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Ah, Christmas. A time to compile lists of desired items in the hopes that someone will get them for you as a gift. I amused myself by thinking up this list of things that made perfect sense to ask for at the time... but today, just seem hopelessly outdated.

I like to think of this stuff as "incidental technology."

VHS Tape Rewinder

Because you don't want to wear out your VCR by rewinding the tapes in it. Or at least, that was what I always heard—hence, the dedicated tape rewinder. Don't forget the ones that look like sports cars!

Floppy disk hole punch

Because it really sucks to have single sided floppy disks—5¼" disks, of course. Now you can make those into double sided disks by making a custom notch on the other side! It certainly beats using a regular hole punch and hoping you don't nick the magnetic part of the disk inside.

8-Track cassette adapter

You have all these cassette tapes but all you have to play music is an 8-track player. Out of luck? Not anymore! With this adapter you can play your cassettes in your 8-track player, saving you the money you would otherwise have to spend on a tape player—or even a stereo!

Tabletop arcade games

The ironic thing is, I remember seeing these in the Sears toy catalogs and thought they would be awesome to have: Coleco's tabletop arcade games were sold in the early '80s and came in the flavors of Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Frogger, and Galaxian. You can read up about the Pac-Man game (with links to the others) here; check out the hot fixed-digital graphic action!

My wife made commented on yesterday's post that I should "describe" the ornaments I received as gifts this year. Even better, here's a picture of two:

Probably the best way I would "describe" them is "tongue in cheek".

I've been enjoying Once Upon a Win lately (the cousin to FAIL Blog) and the one thing that's lacking so far is the Commodore 64. Tonight, though, I came across something even more epic: the Commodore Christmas Demo. Dave writes:

Commodore wrote their famous Christmas Demo in 1982 to demonstrate the capabilities of their new Commodore 64 computer and the upcoming Executive 64 (SX-64) portable. It was included with the test/demo disk that shipped with every SX-64 so dealers could introduce customers to the machines' advanced (for the time) sound and graphics. Though its character graphics and SID sound seem quaint by today's standards, the Christmas Demo reminds many Commodore fans of the morning they woke to find a computer under their tree.

1982. I never knew of this before. Click through and watch it.

Best thing I've seen online all week. Hands down.

First there was a full moon on my birthday and then there was a fireball on Christmas Eve. (Wish I'd seen that.) I hope everyone's Christmas was nearly as eventful.

Merry Christmas!

We went and picked up our Christmas tree today, and ended up getting a seven foot Grand Fir from the Tom's Trees lot downtown, right across the street from the Franklin Crossing building (and next to El Caporal). Good trees—I like Tom's Trees, they always have good ones—but the weather left the experience somewhat less than optimal.

Near-freezing temperatures plus rain/snow mixture plus strong gusty winds equals cold, wet, and cold. Throw a cold, soaking wet tree into that mix, shake well.

All's well that ends well, though. The tree is trimmed and sitting in the living room pretty as you please.

I suppose the measure of how good a New Year's party is would be the hangover you have the next day... if so, then the party we had last night was a pretty good one. It wasn't wild or crazy or anything like that, we just had friends over (a bunch of them brought their kids), and it was just the accumulation over the course of the evening that did me in.

That, and the two (two! ugh) shots of Jagermeister I drank. I was mostly fine until that.

Anyway.

I never did the obligatory post-Christmas post-birthday post, either. So I'm rolling it all into one.

My birthday was very nice. We had lunch at the Bend Brewing Company where I drank their Hophead Imperial IPA and their seasonal Doppelbock. Both good. I love the fish and chips there. For dinner we had take-out Chinese and my mom and brother and his girlfriend joined us. Cake was a delicious dense dark chocolate cake.

My gifts? The traditional photo Christmas ornament (the photo is of the kids), a beer rating guide book (the name escapes me at the moment and it's not nearby), Barnes & Noble gift cards, money, a PS2 video game, a bottle of Jack Daniels with a measuring shot glass, and a neat shot glass and beer tasting glass from my brother in San Diego.

Christmas Eve was dinner at our house with the family. Lasagna, this year. (We don't really have a traditional Christmas Eve dinner, unlike, say, ham on Christmas day or turkey at Thanksgiving.) We set out the mountain of presents (90% for the kids) and the kids could hardly get to sleep.

Christmas morning the kids were up at 6:30 and going through their stockings by flashlight. So I got up a little before 7, started coffee, checked out the stocking loot, and helped the kids sort out presents. You can imagine what followed.

My gifts? Stephen King's latest novel, Lisey's Story, slippers, a bottle of beer, a book on the making of the Charlie Brown Christmas TV special, some crafty ornaments from the kids, more money, another PS2 game, a gift certificate to Pegasus Books here in town, and surprisingly, I even got the lightsaber I asked for! Totally didn't see that one coming.

Am I forgetting anything? ...probably.

Since then, I've spent some of my money and gift cards on a bunch of books, another PS2 game, some beer. And, I only worked two days in the past 11—five days off around Christmas, two at work, then four more for this last New Year weekend. Going back to work tomorrow? Uh, yeah, not really looking forward to it.

...but at least I'm not still hungover!

SouthFlorida.com is running a photo gallery of kids scared of Santa Claus, which is gut-busting funny. (Really! I laughed out loud at a lot of these.) But some of these Santas are so messed up that I had to re-run them here. (But go check out the rest.)

Like this one...

Hard-drinkin' Santa

Or this one:

America's Most Wanted Santa

More...

Bank Robbery Gone Bad Santa

And while those are fun, what the hell is with these fake Santas?

Holy shit this freaks me out... it's like Night of the Corn Santa or something

And finally, I think we have what qualifies as Worst Santa Ever:

Via Boing Boing.

Okay, I freely admit I stole the title from Jake. Everyone have a good holiday? Mostly? Good.

There's no denying it, Christmas is for the kids. We had more presents under the tree than ever, I think, almost all for them. And, they're just at that age now where Christmas is a Big Deal, possibly the Biggest Deal of the Whole Year, so it was full frontal X-Mas this year. (Yeah, I chose that phrase deliberately, just to weed out the pervs. I'm watching you.)

So, here's a (mostly boring) list of what I got this year, both for my birthday and Christmas (no particular order):

• Two big fancy bottles of Rogue beer: Imperial Pilsner and Imperial IPA.
• The Confusion and The System of the World (books by Neal Stephenson).
• Clothing: a sweater, a long-sleeved flannel shirt (gotta love the flannel), pajamas.
• A Disney World shot glass mug, etched with my name.
• A new wallet, with a hundred dollar bill in it. I almost didn't find the money, I thought the wallet was nifty enough.
• The board game "Brewopoly."
• Peanuts: the Art of Charles M. Schulz
• A Barnes and Noble gift card
• Money! Some of which I've already used to buy some books and fancy beer
• The annual Christmas ornament with the picture of the kids
• DVDs: The Incredibles and Batman Begins
• The Forty-Niners, a graphic novel
• A reading lamp—a standing lamp with a gooseneck lamp addition
• The Budweiser Brewery from Department 56—a porcelain model building of the original brewery
• And oh yeah, a cat.

After the morning of opening presents and ooh-ing and ahh-ing over new toys and cleaning up and everything, we went out to my parents' house to spend the rest of the day eating and visiting in our traditional Christmas manner. This is actually my favorite part of Christmas, I think, family and friends getting together to celebrate the holiday.

This year we caught up with a family friend we hadn't seen in four years, with an interesting backstory: he's a forensic criminalist based in Ontario, Oregon. That's right, he's a CSI, although, as he put it, without the guns, the drama, or anything like that. He wants to get transferred to Portland because there's not enough homicides in Eastern Oregon... seriously. Mostly it's lab work, identifying meth and other similar drugs.

What's funny is that I was under the impression for years now that he was a forensic psychologist, which is what I'd been telling people. Doesn't that seem more exciting or interesting somehow? I don't know, but I was pretty amused by the thought of him matching wits with the Hannibal Lecters of Eastern Oregon...

Ah, such is Christmas. The most wonderful time of the year!

Charlie Brown:

[shouting in desperation] Isn't there anyone out there who can tell me what Christmas is all about?

Linus:

Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you.
[walks out to center stage]
Lights, please.
[a spotlight shines on Linus]

"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the lord shone round about them, and they were so afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you this day is born in the City of Bethlehem, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, good will toward men'".

That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

That's probably my favorite quote about the holiday, pulled of course from the classic "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

Merry Christmas, everybody!

So earlier in the month Shannon floated the idea of a Bend Blogger Christmas party. Not too many people responded, but since then we at least decided on a date if we're going to do it: Saturday, December 10th.

Would there be any interest to this among our local bloggers? I'd emailed a few to test the water, and got some encouraging response (Jake, Wendy...), but I figured it's time to make the general call.

C'mon, Bend Bloggers, let's get some response! Who wants to join us for a Christmas party—gift exchange and all? The sooner we know, the better!

And hey, even if you think it's a lame idea, at least give me some pushback on it! :)

Yes, this is the post where I detail what I got for Christmas, etc. I'll even throw my birthday gifts in there for good measure.

It was a good Christmas, too. (First Christmas in our new house.) After we got up and opened up presents, I made some giant French toast on my new griddle (got it for Christmas), wearing my new bathrobe (Christmas). I also got two cookbooks, Quicksilver, a fifth of Jagermeister, several bottles of McMenamins beer, a Jack Daniels gift set (whiskey plus playing cards and dice), a Barnes and Noble gift card, The Return of the King DVD, and A Charlie Brown Christmas (the book adapted from the original TV special).

For my birthday two days earlier, I received a Peanuts daily desk calendar, a photo Christmas tree ornament (with the kids' picture in it), an unusual sculpture/pen holder for my desk at work, several bottles of McMenamins beer (this was kind of a boozy holiday, I think) along with an Old St. Francis School pint glass, a gift certificate to Pegasus Books (the local comics shop), a personalized keychain, and cash. Cold, hard cash.

All in all, a nice haul.

Some Christmas Eve wishes for everyone. I likely won't be online much tomorrow, there's just too much fun to be had in realspace. So, Merry Christmas, and I hope Santa Claus brings everyone what they want!

So Thursday evening the kids' daycare/preschool had their Christmas program, with each class performing two (or more) songs. Before the performances, Santa and his elves had arrived and all the kids waited in line to see them (although when you're talking about kids ranging in age from 1 to 5, "waiting in line" is relative), and there was a big table full of cookies and treats for everyone. The kids (ours especially) all did great jobs with their respective songs, and while this wasn't a "big" pageant or anything, it still kind of feels like you've "arrived" as a parent when your kids are in a school program on stage.

Friday (last night) was my company's holiday party. ("Holiday" as opposed to "Christmas" because we—as a company—didn't want to offend anyone who might not celebrate Christmas. Have we really gotten so PC and "sensitive" that...? Ah, but that's another rant.) It was a great party, lots of free beer and wine and excellent food and company. Everyone laughed a lot, and even though I didn't win any cool prizes like I did last year, that's all ancillary anyway; it's just as much fun to dress up for the night and go out.

Tonight was my wife's Moms Club Christmas party, so the kids and I had a "night out" of TV dinners (the kids love the frozen kids meals) and Shrek 2. I helped my wife make rum balls earlier in the week for tonight's party, so you know that sets the stage for a long night.

And while not quite like a party, all last week we did Secret Santa at work. That's always fun because getting free stuff is always a great distractor from work itself.

Next week, my birthday, along with Christmas Eve and Day. Oh, and I have a five-day weekend for it all, too. Gotta love this time of year!

So, re-watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with the kids this last week, made me realize just how long it had been since I'd last seen this special: not long enough.

It's been 40 years since it came out, and this might be blasphemy to say, but it really hasn't aged well. The animation is terrible! And what a weird-ass story.

And disturbing. The Island of Misfit Toys was weird enough, but get a load of the talking gun. Or the way Yukon Cornelius licks his pick-axe to check for gold. Or Santa—I get the feeling this version of Santa Claus would have no problem dining on venison.

But the worst of all is how they deal with the Abominable Snow Monster. What I thought I remembered was that he was only mean because he had a bad tooth, and Hermie the Dental Elf fixed it for him. No! No, what really happens is Hermie pulls every one of his teeth out with pliers and then they all try to kill the newly-defanged Snow Monster. Holy shit!

I think I preferred my nostalgic version. At least it was messed up in a good way.