A Pokematic 2014 Christmas

Hey everyone, it's that time of the year again, the time when I talk about the fun times I had during Christmas. At the time of writing, the festivities are still going on. We have little Christmas gatherings with friends and family up until new years. So I'll talk about what's happened while it's still fresh, and then fill you in about the end at the end of the blog, but you'll only read the end of it. Time is funny.

So lets start out with the 23rd of December. Nothing major happened, except all my European friends wishing me a Merry Christmas because they celebrate on the 23rd. Now for the real start, the 24th Christmas Eve. With my grandparents on my mom's side, we exchange gifts either Christmas Eve or the day after because it probably worked best when we were little. Anyways, it was fun. We met them at their local McDonalds, because that's what we've been doing since we were little. When we were little, typically one of my parents and either my aunt or uncle would take my brother, cousin, and I to the McDonalds while Santa delivered the presents. Now we all just meet there beforehand and eat lunch because tradition. After lunch, we went over to their house and opened presents. I got Justice League-Flashpoint Paradox, The Fast and the Furious/2 Fast 2 Furious, The Dark Knight Rises, The Three Stooges: The Movie,Looney Tunes Academy Awards Animation Collection, a Weather key chain, and some lottery tickets. I lost, but my brother won. In fact all the lottery tickets I got I lost, and my brother won about half of them. That's my luck. The best thing though is my grandpa's gift. A while back he lost his wedding ring. This year my grandma saved up and bought him one. So instead of just wrapping it and giving it to him, we did "nesting doll" boxes, where open one box, there's another box, and in that is another box, etc. Since it was his 80th birthday (he was born on Christmas so he shares a birthday with Jesus), we did 8 boxes with a little story from each decade of his life. Fist box was a penny with a slip that told him about going to buy penny candy when he was little. The second box was a story he told us from when he was in college. When it got to him having kids we gave him a little bag of coffee, because "you'll need this." When it was the part about getting grand kids, there was a slip that said "I hope you still have some of that coffee." And little things like that. Just fun. Once he opened the ring though, oh he was speechless. He really liked it. After their house we went to Christmas Eve mass.

Here's a little story, after mass we went to buy sweet potatoes. At the Christmas party on Christmas (you'll read about it in a moment), our family was responsible for bringing a sweet potato casserole or something. Well we didn't have sweet potatoes. We went to Kroger to see if they were open. They closed at 5:30 and it was 5:50. We go home and eat our Chinese food, because that's what people order out when it's Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. They're the only places open. After dinner I call Meijer and see what their hours are. They're open till 7 on Christmas Eve, and it was 6:40. Meijer is about 15 minutes away. Mom and I get in the car and book it to Meijer. We get to Meijer at 6:50. I jump out and rush to produce. This place is packed. We weren't the only people that needed last minute stuff. We needed 4 sweet potatoes. I get 4 and get in line. Mom finds me and looks at what I got. She said I should get another just in case. I weave in and out of people to get back to produce. I come back with a potato in hand. She says "maybe just one more." I weave in and out again to the produce grab another sweet potato, and football carry it back to the line. That was it. We check out and we were done. A while later, at like 10PM, I watched A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas, a review of which you can read here.

Well it's now Christmas Day. I walk down to the living room and see my parents on the couch waiting. We wait for my brother. When he gets up, we open gifts. Here's what I got.

I got The Legend of Korra - Book Two: Spirits, The Heat, Godzilla, some wine, beef jerky, peanut M&M's, peanuts, and peanut butter pretzels. And some money.

After that, we enjoy our gifts, watch 24 hours of A Christmas Story, and call family that we won't see that year. After a while, we went to a family friend's house for Christmas dinner. It was nice seeing them. PepperBC and her family also came, so that was fun to see them again and catch up. We had turkey and ham for dinner, along with some fixings. After dinner we had cake, and it was a big cake with a lot of frosting. So much that anyone that handled the cake, even if they were careful, got frosting fingers. This was a birthday cake for my grandpa. After birthday celebrations, we did the sing along because this is the friend with the accordion and my grandma read this story about a clockmaker. It's another tradition. During the sing along, my brother brought out his clarinet as part of a birthday surprise because my grandpa loves listening to him play. Mom asked where he was. Using air quotes that my grandpa couldn't see but she could, I said "he's in the bathroom." She didn't get it so I did it again. She didn't catch on until after he came out. It was fun.

So after Christmas, we went to see my other grandparents. We visited, had giant sandwiches, and enjoyed each other. We exchanged a couple of gifts. I got a new safety vest. On my way up and back, I watched The Legend of Korra - Book Two: Spirits. The following day we went to see my aunt. She needed us to put cable in her sewing room. We also visited. After the visit, we went to a Christmas party with my mom's old college friends. We ended up playing Halo: The Master Chief Collection. Well, that was until the Halo 5 beta downloaded. Then we played Halo 5 Beta. We had pizza for dinner. This is kind of funny. We had a coupon for 4 pizzas for like $30, so we were going to use that and get like 2 other more specialty pizzas, one gluten free and another I don't remember. Well we did the ordering online, and the coupon ended up saying we had to order 2 pizzas and get like 4 free, or something. We ended up getting 8 pizzas. When we went to get pizzas, and after getting them, we had the idea that we should go to the strip club and make it rain with pizza. We didn't but it was a fun joke.

So we're reaching the end of the fun. The last party was on the 30th. We got together with mom's oldest friend and her family. Her kids and their girlfriends came. We were kind of wondering what we should do. I went to the nerd cave and brought up my N64 along with OG Mario Party and OG Super Smash Bros. We played Mario Party first, and then Super Smash Bros. That was fun. We didn't do a whole lot else. Well that was my Christmas 2014 experience. Lots of fun. Well this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

Black Friday, 2014

Ahh it’s that time again, Black Friday. So how was this year? Well, it wasn’t quite as fun as last year. Before I go into Black Friday, I’ll talk about Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was fun. I saw my family on my mom’s side for the big day and my family on my dad’s side the following Friday. It was fun. I saw PepperBC. I had ham because I don’t like turkey. It was all around fun.

Now for Black Friday. Things weren’t as interesting this year. I looked at all the ads and only found a couple of things I wanted. From Meijer I was looking at DeadPool the game. From Target I was looking at Sixteen Candles for $1. At Walmart I was looking at Mario Kart 8, Scarface, the New Godzilla, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. At Best Buy I was looking at The Big Bang Theory Season 7, That '70s Show: The Complete Series, The Princess Bride, and Spaceballs. Interestingly enough, I didn’t really find anything I was looking for, but I found other stuff.

To start out, my brother and I went to Walmart around 8PM. Unfortunately for us they had all their door busters already so we missed out on practically everything. I did however find a Fast and Furious Double Feature; The Fast and the Furious and 2 Fast 2 Furious for like $4, which is kind of funny since they were being sold separately for the same price. We looked around some more. My brother found some headphones and we picked up a dirt devil that my mom wanted.

Next came Target. Unfortunately I was unable to find 16 candles. However, I did find The Heat and Godzilla. Here’s a little story with Godzilla. The sign said $10, but the system thought it was $27. I see the register and it said $41 total (my brother was getting a DVD and we just put it all together). I ask the cashier what it was and he said Godzilla. I told him that it said $10, so he went and talked to some manager person. I got it for $10. It said $10. After checking out, we picked up Z-man. Remember him from last year? If you don’t, he’s a friend. We picked him up and then went to Best Buy.

At Best Buy, more of the same. However, I did manage to find Spaceballs. I already have it on VHS, but since our only VCR is currently connected to the capture card for my video converting thing, and since I want more out of my viewing experience, I want the blu-ray. Unfortunately, didn’t find 70’s show, big bang theory, or princess bride. Looks like I’ll just have to live with the VHS of princess bride for a while. However, we did end up finding Firefly: The Complete Series and something else that escapes me at the moment. Oh well. Z-man ended up finding an iHome speaker set. He needs it since his current set of speakers is completely messed up.

Now there are some stories that go along with this best buy experience. We’re waiting in line, and there’s a register that can only take cash. The lady asks if there’s anyone paying with cash, and I raise my hand because I am. We’re next because of the cash but we aren’t at the front of the line. This guy in front of us says he’s with us and goes to the cash only register. He then tries to pay with credit and then gets sent back into line. Buddy, it’s not our fault you didn’t bring cash. Then after we exit, Z-man drops his respite. Like a Black Friday lunatic, I chase after it, through the parking lot, and catch it right as it’s about to blow into the street. Yeah.

After that we were done. I didn’t bother Meijer because I could live without Deadpool the game for a while. This year wasn’t quite as fun. There wasn’t the mad rush to open the door busters, there wasn’t the line outside of best buy, there wasn’t that much cool stuff I wanted this year. I’m sure the door buster rush and line outside best buy happened, it just happened to early. Stores, please, STOP STARTING BLACK FRIDAY EARLY IN THANKSGIVING!!!!! I like it when it’s “doors open at midnight” and “door busters at 2AM” and all that good stuff. None of this “door busters at 6PM” crap. Sigh. Oh well. Another bummer was mbinski wasn’t able to join us this year. That was a bummer. Oh well. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.