little time with the family. Later in the evening IRA and I went to Sonic 3. The movie was sold out (we got the last seats that were together) and someone was sitting in our seats, and that's because someone else was sitting in their seats, and so on like all the way down. Right before the movie the row basically did the wave of shifting down. Great movie, you can hear my thoughts here. Pretty calm night after that.

Following day we went home. I packed up all our gifts and travel things and we went back home. Once we got home I unpacked everything and began sorting where to put things. Some time during these days we went to different stores looking for after Christmas sales. We got some candy and chips, and some gift wrap and dog presents for next year. I also got my dogecoin migrated to my coinbase wallet. So fun story, back in college I liked to tinker with bitcoin and dogecoin because it was all new and I could get it from faucets and obvious ponzi schemes ("double your crypto in 100 hours," I'd deposit the minimum and 80% of the time would get in before it collapsed, making a decent amount). I used dogechain as my dogecoin wallet because it was an official cloud wallet and was easy to manage my crypto. I got an email from dogechain mid-November that they were going to fully shut-down and if your wallet wasn't migrated by December 31st your crypto would be lost for good. I missed my window to send the dogecoin through the wallet application but not to get the private key and back it up on a local wallet. I tried just putting it right into coinbase (since they now support dogecoin), but it wouldn't work so I installed dogecoin core on my old college laptop (because I wanted to use a computer that I wouldn't be worried about breaking), and it was running for like a month because it had to update the entire 14 year blockchain. Yeah... Whatever though, after a month of updating I was able to move my 220 doge to coinbase. If it wasn't a "substantial amount" (when I started it was worth about $140 and when I finished it was like $80) I would have just cut my losses, but I didn't want to lose out on that. Whatever. 

Now for a little fun thing between Christmas and New Years. One of mskate's good childhood friends was in town and was having a 1 year old birthday party for her son. The funny thing is a lot of the friend's family lives out by us, but the party was at the friend's parents house an hour away from us. We went basically right after church. It was quite the drive, and rainy, and they live in the country nowhere with some dirt roads, meaning that our just cleaned car got dirty. Thankfully the rain washed off a lot of the wet dirt (it's the drying on that makes it stick). The party was pretty good. The baby really liked my hat, every time I was close he just stared at me. I asked his parents if it was my hat or beard and they said "probably the hat." I played galiga with some of the other party guests, and we visited with the people mskate knows. One of the party games was "guess the baby's month age in 12 different pictures." I only got one picture right, but I did better than my wife who got zero and follows the mom's instagram. Funny thing when it came time to sing the baby happy birthday and give him his muffin (no "baby crushes cake and makes a mess" scene here, he has allergies that prevents him from enjoying normal cake), he was more interested in the balloons than he was in the muffin. His parents kept trying to get him to eat the muffin but he just wanted to play with the balloons, and when the parents tried to take the balloons away from him he got sad and would cry. Pictures had to be taken between balloons. All went well, except for the lack of red meat sandwiches (it was all turkey and I don't like turkey), and the dog being territorial and not liking people (not violent, but very yappy and there's something about a dog's bark within like 6 feet of me that makes my right ear hurt). Otherwise it was a good little day.

2 days later it was now New Years Eve. Normally we have someone hosting a new years party but none this year. I got a promotional text from zapzone (a regional laser tag, arcade, and entertainment complex) that they were having a new years promotion, and we considered going to it, but on closer inspection it was a little too expensive for our preference decided just spent the night in. We did go driving around to Party City to get some things on sale since they're going out of business (got a helium tank for my mom since she loves balloons and some of those study plastic party cups that my in-laws like to use among some other things) and an upscale grocery store where we got some personal party supplies (spinach dip and chocolate moose). We watched The Emperor's New Groove together and I watched an IP Man movie and John Tucker Must Die on hulu before they expired. We also went to New Years Vagile mass since New Years is a holy day of obligation. I built one of my lego (mega block) sets from Christmas, the Pokedex. Mskate doesn't like to stay up late (and for that reason she kept asking "what are we even celebrating" and didn't really want to accept "it's just a reason to party"), so 10 minutes before midnight I called her into the living room and pulled up Dick Clark's Rock'n New Years Eve on ABC. Since I run our local channels through a networked over the air DVR that makes it's own server or something (along with digital not being "100% live" like analog was), the feed was like 30 seconds to 1 minute behind live so mskate was looking at her phone and saying "my phone is ahead." We counted down the minute countdown and kissed at midnight along with some sips of wine (I didn't have a small thing of bubbly wine and I didn't want to open a full bottle). Happy New Year. The Time Square ball is getting replaced after 17 years of use, and if my math is right that means that I saw the ball right when it was first used back when I went to New York back in highschool with the band.

New Years Day is just calm. One of the main things was we watched the Rose Bowl Parade. This was the first time I've watched it, and it was really neat, everything was made of roses. We also went to Meijer for a little more after Christmas shopping (we've been doing a lot of that recently). The main thing we needed to get was on sale sweatshirts that mskate and her dad could throw off to donate at the marathon they're doing next week, and an ornament box that was on sale. We got it and started taking some ornaments off, and it's going to work out well for us since it's all divided to individual holders. We also made one of mskate's lego, brick heads of inside out characters. I stuck them in the Lego Mario display, so now it's kaiju pixar characters in the mushroom kingdom. I also watched a lot of masked magician on youtube. It's also the return of Family Guy on Adult Swim. I tried watching some but then I remembered why I don't like Family Guy.

Now I need to go back to work. It was a really great vacation. Well this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

Pokematic's Christmas through New Years Vacation (with a little Thanksgiving and Advent)

Hey everyone, time for my annual Christmas blog, and this year I'm throwing in New Years and Thanksgiving for a little extra fun. First I'll start with Thanksgiving, which was pretty basic. Mskate and I went to my parents and we had thanksgiving with the family, then we had desert and accordion playing. The next day IRA and I went black friday shopping, but the most interesting part of that was IRA woke mskate and I up at 4:30 saying "it's time for shopping it's time for shopping." Why, because everyone was empty, didn't have the same craziness as last year. When I went back to work there were people talking about how the news was all ready to interview people like they did last year but there wasn't anyone out. It was fun enough, we still bought a fair amount of things, but nothing to write home about. This is why I didn't do one this year; I'm sure I could have woven an entertaining story, but I just didn't feel inspired this year. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas Mskate and decorated for Christmas, wrapped gifts, and I did a 12 days of Christmas puzzle advent calendar. It was quite fun and I framed it quite nicely where it'll make a good decoration in the years to come. Given how busy we were and how short Advent was this year Christmas came pretty fast. Because it went so fast we almost didn't do the county lights this year, but we did after work on like the 21st, and we did it with my grandma and mom. Since it's a drive through exhibit thing we wanted to take her to it for a year or 2 now, but kept forgetting. She really enjoyed it.

OK time for Christmas Eve. First I'll start with it being REALLY foggy around where everyone lives. This made things rater interesting. Mskate and I packed up our car with all the gifts we were giving away and overnight stuff for the 2 days we'll be staying at the in-law's house. The fog was kind of cool on the drive up, kind of like a Halloween atmosphere. We dropped off all the overnight stuff and divided the gifts between who we were giving them to (my grandma, her family, and my family). I did the dividing while she settled in with the overnight stuff. We also visited some with her family, and then went off to the McDonald's by my grandma's.

For those who might be new to the blog, when I was little and we do the gift exchange with my grandparents, we'd all go to the McDonald's that's a block away and then Santa would come while we're eating lunch. To this day we still go there because it's part of the tradition. Now for the silly fun time story of this. I have the McDonald's app which means I can get free food and discounts while also getting points for future free food and discounts so long as I log in. However, I don't know if it's my phone, how I use my phone (normally I have location and mobile data turned off, so connecting can take some extra time), or just the android app, but it regularly crashes or becomes unresponsive whenever I try to use it. IRA also wanted the Kerwin Frost adult happy meal toys, so we got 2 of those for the family members that wanted chicken. We also got my grandma a happy meal; mom said "is it just so you have the ebay inventory toy," and I said "no, it's that but it's also just enough food for her and it gets apple slices for mskate." I'm going through the app trying to maximize the savings while the family is saying "I'm hungry." I eventually get us saving quite a fair amount of money with the discounts. It ended up going really well, and VikingPolak was able to get a free McChicken with the points since he still needed some food after everyone was done. We also got some very interesting chicken nugget toys with the Kerwin Frost box.

With McDonald's eaten we went to her house and exchanged gifts. It was primarily everyone giving grandma gifts and her giving everyone else gifts. We got grandma a bunch of snack foods, a build a bear outfit, a cinderella doll to go with her micky and minnie doll, and some other things. She gave me Krabby Patty Fruit Snacks, Duckman the complete series, a pokemon puzzle, lemon cookies, Dragon Ball season 3, Perfect Blue on steel book, hazelnut wafer rolls, goldfish, highlander on 4K, young justice season 3, a yo-yo, burger king gift cards, a reindeer ornament, a spongebob magic towel, hot chocolate, a meat stick and cheese pack, and a wooden puzzle marble run. This is a high level model that is fragile with a lot of pieces, definitely not for kids. Mskate got hair clips, popcorn, 2 hairbrushes, a disney mystery box stuffed animal (it was pumba in the shape of a pretzel), socks, a Lizzie Maguire mug, fruit snacks, gluten free cookies, jelly beans, milk chocolate truffles, smoked guda spread, a glitter star tree topper, bath bombs, crayola hat, hair ties, harry potter fruit snacks, an Anna from frozen magic towel, hot chocolate, and peppermint peeps. All the while we had the Arendale Yule Log playing on the TV, it made for a nice festive. After all the gifts we made it to church. While on the way I got some great video of the flog.

Video is uploaded with creative commons attribution, click here for details (youtube rumble)

After mass we had dinner, pizza I think. We then said our goodbyes and went to mskate's parent's house. When we got back we did some additional gift exchanges, I got some pokemon mega blocks and a mcdondald's gift card I think. Mskate got a peanuts christmas display thing, some ornaments, and a starbucks gift card. We also gave Delilah some gifts, peanut butter filled cow hooves and jerky treats. We gave her one of the peanut butter cow hooves when they had to put Duke to sleep earlier this year, and she was happy to have more of them since she really likes peanut butter. The rest of the night was pretty calm, I watched A Christmas Story on TBS as part of my tradition, and made some jokes on twitter about how it was my tradition. Having watched the first airing in full I didn't have to drive my families crazy with "I have to watch A Christmas Story on TBS." What was great was I was able to shower during the commercial break and miss nothing. Yay.

OK it's now Christmas morning. IRA is super excited (bragging about how he only slept for 2 hours). Before I get to the fun stuff, I need to explain/remind a thing about my father-in-law. He's notoriously hard to shop for, either thinking that what you got him is too low of quality or thinking that you spent way to much on something. I have cracked him though, what he needs are household items he doesn't yet have and doesn't realize he wants. We ended up getting him washing machine cleaner, gaffers tape, 3 different bird feeder feeds, pet stain cleaner, and a novelty sign that says "forget about the past you can't change it, forget about the future you can't know it, forget about the present because I didn't get you one" (we had him open that last). He liked all of them. For Delilah her final present from us were pawstruck dog bone treats. She REALLY liked those. They were a little big for her but she loved jumping on it and biting it and breaking off crumbs she later licked up. I think I won Christmas for the dog (at least for now, more on that later). From them I got more pokemon mega blocks (specifically the pokeballs that make for great desk decorations, IRA had them stacked together since they link together on the top), a pikachu children's model (I think I'll do a "model review" where I give Crash a friend), pokemon puzzles, a tin of breakfast blend tea, a buckees shirt, a Naruto mug with Naruto socks, a new polo work shirt, a Naruto shirt, more McDonald's gift cards, a lego parrot, gum, life savers candy, a stuffed snorlax, and a stuffed dragonite. IRA picked out the Naruto stuff because when we went to Disney I had ramen twice, and he associates ramen with Naruto and not "I can make my own food/broke college student." Oh well, I like Naruto even though I haven't watched it in a long while. Mskate also gave me some things here. She gave me a gourmet cookie that she bought from someone at church and a hot sauce variety pack. I gave her her presents from me the day after with my parents. She got peeps, Harry Potter legos, a calendar, stationary, a saint a day book, a harry potter shirt, a harry potter mini backpack purse thing (similar to loungefly but not that brand), cheese knives, American Girl Doll accessories, a starbucks gift card, jelly beans, a phone protector, high quality markers for art things, candy canes, a stuffed Harry Potter and Hermione, a stuffed Winnie the Pooh and Piglet, and stuffed santas. We gave IRA various nightmare before christmas things and volume 1 of invincible. It was a great day. I don't remember what we got mom-in-law, but they were things she liked. There's also this funny chocolates we got. It's a company that makes Easter chocolates and they did Santa and his reindeer, but I swear the reindeer were just the bunny mold with antlers on the ears in the foil.

Now with gifts over we went to get mskate's aunt from 2 blocks away. When we got her in we gave her her little gifts from us (rice krispy treats). She really liked them. We had breakfast and all went well. Now for some of the Delilah story, she was going absolutely crazy with the bone thing, running around everywhere, digging in her dog bed, and general hyperactivity. After breakfast aunt's daughter picked her up and went to their next activity. She also brought over her dog Edison, a big dog that they gave some big rawhide treats to that were too big for Delilah. The dogs ran around together and had a lot of fun. I don't know if they knew each other before this, but they enjoyed each other it seems like. We rested for a few hours before going to my parents. I watched A Christmas Story on TNT during this time (because TNT aired it on the odd hours and was a different channel). It was fun.

It's now about 2PM, time for my parents party. We got there before everyone else, and then mom and grandma got there. We helped grandma into the house and got her seated. After Mrs. G joined us we did coloring cookies; one Easter we got my grandma these coloring book cookies with edible markers and we found it's a food and activity my grandma really likes (it's the only thing she eats really quickly). We got her the cookies on Christmas Eve and we did them on Christmas day, with some extras for her to do at a later time. We were going to use the different markers from other times but we lost them. Oh well, we'll get them another time since this is going to be a thing we do with her for a while. After the cookies we did oplatke, a Polish tradition. Mskate and I got the oplatke from our church since ours does it, and it was fun. We did it at our little gathering and dad and vikingpolak did it with our grandpa and aunt. It was a fun little time.

Now for the other part of the party, where my dad and brother came back from aunt and grantpa's. Normally grandma's long time friends with the accordion come over but they had to stay healthy due to an upcoming surgery. Oh well, we still managed to enjoy ourselves, just a lot of talking. We had dinner ham, rolls, corn, green beans, and sweet potatoes. Mom didn't serve the ham on a very good plate, it was pretty shallow resulting in me spilling the juice on myself. It was a good dinner. After dinner we had desert with IRA and mom-in-law joining us. Grandma gave IRA a minions magic towel, and he made his when he got it. Since he's a bit of a doof he activated his towel by soaking it in water, and then bringing it out sopping wet to show everyone. I cleaned up the water he was dripping everywhere. Mom-in-law also brought over a dancing snoopy toy that she got for Christmas to entertain grandma, and I showed her a dance she could do to dance along (hold her arms up in front of herself and do windshield wipers). It was a fun time. When we were done we got grandma all packed up to go home, and went back to the in-laws. Delilah was still very excited, and dad-in-law figured there was something in the new bone that was making her all crazy. Apparently she didn't sleep much that night.

Now it's the day after Christmas, Boxing Day if you're Canadian (which I'm not). Mskate's dad got fed up with the paw struck treats so he threw them out. Delilah was looking around sad that she lost her treat toy. I later dug them out to give to Edison since his dog-mom causes a lot of trouble, so causing her some trouble wouldn't be that bad (he got pretty excited as well, but he just liked the new toy thing). We went to my parent's house and set-up the gifts. We gave my dad a lot of peanuts stuff (peanuts hot chocolate, the Charlie Brown and Snoopy show complete series, 4 TV movie set, and a pop-up card with the Christmas special scene where Linus says what Christmas is all about), and some cooking things I think. We got my mom brownie mix (she really likes to make brownies), bath and bodyworks soaps and lotions, gift cards, and some other things. We got my brother a flash light, shirts, an amo box, beard wash and conditioner (that we got from bed bath and beyond in the bankruptcy sale), and some other things. I got this peanut butter cup and chocolate trailmix insert mix (really good), a game called "nice buns," a squishy stress ball thing, a spongebob puzzle, spiderman across the spiderverse, a slinky, Crash 4 it's about time, pickles, sunflower seed kernels, katamari, spongebob socks, a ruby tuesdays gift card, a taco bell gift card, uber gift card, slide wistle, and a rubix cube key chain. Mskate got dominos, gluten free cookies, an american girl doll play set (a truly me doll she's naming Noel), bath bombs, lotion, and a warming unicorn. Mskate and I got matching Disney shirts, so we know what we'll wear next trip. We also got Disney 100 happy meal toys, a collection process we worked on when it was in restaurants and we are only missing 3. This is also when I gave her my gifts, The Aristocats on Bluray with the Disney 100 slip case with Marie on it (she loves Marie), and Miracle on 34th street. After all the gift giving and breakfast cinnamon rolls and bagels we watched an episode of the Charlie Brown and Snoopy show. It was REALLY funny, I picked a winner. After that we gathered up our stuff from both houses, and went home. For the next many days I was just working on finding places to keep all our new gifts. One thing I need to do is find a place in the curio cabinet for the happy meal toys that are basically just figures.

The days between Christmas and New Years were pretty chill. For the most part I organized our new presents and rested. 2 days before New Years Eve we went up to mskate's parent's house so she and dad-in-law could see The Polar Express in IMAX for his birthday, and IRA and I went to see The Boy and the Herron, the movie the Hayao Miyazaki came out of retirement for, reopening Studio Ghibli just to make (though basically that just meant that the people that made Studio Ponok went back to the old offices since they made their own studio after Ghibli closed). It was a really good movie, even though it had a lot of "Ghibli old lady face" and "Ghibli fluids," along with some "Ghibli frog face" if I'm not mistaken (3 elements of Ghibli movies I don't care for). I'll be making a review at some point. Since the theater we went to was close to where Cousin M lives IRA and I stopped by after the movie for an impromptu visit. We talked for maybe an hour just catching up, which was great since we didn't see him at Christmas. Then the day before New Years Eve we had a funeral for one of the scout moms from my old Boy Scout troop. It was sad but it was great seeing so many people I haven't seen in over a decade. Since she was so involved in the troop (regularly being an adult leader on camp outs and driving us up in her 15 passenger van (the memory I shared in facebook that made the sons smile, and I shared in the "write down a memory"). So many people from my old troop came, so many people I remembered but didn't recognize (I said "who am I not recognizing" but when he said his name I would remember instantly). After the funeral the luncheon was held at the VFW post that we would regularly partner with for blood drives with or hold banquets at. One of the VFW men recognized me from 12+ years ago, which was so cool. It was just a regular troop reunion, and the good thing is since mskate and I grew up in the same area she knew a number of people and wasn't "I don't know anyone, stick with me and don't socialize to the full extent with your old friends" like I imagine many spouses would be in situations like this. About halfway through before one of the sons had to leave we took a picture with all the old scouts that were there including the old scout masters. Just a great little thing.

Now it's New Years Eve, I had some ebay packages to mail so I went to Meijer for the authorized USPS shipping location. While there I did some shopping and used some coupons while also buying on sale Christmas stuff (primarily chocolates, but also a dog sweater for Delilah next Christmas). I basically got everything for 50% off, yay. Then after my shopping I went to Wendy's and got one more free Jr. Frosty (got mskate a small vanilla diet coke and I had the frosty). Then it was time to go to our camping friend's New Years Eve party. Our contribution to the party was a meat and cheese tray, plate of cookies, champagne, fireworks, and board games. The food went over very well, and the champagne was great for the New Years toast. The game we brought was the Nice Buns game my mom got me for Christmas, and it was a really fun game. The goal is to get 3 sets of 3 cards of the same color (9 total) before your opponents, while also avoiding the "fishy buns" which prevent you from making a set, while rolling dice that determine how many new cards you can get and if you can get rid of your fishy bun if you have it, and while there's a lot of chance with the drawing of cards and rolling of dice there's also a lot of skill with how the players play the dice and cards. We had one game that went on for about an hour because we got really into strategy of how to play the dice and cards, and played it 2 or so other times. It's a really fun game and will be bringing it camping. Since my godfather and his family weren't going to be there for the ball drop I lit off some of my fireworks for my godbrother around 10PM (the others would be done at midnight). He's still young and doesn't have the "backyard shows," so he was yelling "you need to call the fire department, I've never seen up close fireworks." My godfather was a little nervous about this since he's been to some irresponsible backyard shows, but he also knew I was responsible and safe. I lit off 3 in the drive way while he and my mom stood at a far distance, and he thought they were really cool. I'm sure there's going to be some "can we do fireworks like [Pokematic] did" and there's going to be things like "no, that's a thing only specially trained people like Mr. [Pokematic] are able to do on New Years and the 4th of July." Mom also took a photo of me with the firework and said "you're just like [you're uncle who would light off the fireworks when we did 4th of July parties 20 years ago]." We all just hung out until about 10 minutes to midnight, and then we started getting ready for the ball drop. I popped the cork on the champagne into the back yard and poured as many glasses as the hosts had, and everyone that wanted some got it. I also jokingly told the hosts "send one of your kids to find the cork in the morning." We counted down the ball and toasted the drinks. I lit off the remaining 6 or so fireworks for an audience of about 5 people. The fun thing is I bought this kit and box of tanks about 7 years ago and have been gradually lighting them off 1-4 at a time over new years and 4th of July at my house, and with this it's now about done (still have some small ones and tanks left, but "the show pieces" are all done now). Now it's time for me to get a new kit since everyone really liked them (and hopefully I can get some on sale now that new years is over). Shortly after the fireworks it was time to go home.

So there you have it, my Christmas and New Years 2023 extravaganza (with a hint of Thanksgiving and Advent). It was quite a great time. It was also quite an eventful 2023 (which I'll recap in another blog). New Years day is the last day of my break (which went very quickly), and will be populated with various "get ready for the work week" stuff (and maybe some sales to get more fireworks). This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

Oh and here's Steamboat Willie, hosted by me on this blog (not linked). I can do so because it is now 2024 and Steamboat Willie is now public domain.

Pokematic's Christmas 2022 Blog

Hey everyone, it's that jingle jangle time again. Before I get to real Christmas, I need to tell a little story about the last day of work for the year. My one co-worker retired at the end of the year and the 23rd was his last day. I wore my Pikachu shirt for him like I do whenever a coworker leaves the company, and it was a pretty slow day. I basically worked on paperwork all day while I watched Christmas specials (Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, Shortsmas with Big City Greens, Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire, Click Clack Moo Christmas at the Farm, A Garfield Christmas, Santa and the Three Bears, Ernest Saves Christmas, and The Night Before Christmas). Mskate and I also had to get the car ready for the big trip to our parents house. So the midwest was expected to have a giant winter storm over Christmas, and we had to make sure we made the 40 mile trip all OK. We packed up a case of water, a bunch of snack foods, some blankets, candles, the power brick, and hand warmers. We ended up not needing them, but better to have and not need than need and not have. Mskate packed up the car (or as I say at this time, sleigh) while I was at work and we were ready for our trip. It was pretty packed. She had to work 5-9PM at her retail job and with the bad weather I dropped her off and picked her up. The snow wasn't all that bad (primarily super cold and windy), but I still decided to take a trial run on the free way to pick-up a game at Best Buy (in-store pick-up) to make sure it was going to be OK tomorrow (and it was safe, and the game was Oddworld Soulstorm on XBOX by the way).

The 24th was the big start of the festivities, gift exchange with my grandma. Before we went there we unloaded our overnight stuff at Mskate's parents house since we wouldn't need it at grandma's house. We had to make sure IRA didn't see the bag we got him since that was his big surprise (I'll get to that later). We met the family at grandma's house to unload her presents and start setting up the piles. Mskate and I were there first so we did the bulk of the setting-up, and then everyone else showed up soon after. We got everyone packed-up so we could go to McDonalds like we've done for nearly 30 years, and I forgot my phone at her house, which meant I wasn't going to get my rewards points on the order. Mskate told me "well I guess you're out of luck on this one," but it was going to be like a $30-40 order and that isn't insignificant, plus she forgot some stuff as well so I walked the 1 block distance back to grandma's house and got my phone and her hat and gloves. Once I got back everyone had their order figured out so we went to the self serve kiosk, put in my reward number, made our order, and I got enough points for a free large fry off the order. It was a fun little thing remembering the fun times.

Now it's time for the gift exchanges. Let's see if I remember everything. The funny thing is grandma got 4 bags of Lindor chocolate balls, all the same flavor. She likes them, but it was just kind of funny. Mskate and I also got her a 50th anniversary Micky Mouse wishimal since she liked the Minnie Mouse we got her last year so much, and puzzles she can do (large piece children's puzzles) since that's something she enjoys doing. I got Morbius, Spiderman No Way Home, Death Stranding, Doki Doki Literature Club Plus, Used Cars, Pokemon Johto League Champions, and candy. Mskate got me Disney nutcracker socks, and the funny thing is it was 6 different socks (not pairs), so I have to mix and match when I wear them. Mskate got a Welly Wisher doll, Courtney slumber party accessories, Micky and Minnie plushies, candy, film for her instaflix camera, and candy. It was a fun time. After the gift exchange it was about time for church, so we got everyone together and we went to grandma's church (we normally go to my parent's church, but it's gotten too hard to do that now). After mass we had dinner at her house (ham), and watched Pluto's Christmas Tree and Santa's Workshop Silly Symphony on Disney plus.

After all that fun we went back to mskate's parents house and did some Christmas Eve presents (because that's a thing her family does). I got a Buckees mug and tumbler, and I think mskate got some ornaments. We gave IRA his "only presents from us," a Nightmare Before Christmas puzzle and a Micky plushy. I also started watching 24 hours of A Christmas Story on TBS, my Christmas tradition for at least the last 10 years. I watched most of the movie on the first airing, but I missed triple dog dare you and Chinese restaurant, so I had to catch that on later airings. After that I fell asleep and was ready for bed. 

OK it's Christmas Morning. Mskate and I woke up a little earlier than everyone else, so I ate a bagel before all the festivities. I like to put peanut butter on my bagels, and apparently only the dogs at the in-laws eat peanut butter, so little Delilah was like "hey, that's my peanut butter, let me have my peanut butter." Unlike my in-laws I don't feed the dogs off my plate (because I know that's bad for dogs), but since I was eating their food I let her lick the butter knife, and mskate got some off my bagel to feed to Duke. It was a good little bagel.

OK, now that IRA is awake it's time for Christmas morning. The in-laws got me a Dreamworks 42 movie collection (which is crazy because I remember the first Dreamworks movie when it released, and have seen 29 of the 42), a Bowser plushie, Super Mario Legos, pokemon megablocks, cells at work issue one, 2 cars toys, a set of ankle weights from mskate, and candy. Mskate got some clothes, Harry Potter Legos, candy, and some other things. IRA was really surprised to find the giant bag of presents mskate and I got him. Here's a really funny thing, we bought him a Santa baby Yoda but couldn't find it (I tore apart the room we kept the gifts in and it wasn't there), so we gave him the Nightmare Before Christmas puzzle instead. Well it turns out that I put it in the Nightmare Before Christmas lunch box we got him, and when he opened it he was super happy. One thing I got my father in law was media remote for his xbox series x that he primarily uses as a streaming box. Well unfortunately Amazon sent me a replacement roku remote instead so I had to make a return. That's annoying, but oh well.

After gift time mskate and I picked up her aunt from 2 blocks away for Christmas breakfast. It was pretty easy getting her to the house, and it was a good breakfast. I had eggs and bacon, and everyone else had an egg and bacon casserole thing. After breakfast mskate and I booked our hotel and flight to see her aunt over New Years. Her aunt isn't doing too well so we're going to see her over New Years for an emergency trip (and she lives in New Mexico, so look out for a blog on that at some point).

In the afternoon mskate and I went over to my parents for Christmas day fun. We didn't do gift exchange with them yet (that's for the day after), this was the Christmas party with all the family where my parents make dinner and we sing accordion songs. PepperBC and her family came to visit as did TanMan's grandparents and uncle. He called us shortly after they arrived just by coincidence so they were able to have a nice conversation. Cousin M and my in-laws showed up about an hour after Mskate and I arrived. IRA gave grandma and mom a gift of hand soap and lotion from Bath and Bodyworks (we got it from our black friday trip).

Next it was time for dinner. My parents made a pot roast and ham, and my dad borrowed my cast iron Dutch oven to make more food for everyone. There was a kids table and adults table since my parent's dining room table isn't large enough for everyone. We all did Oplatki (a Polish Christmas tradition) with our tables, though I think the kid's table might have been the only one to do it since I was into it. It was really good. After dinner we sang accordion songs. It was a lot of Christmas songs, and was fun. I'm glad my in-laws enjoy Christmas with my family. After that we had desert, lemon meringue pie, chocolate cake, and ice cream. I had both, and it was yummy. My mom gave IRA a little present, and it was a Tamagotchi. I got it set-up for him, and he wasn't really into it but I was so it kind of became mine.

After the Christmas party mskate and I went back to her parent's house. I watched some more A Christmas Story since I love watching that movie at Christmas (and at some point throughout the day I watched the parts I missed and this was just some fun), and after finishing the final airing IRA and I watched Used Cars. He thought it was hilarious and I have a feeling he's going to want a copy as well. Time for bed.

Now it's the 26th, and it's time for after Christmas sales and gift exchanges with my parents. I had another bagel with peanut butter for breakfast (and gave the dogs some thank-you licks for sharing their food with me). Mskate, her family, and I went to the mall to have a look for things. We got some Sees  (Ceese, Seeces, I don't know how it's spelled) gourmet candy from the pop-up store. After that we went to the other side of the mall to go to the basic candy store to get a spongebob surprise egg for me (if they had one that wasn't squidward according to the product number on the bottom), and some harry potter candy for IRA. I was able to get a chocolate egg and it ended up being Patrick, yay. After the candy store we went to the lego store and IRA and Mskate made a custom mini-figure. Mskate made one that looked like me and gave it a safety vest with a beard head, legs with pockets in the pants, a cowboy hat (because that was the closest to a fedora), and a pizza box. IRA made one that kind of looked like him. After the lego store we went back to the other side of the mall for Lulu Lemon for Mskate and an outdoor store for me to look for a new winter jacket. Now, I think both of my winter coats are perfectly fine, as does mskate, but all season my mom has been making a big deal about how old my coats are, so we found one that would work for me we would get it just to make her stop bringing it up every time we saw her. Unfortunately they didn't have one I liked, so I said "I'll just have to continue wearing my perfectly good coats that are just as old as can be" (that's a thing my grandma would say about old stuff). Lulu lemon was too crowded so mskate didn't get anything.

After our mall trip we packed up my parent's stuff and went to do gift exchange with them. When we got there I told mom "mom, I wasn't able to find a new jacket, so I'm just going to have to continue wearing my perfectly good jackets that are just as old as can be." She got defensive and denial about how she doesn't care that my coats are old and mskate and I countered with "you are literally the only person that says anything about my coats, and it's every single time we see you." Hopefully this gets through to her about how no one has any desire to replace my coats. We set-up all the presents and now it's time to exchange. I got candy, star bills, a set of family games my mom thought were more mature but they're really children's matching games, Sonic frontier, a mini inflatable dancing man (because my parents have the full size one at their house for now), a movie trivia game, lottery scratch offs (which won $57 on), and some other things I'm forgetting. My brother got socks, beer, Letterkenny DVDs, and money. We gave my parents gift cards, soaps, touch screen winter gloves with a matching hat and scarf, and gaffer's tape. Mskate got a popcorn popper (she really likes popcorn, so single serving popcorn popper is great for her), Friends the complete series blu-ray, a Minnie Mouse necklace (also a black Friday find), and heavy socks. The big thing mskate and I got were German headwear for when we have Octoberfest at church since we didn't have much this year's event, and my Grandma being German she had a hat with real German pins on it, we got that as a present. I also got a men's version of my grandma's hat to put the pins on, and mskate got an artificial flower crown with a ribbon. We'll be very German next year. We also got picture ornaments from our major accomplishments this year. Mine was going to Sault Saint Marie to find an analog Canadian TV channel (of which I have a blog about, that hopefully will get up soon), and mskate with getting her book out. I also have a framed picture of me with the TV with channel 2 on it; I'm going to put it on my desk at work as a conversation starter ("Pokematic, why do you have a framed picture of you with an old TV?" and then I can explain how Canada has 12 channels still broadcasting in analog at the time of this picture, and this was when I found it in November of 2022).

Shortly after that mskate and I packed up all our stuff from both of our parent's houses and went home. It wasn't any problem getting home, and then I unloaded the car to the house. It wasn't any trouble, just a lot of stuff. One funny thing is I tried opening the bed gate on my truck to put some junk in it before we left but it was so cold that it wouldn't open, but then when we got back the bed was open because it got warm enough to melt the gate so we were greeted to an open lift gate on the truck. Now I'm in the process of trying to pack for the New Mexico trip while sorting through all our new stuff. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

Oh wow, I never hit publish. Guess I should do that now a year later.

An 80s Doll with 80s Videogames, Another Columbus Ohio Adventure

Hey everyone, at the very beginning of this year my wife and I went to Columbus for a new American Girl Doll release, and with the release of the Harry Potter clothes we decided to go again. We also made sure to get the same hotel that we did last time because of the awesome arcade. Mskate is pretty into Harry Potter and wanted to make a character doll (maybe Ginny), so we planned on maybe buying a doll in addition to the accessories. With all that we planned on purchasing I bought some gift cards through swagbucks to get the cash back. Since this was a new release they had some promotional give aways and we wanted to get them. Mskate was being kind of pesimistic though, basically saying "I know we won't be making it, so we don't need to even try, we'll sleep in and don't worry about it," but I said "no, we're going to try, we'll get up early and go there to make it."

Saturday was the day. We woke up at 6:30 but didn't leave until about 7:30, and that was OK because the give aways were for the first 50 people who bought things. I drove the first leg and it was good, then mskate drove the second leg. I was getting hungry and wanted to get McDonalds because of the Pokemon toy promotion, but it was too early since they were still serving breakfast. Once we got to the mall I pulled out my camera and was ready to take some video, but I neglected to charge my camera and the battery was dead, so I had to take video on my phone.

The store was pretty cool. Since we had been there earlier this year there weren't a lot of things that were super new, but there were some cool displays. One thing mskate pointed out is that there were many displays made of card board, and some of them looked really good. You can see them in the video above. The Harry Potter stuff was really well made. There was a trunk that came with an owl, birty bots every flavor beans, chocolate frog with wizard card, wand, and acceptance letter. There was also the sorting hat with the nimbus 2000. This was a funny story, there's a "classic witch" costume that's available as well and mskate thought the broom that came with that set and was on display was the Harry Potter broom, and I pointed out how it wasn't. There were also school uniforms and house scarves, and mskate wanted to get a Griffindore so we could make a Ginny, but of course being the house of the main character it was sold out. We almost got a Ravenclaw so we could make a Cho Chang, but decided against it. Instead of a doll for a Harry Potter character, we got a Courtney doll. She's the 80s doll and her story is awesome (because it's all 80s pop culture, with a love of Pacman and Care Bears).

Now for some interesting things. They have blind bags with little accessories from sets that didn't sell well, typically foods or home supplies (like we kept feeling shampoo bottles and bracelets when feeling these bags), and we were only interested in the cell phone and smart watch set. A lot of other people must have been interested in it too because we felt all hundred or so bags and no cell phone set. It would be a little bit of a scene if it wasn't that everyone does it. Oh well, in the past we successfully found the cheese and cheese grater, milk and eggs, and syrup and pancakes sets.

After the shopping we went to eat lunch at the mall food court. I was going to maybe get Shake Shack while Mskate got Bibibop, but we both ended up getting Bibibop. I got a salad bowl with broccoli, steak, potatoes, and teriyaki sauce. We sat at a table that had outlets so we could charge the camera and my phone, but the camera wasn't taking a charge and my phone barely got a charge after sitting there for maybe an hour. Oh well.

After lunch we went to a game and puzzle store that was in the mall, and I bought a pikmin 3 puzzle. I played the coin dozer games that they had, and I thought they were close to payout but they weren't so I lost a dollar. I had fun though. After that store we went to the legoland gift shop and played "I got that one and that one and that one" since mskate's dad likes to gift lego. We managed to find something we didn't have and kind of need for our holiday display table, a black cat and mouse in a pumpkin display piece for the fall display. We went to the lego store after that and didn't find anything but still played "I got that one and that one and that one."

After this we drove to the hotel. I checked us in, unloaded the stuff, and packed the car while mskate took the stuff up to the room. I caught up to her quickly since there was an open parking spot. We got situated and just rested for an hour or so. We also explored the hotel some and went down to the pool. At the pool we found this funny bit of conflicting information in the signs. Mskate also played with her new dolls, and we got all set-up. Here I am with Courtney. 

For dinner we ordered mskate sushi from the local sushi place and I got McDonalds. I got 2 happy meals because I wanted the pokemon toys. They tried to give me scooby doo toys, but I pushed them and asked for the pokemon toys (and they gave them to me). The McDonalds was pretty interesting, it wasn't like a normal building that matches their style. After the McDonalds we went to get mskate her sushi, which is also right next to the barcade. They have tinted windows and mskate thought they might be out of business, so when I went to get the sushi I also checked (they were open). We went back to the hotel where I finished my McDonalds and mskate had her sushi, and I had her wasabi and other spicy thing they give with it (I just ate it straight, and I felt the heat of the wasabi in the back of my nose). A little while later around 5:30 I went to the barcade.

Here's the business model of this barcade, the drinks are inflated but most of the arcade games are free. Skeeball, pinball, and some new arcade fighters cost money, but every video cabinet that is over 10 years old is on free play. It's a great place. When I got there I started a tab and started with a Galaga; a purple drink made with rum, gin, vodka, and raspberry liquor. This was a good drink, I highly recommend it. Then to start, I went with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Turtles in Time. Someone had left 40 credits on Rafael early in level 1, so I played as Raff. After the time warp I decided to start filming some lets plays with my phone, holding the phone in my left hand while I controlled Raff with my right hand, joystick in my palm and attack with my middle and ring finger. I don't recommend playing like this if you are spending money since dodging requires the jump button, but if it's on free play it's an interesting challenge. While I was playing the 2020 level a boy that was probably 7 or 8 came up with his mom and asked if he could play with me. I said sure and he pressed the credit button for Leonardo and Michelangelo and we played together some. I was very careful with how I engaged with them, because I wanted to let his mom know I wasn't mad that he jumped on but I also didn't want to be a weirdo at the bar talking to children. It was cool though, because at least according to Irate Gamer 4 random kids playing the TMNT arcade game together was what you did back in the day. He got kind of bored after half the level and ran off, so for a little while I'm moving 3 turtles around the screen so I could advance the level, and then let them game over so I could continue playing as Raff (though I did play some as the other turtles just to try them out, because why not). At the last level I got all the turtles on the screen because at the end of the level if there were more than 1 turtles on screen they would high five, and I wanted to have all of them at the end. I eventually beat the game and because I was taking a sip between each level I finished my drink, but because I didn't start from the very beginning I decided to play through until I got to a part where I walked in, so I played through the entire game. As I explained in the other blog and in the lets play, I have a history with this game, so every time I come here I'll probably spend an hour or whatever beating it because 9-12 year old me never was able to.

After Turtles in Time I went to the bar and got a Frogger; a drink made with coconut rum, pineapple juice, melon liquor, and orange juice. I was drawn more to the pineapple and didn't see the coconut, and if I did I probably would have got something else because I don't like coconut, and it wasn't for me. Since I wasn't getting any trouble for filming the lets plays with TMNT, the next game I played was Maximum Force, a light gun game I could play with 1 hand. I don't have a history with this one partially because I wasn't allowed to play light gun games as a child (my mom was pretty anti-gun), and I for sure wasn't allowed to play this because when the bad guys got shot they kind of blew up. I also didn't see this in the arcades I frequented as child, so even if that was permitted I wouldn't have had the option. Regardless, it was fun. The fun thing was it had FMV human enemies and low-texture 3D graphics. I let's played the first 2 levels, but the 3rd I did without the camera because I wanted to dual wield, and that was a fun way to play. I took some sips between levels, but not too much and still had plenty of drink after I finished the game. After Maximum Force I decided to play Frogger while drinking a Frogger, but I was a little buzzed by then and while I'm normally a wiz at Frogger (at least enough to get halfway through the first level), but I wasn't even able to get my first frog in the end cave. I also gave the original Donkey Kong a try, but failed pretty hard at that as well, not being able to get past the first screen.

After failing at Frogger and Donkey Kong I went to play The Simpsons Arcade game. The button layout was pretty similar to the TMNT button layout, so I decided to play as Lisa and do lets plays as well. I filmed one before my phone had a super low battery, so I only got one video. This is another game I have some history with, because I would play this sometimes at the Chuck E Cheese and the Caesarland by me, and I watched the demo screen very well because I would watch it all the time pretending to play. One of the cool things about this game is that if 2 characters stood next to each other motionless for a few seconds they would work together for a super attack. Bart and Lisa would hold hands and hit the enemies, and Marge and homer would do something similar. If Bart or Lisa stood next to Homer, he would pick them up and they would deal double damage. If it was Marge she would pick up the kid and throw them like a projectile. Because the combo attacks just required 1 joystick input (Bart+Lisa and Homer+Marge), there was some time where I just put all 4 characters on screen and controlled them simultaneously, but that eventually became too much to handle so I just played 1 character at a time. I ended up playing as Homer and Lisa primarily (Lisa because that was good for lets plays, Homer because I like playing as him), and I ended up getting 2 high scores because of it. It was another game I beat, and I finished my Frogger while playing it. I had seen the end of Simpsons Arcade a couple of times because there would sometimes be a kid or group of kids that were determined to beat it, but it was fun to beat it all by myself.

For my 3rd and final drink for the night, I was going to get a Stonewall (8 different liquors with a splash of sours, orange juice, and sprite in a souvenir tumbler), but they were out of tumblers so I got a blue bomber (blueberry vodka, blue curaco, lemonade, and blueberry redbull; a very good drink). I decided to give Tengen Tetris a try, the arcade version that is very Russian. I could only use one rotate button because the other was sticky and I didn't want to deal with sticky. I did pretty well with it, getting to like level 5 or 6. After Tetris I played Area 51, another lightgun game that while I never played (gun game and kind of gory), I did see in arcades all the time, and on the demo screen I'm pretty sure one said "used to help train law enforcement." I did pretty well considering I was 2 drinks in and tired. The next game I played was Q-bert, and I made it to level 2 before getting the game overs (I think I played 2 games because the first one didn't "feel real"). I also played Ms. Pacman until I game over'ed, and didn't want to try much because I have a Ms. Pacman 35th anniversary cabinet at my house. The next game I played and failed at was Donkey Kong Jr, it was much harder than the NES port I have (and the 2.5 cocktails and fatigue didn't help). I also played the original Punch Out, and got to the 3rd boxer despite not really knowing what I was doing on top of the other challenges.

One of the last games I played was Tapper, a game I have some history with. When I was in 5th grade Shockwave.com was the game site we frequented, and they had classic arcade games available to play, one being Tapper (or "Rootbeer Tapper," the "kid friendly asset swap" that replaces the Budweiser logo with a generic root beer logo). Even though I nearing my end, I could still beat the bar setting and bonus stage with ease, then I got to level 8 which always got me as a kid (I'd either serve too many mugs and lose the life that way, or a customer would get to me because I didn't serve them fast enough), and this is where I bit it again. It was now a quarter to 9 and I only had enough in me for 1 more game, and I played another game that had a lot of nostalgia connections from Shockwave, Rampage. This was a modern version but still Rampage. I played as George and made it to like level 4 before I basically gave up on (but I still made it to a game over). I cashed out at this time and the final bill was $32. That was a good price for 3.5 hours of arcade games and 3 drinks. If I counted 50 cents for each time I pressed start it probably would have been more than $32. After the arcade I went back to the hotel. Mskate was in bed but not asleep, so I was able to tell her how the arcade went. I showered and had some snacks, and that was it for the night. 

Sunday morning was pretty chill. As I said in the other blog, the hotel doesn't have a free breakfast, so I had poptarts and pistachios. We just relaxed some in the morning, before packing up, checking out, and going to church. The mass was interesting because there were a lot of small children, and they were a little distracting. The church was in a cute little town, with some cool old style architecture. Mskate drove the first half of the trip, and then I drove the other half. So, we filled the gas tank before going on the trip and that should have got us pretty much the whole trip. However, with the traffic that we ran into the gas tank was running on empty and I wasn't sure we would make it home (the car was driving a little different than normal), so I stopped at a gas station like 5 miles from our house and got 2 gallons, and that was more than enough to get us home. We unpacked the stuff and then just enjoyed the rest of the Sunday.

Overall, great trip. While American Girl Doll isn't really my thing, I don't dislike it (we got Courtney mainly because I love the 80s and she's an 80s doll). Then there's Level One Bar and Arcade, an arcade with free videogames. The only way it could have been better is if my camera wasn't dead and they had the Griffindore accessories. Next time we go (because there will be a next time), I'll make sure I have enough charge on my phone and video camera so I can take more lets play videos. I was a little hesitant because if people don't want you taking video they REALLY don't want you taking video, and since was a bar that wasn't in a tourist place there was a decent chance that they wouldn't want me taking video, but I took video in front of the employees and they didn't say anything, so next time I'll be sure to be prepared. I also won't have 3 alcoholic drinks; maybe 2 and a non-alcoholic drink (like a Pinky or Donkey Kong Jr.). I also will play some other games that I haven't played yet like the big buck hunter and X-men game, but I'll always play TMNT because that was as much of a draw of Wheels Inn as anything else there. Well this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

Christmas and New Years 2021 Blog

 Hey everyone, it's Christmas time again. Mskate and I got our Christmas tree up and all our decorations. We also had to take down our usual decorations, but couldn't find a good place for the American Girl Doll bike, so I used our left over wrapping paper scraps to wrap it up and make a Christmas scene.

Before I get into the big festivities, I have to tell a pre-festivities story that will pan out later. I don't know exactly how IRA found out about this, but he learned that my grandma didn't have a timer for her Christmas lights and bought her one. Since my grandma is his grandma-in-law, he didn't know where she lived and needed me to go with him. We stopped at the McDonalds by her for lunch and to maybe get Encanto Happy Meal Toys since mskate wanted them. We didn't want to deal with the drive through and thankfully the lobby was open for carryout. Unfortunately they didn't have Encanto anymore, and we ended up getting a Micky's Runaway Railway and Luca toy. I'll just try to sell those on ebay later. We setup the timer and watched the Rugrats 2021 Holiday special. It was cool, we learned about Las Posadas (because as my mom likes to say, "everything I learned about other religions and cultures I learned from the Rugrats"). It was fun.

OK, so it's Christmas Eve, and it's time for us to exchange gifts with my maternal grandma. We always exchange gifts on Christmas Eve with her ever since I was little, and part of the tradition was we would go to McDonalds while Santa delivered the presents. We didn't do it last year because everything was closed, and we almost didn't this year because Mom called and asked if dining area was open and when she heard "no," she thought that meant it was drive through only and we did frozen oven pizza. Because IRA and I went a week or 2 earlier we knew that the lobby was open, and I had to keep the tradition alive, I walked there and got grandma a McDouble and a large fry to share with everyone. We still had frozen pizza, but we also had some McDonalds When I got back I yelled "Santa Came!" like I would have when I was little.

Time for presents. I got some PS4 games that I got on black friday and amazon prime day that my mom and grandma bought off me, some gift cards, candy, hand cream, and some puzzles. Mskate got me a present she was VERY proud of, Recess Miracle on 3rd Street on DVD, because it wasn't available on disney plus. Unfortunately for her I already had it on VHS from when I was a child, but it's good to have it on DVD now (but she was still a bit sad that I already had it on a home media). Mskate got some candy, puzzles, gift cards, and a special gift that I helped my grandma give. But before I get to that, I need to go through the gifts we gave my grandma. We got her an ornament we painted together some weeks ago, a Minnie Mouse we bought her in Disney World, a build a bear shirt we got on sale in Disney World, some gift cards, and this special gift of gift. Grandma is always saying "I don't have anything for you to eat" whenever we come over, especially since mskate has multiple food allergies. Well, on prime day I found these organic fruit snack starburst things that I knew mskate would like, but I knew she would like them "too much" and they wouldn't last a week in our house, so I wrapped them up as a gift from grandma to mskate, put it in a box, and then wrapped it up as a gift from me to grandma. When she grabbed the box, I told mskate to go over to her and get ready. When she opened it and saw it was another present, I said "read the label" and she handed the inside package to mskate, and mskate liked the organic starburst to keep at her house. We also gave vikingpolak some gifts, a universal socket, a tactical flashlight, and something I'm forgetting. Oh well, it was still fun. My parents got clothes and gift cards.

After gifts we went to church. It was a good service. After church mskate and I took dad back with us so he could get dinner started. Dad made a pot roast and some baked potatoes. It was really good. After dinner we packed up and went to mskate's parents house for the night. We exchanged some pre-gifts with her parents, some clothes and ornaments, and gave the dogs some toys. I wanted to watch A Christmas Story on TBS with IRA, but he isn't a fan of A Christmas Story so we watched my new Recess DVD. After the DVD it was time for everyone to go to bed because "Santa had to come set-up." I wasn't ready to sleep yet, so I watched some of A Christmas Story in bed on my phone. IRA offered to let me watch it on his DVD copy, but it has to be 24-hours on TBS, because 24-hours of A Christmas Story on TBS is my 14 year long tradition.

OK, it's Christmas morning. Last year we learned our lesson and put the dog's presents up high so Dalilah wouldn't get to them. IRA though was up at 4AM excited for all the stuff. Even though he's 24 years old, he's still a kid at heart and gets really excited for Christmas morning. The rest of us got up at about 7:30 AM, and we started at around 8AM (and while everyone was waking up, I watched some more of A Christmas Story). It was quite the sight, because my in-laws get REALLY into Christmas. I got some cool Sonic and Pokemon socks, some lego sets, puzzles, games, and blu-rays. Mskate got puzzles, legos, clothes, and Addie the American Girl Doll with bed. IRA got a bunch of movies, and we got him a "pokematic family staple," The 3 Stooges complete collection of DVD. He was REALLY excited about that. As for my parent-in-laws, we got dad a USB fan and washing machine cleaner (because that's the kind of stuff he likes), and mom got a peanuts colorform and spoon rest. They got some other things as well from us, but those were the key things that really got them excited. It's funny, mskate and her mom always had difficulty shopping for her dad because his standards were either too high, or they paid too much for what they bought, and they just didn't know what to buy him, then I came along and said "for the man who loves his computer and to keep the AC off in the summer, give him a USB desk fan."

OK, now it's time for breakfast. I had an over easy egg and medium well bacon, mskate had an egg replacement omelet, and everyone else had this egg casserole and medium rare bacon. While breakfast was cooking I watched some more Christmas Story, but with the west coast TBS feed because that was closer to where I left off last time. A little later mskate and I went to pick up her aunt to have breakfast and christmas with us. Nothing too spectacular to say, except IRA and I took her back afterwards and I finished watching A Christmas Story after that (once again, on the west coast feed), and that's how I watched all of A Christmas Story over 4 airings this year.

OK, now it's now about 2 PM, and time for us to spend time with my side of the family. My parents throw a party every Christmas and this year was no exception. Vikingpolak picked up my grandma, and their accordion friends showed up a little bit after. The really fun thing though was mskate's cousin M came as well. Mom said "if cousin M isn't doing anything, he can come to our house," and he did. We all visited for the first hour or 2, introducing cousin M to everyone and catching up on life. After that we had dinner. Since my parent's dining room table isn't big enough for everyone there was a "kids table" and "adult table." Since there's normally more than 10 people at these functions and my parent's china set is only for 10 people, and I'm a bit clumsy, I normally have to use a normal dinner plate, so when I asked "where's my plate," I wasn't being rude or entitled, I just knew my place. However, because Christmas was 10 people this year I got a china plate this year. I had ham, green beans, and a roll. After dinner we did the accordion sing along. IRA and mom-in-law came over for that, and it was fun. This was something new for cousin M, and he enjoyed it. While we were singing tanman called to wish everyone Merry Christmas. I was one of the last people to talk to him so I didn't know who to hand him off to, so I said "here, talk to cousin M." Neither of them knew what to so, but mom was like "no, here, talk to your accordion grandparents." After the sing along we all said our goodbyes and went back to mskate's parent's house since we still had festivities with my parents the next day. IRA and I watched one of his new movies, The Suicide Squad, not to be confused with Suicide Squad. This is the R-rated soft reboot, and I gotta say, it was pretty gross. Like, LOADS of gore and brutal deadly injuries, and I guess this is what people wanted, but it was a little too much for my tastes.

OK, it's now the 26th, the first day of Kwanza, and the day we're exchanging gifts with my parents. We met my parents and vikingpolak at Sunday church and had a good mass. My parents still had some setting up to do so vikingpolak, mskate, and I drove around the city a little. We went to the restaurant with really good gluten free bread to see if we could buy 5 pieces of bread quick and easy. Unfortunately the restaurant was closed so we just drove to the edge of the city and then back to my parents house. When we got there my parents had it set-up like they always do (brother's pile, my pile, their piles, and now mskate's pile). We added our stuff to their piles. Some of their key presents were a new French press for dad (since his was falling apart), a set of cooking tongs with a silicone tip one, and mom got a soap dispenser that dispenses soap in the shape of micky's head. There were some other things, like gift cards, but they aren't the main things that got a lot of fun. We also got my parents shirts from our Disney trip, and they all really liked them. We got vikingpolak some other things, but what they were escape me at the moment. Mskate and I got some puzzles, candy, a shirt or 2, gift cards, a build a bear thing, and plasticine clay builder thing. Vikingpolak then gave everyone special gifts. He gave everyone a utility bucket with a stuffed animal and gift card in it. I had a legendary pokemon, mskate got a corgi dog in a santa costume, dad got a snoopy in his WW2 flying ace costume, and mom got a queen bee. After gift exchanging we packed up our stuff and went back to mskate's parents house to pack up everything. The rest of the day was pretty basic, and we had some relaxing.

OK, now it's time to enjoy my week off. Monday was a day of shopping and doctors. Mskate needed to get some blood work done, so we went there after doing some shopping at BJs. Tuesday was more shopping, this time at IKEA and Ollies, and then dinner at an upscale steak house because we had a coupon for a free appetizer. That ended up getting crazy because while backing out I accidently hit the car behind me. I went around the restaurant asking "do you have a dark gray traverse?" and eventually found the owner. It was just minor damage, some scratches on the bumpers, but we still filed the police report. I called my insurance and got things taken care of, but it was a crazy night.

Wednesday is when things got "fun again." Mskate had a doctor's appointment at 10 so I waited outside and watched Elvira while she was in there, and after that we went to see my aunt and grandpa. It was an hour and a half drive up to them, and then we had a fun visit. We exchanged some gifts, and they really enjoyed them. My grandpa liked to carve wood in retirement when he could and one thing he really liked to carve was santas, so instead of putting up a tree with ornaments my aunt puts up multiple little pencil trees and all her carved santas up in a little santa village. Some weeks ago we took my grandma to a pottery painting place and made a santa ornament for my aunt and grandpa for the santa village. I think he fits in perfectly with the rest of the santas.

We also got my grandpa a pair of wireless headphones for the TV. My grandpa is losing his hearing so he keeps the TV kind of loud, and one time she asked "is there a way to give him headphones or something," and after looking at the TV I said "yes there is," and when I saw bluetooth headphones on prime day I said "this would be great for grandpa," and since I already had a bluetooth transmitter that plugs into a headphone jack I knew I could get this for them. Unfortunately I forgot what the specific jacks were on her TV and didn't bring an RCA to 3.5mm jack adapter, but it works for his ipad and the cell phones since there's a standard 3.5mm audio cable option, and they are happy about them. We also got them bird feeder cylinders and lindor chocolates, and they enjoyed them. We had ham sandwiches for lunch, and we had some good conversations. It was a fun little day.

OK, it's Thursday now, and it's dad-in-law's birthday today. We went to my dad's first because we had to pick up some stuff and just wanted to see him. After that we went to mskate's parent's house and played our new Disney Eye Found it game. Mom-in-law didn't understand it too well, but IRA enjoyed it. After that IRA and I watched an episode of Seinfeld and then we just waited around for dad-in-law to come home from work. I played Animal Crossing New Horizon and watched Just Go With It on Hulu. When he got home we ordered pizza and made a lava cake we got from BJs on Monday. Everyone enjoyed them. It was a fun day.

Alright it's Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday, and New Years Eve. Mskate and I planned on going to the American Girl Doll Store in Columbus for the new year release of the girl of the year, because mskate really wants the girl of the year since she's a future Olympian and her welly wisher sister is a figure skater. Thursday night she learned that they released them 2 days early, and so we went there New Years Eve before going to our hotel. It was a really fun store, and I may put some clips up.

We got the Welly Wisher, the skating outfit, an Olympic medal presentation set on sale, and some blind bags we felt to figure what we'd get (milk and eggs, cheese and grater, and waffle iron). After the store we went to our hotel and it took us a little while to check in (many people were checking in as well), so I just watched hulu while I waited. After checking in we drove around our hotel to find dinner. We found a Japanese restaurant next to a barcade (arcade that is paid for with alcoholic drinks) called Level One. We ordered avacado sushi rolls and a salmon sushi roll for mskate and steak teppan yaki for me. While we waited for our food, I went to the barcade and played "Russian Tetris" (the arcade version with more Russian imagery" and different mechanics and logic, knowledgeable Tetris players know that there are subtle but major differences between releases), and more importantly Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Turtles In Time. So, little story; when I was about 9 and my brother was 7, we went to a hotel in Canada called The Wheels Inn, where they have a giant arcade, mini-amusement park, bowling alley, laser tag, shuffle board, light gun shooting gallery, mini golf, giant "McPlayland" thing that was so big I sometimes got lost in it, bounce house, and more, and the game that captured our attention the most was TMNT Turtles In Time, but we weren't good enough to get past the 2nd level. When I saw it, I knew I had to play it, and if it was free play, I had to beat it.

It took about an hour and 40 free credits, but I managed to beat it. Young me was proud. The food was ready for a while, and a little cold, but it was worth it to me to beat it. When I sent the picture of the victory screen to my family they all said "oh that's great." After getting our food we went back to the hotel and ate dinner. The food was good, but not very filling (I'll get to that later). Mskate played with her new dolls and clothes, putting the Olympic outfit on the doll she brought and putting the skating outfit on the welly wisher.

After the play time and watching an episode of Numb3rs on hulu I went back to the barcade. I didn't buy a drink for playing TMNT while I waited for the other food, so I figured I should go back and get a drink. Mskate didn't want to go with me (not her thing, and she was tired), so it was just me and I could have all the fun I wanted. I bought a TRON, a cocktale with voka, rum, gin, and blue curacao "with a splash of sour and sprite," and it was REALLY good. If you ever go to Level One, I recommend it. I needed something to play with one hand while I drank so I played Q-Bert, a light gun game, and Frogger. After finishing my drink I played Tapper (which also has some history since that was my favorite arcade game to play on Shockwave.com in 5th grade, along with Rampage), Donkey Kong, and Punch Out. I could have played more, but I had to get back to mskate (but I'm definitely coming back here). Mskate was hungry for more food, so I bought her another order of avocado rolls. She kind of wanted more salmon rolls, but 1 salmon roll costs about the same as 8 avocado rolls ($4.50 for 8 avocado rolls, $3.25 for 1 salmon roll), and when she said "I could have gotten more salmon rolls," I almost said "like hell you are." She enjoyed the avocado rolls, so that was good. When I went to order more sushi rolls one of the employees said "hey, didn't you already order today?" and I said "yeah but we want more." When I got back mskate ate and then went to sleep while I watched Numb3rs waiting for midnight. Around 11:30 I accidentally woke her back up and 30 minutes later we watched the ball drop and rang in the new year with some kisses.

New Years Day started off OK. I woke up around 8:30 and went down to see about continental breakfast. The hotel was asking $12 for their continental breakfast, and I was like "no, I'll just eat the snacks and poptarts we brought." I ate my snack breakfast and called to find out when checkout was while mskate looked to see if there was a mass around us (Solemnity of Marry). Turns out checkout was the same time mass would be over, so we packed up our stuff, checked out, and went to mass. Since people were loud the night before (because new years), mskate didn't sleep as well as she would have liked, and wasn't sure if she would want to go back to the store, but would make the final call after mass. When mass was over she said "it's less than 15 minutes away (just barely at 13), so I want to go." We did and she found matching pajamas for the welly wisher and her, which was great. Unfortunately there weren't any big festivities, so that wasn't very good. Oh well.

After the store we went to the "mall building," where they have restaurants and this cool game store. Mskate got Bibibop and I got panda express, 2 things we don't get very often. At the game store I looked around at all the coin pushers they had to see if any were ready to pay out (I have a coin pusher at home and played it enough to be able to tell when they're ready to pay out), but unfortunately none were. We drove home and thus concluded our little adventure.

Overall this was quite a fun vacation. If I could do it over the only thing I would change is remembering the right cable for the headphones and getting it completely set-up. Well, now it's time for me to get back to real life. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.