My Busy Christmas Schedule

We had our holiday party at work yesterday. I’ve got one week left before I am on vacation until January 2. Here is our busy schedule:

Friday – 9 hour drive to my mother-in-law’s house

Saturday – Bonus rest day since we are arriving a day early. Hoping to see Star Wars in the morning and then watching the UK basketball game in the afternoon. Downside – watching the game on a terrible TV.

Sunday – Christmas Eve with one side of my wife’s family. Gifts and food! It is at my mother-in-law’s house this year so no driving for us. Possibly another movie that morning.

Monday – Christmas morning at MIL’s house and when we open all of our immediate family gifts. Hour and a half drive to have lunch with my wife’s dad’s side of the family and then hour and a half drive back.

Tuesday – Two and a half hour drive to my brother’s house to have Christmas with my family. More gift exchanges and more food. Much noisier and chaotic than the previous day’s gatherings and I like it that way.

Wednesday/Thursday – undetermined. We used to go to my mom’s house each day but now that she’s gone we have to find other ways to spend the days. Last year we did indoor mini-golf and ice skating.

Friday – back to MIL’s house. Still hoping to be surprised with tickets to the UK/UL basketball game.

Saturday/Sunday – one of these day will be the 9 hour drive back home. If we go back on Sunday, maybe a movie again on Saturday. New Year’s Eve will be at home watching TV.

Monday – probably a lazy day at home and then back to work.

A lot of driving, but it is a nice end of the year. Family, food, movies, reading. and no work. My kind of life.

ps. If you look at the left hand side of the blog you will now see a link to Facebook and Twitter. The Facebook link is to my Tater page that I created and abandoned. I am going to attempt to remember to post there more. Like it if you are so inclined and follow me on Twitter. I will try to be more interesting there.

The War on Christmas

Setting: The North Pole, Santa’s Compound

It is going to be hard to infiltrate Santa’s bunker. His intelligence department is one of the best in the world. They see you when you’re sleeping. They know when you’re awake. Trying to take down Santa could be a big mistake. Luckily, the Happy Holiday Alliance had a man on the inside. A disgruntled elf has promised to provide inside information in exchange for asylum in the states and admittance to dental school. We thought we could turn a member of the Reindeer Force, but he was promoted to lead reindeer and guide, so that is no longer an option.

Another issue – their secret weapon – the Christmas Cheer. We’re not really sure what it is, but it seems to give them extra power. We’ve also hear that is spreads when people sing loud for all to hear. We have distributed noise canceling headphones to the troops to combat the issue. Our corporate sponsor Starbucks is lending a hand by distributing non-specific holiday cups and wishing people happy holidays as we’ve heard that saying Merry Christmas and putting non-religious, but Christmas specific symbols on the cup also increases the Christmas Cheer quotient.

With all of these precautions in place, we are ready to take the compound and finally win the war on Christmas. Hopefully, tomorrow I will check in during a victory dinner of grilled reindeer and Santa will be defeated.

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Santa Problems

rudolph

I saw this picture on Twitter this morning and started thinking about some other issues with Santa.

In addition to the above, Santa was also very rude to the elves in Rudolph. He really didn’t come across as a nice person at all in the majority of the show.

In Santa Claus is Comin to Town he is a much nicer person, but spends the entire time breaking the local laws. I also find it disturbing that a man comes to town, seduces the local teacher and uses her to convince the kids to leave their doors unlocked at night so he can sneak in to their houses. His best friends are a confused penguin and a reformed evil wizard.

In Year Without a Santa Claus he is depressed and quits his job because no one respects the work he does. I can relate to this one more than the rest. His wife has to enlist the aid of the feuding sons of Mother Nature to save Christmas. I bet Santa took all the credit himself.

In the songs he sees me when I’m sleeping. That’s just creepy. I need a restraining order.

He only works one day a year and still we are expected to tip him with cookies and milk.

I’m not sure Santa is a good person.

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Christmas Viewing Musts

There are certain shows and movies that I try to watch every year during the Christmas season. Today’s post in the month of Tater is just a list of these in order of importance:

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

The Year Without a Santa Claus

Elf

It’s a Wonderful Life

Miracle on 34th Street

A Christmas Story(I will also try to watch the live one this year as well)

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Home Alone

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

I guess that’s it. I actually already watched Elf and Christmas Vacation last night and Santa Claus is Coming to Town is on tonight. I don’t really care about Frosty, the Grinch or Charlie Brown. I’m sure they are all pretty high on other people’s lists. I do consider Die Hard a Christmas movie, but I would watch that any time of the year, so it is not on this list. I will also watch other random Christmas shows if they are on, but I don’t feel like I’ve missed out if I don’t watch them.

Feel free to argue with my list and call me stupid in the comments.

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Things That Should Be Obvious

Apparently, I did have a fresh post for today. Some random, obvious thoughts below.

Sexual harassment and sexual assault should not be a partisan issue. I don’t care what your politics are, you should lose your job and be considered unqualified to serve in office if you are guilty.

Supporting an alleged child molester for Senate because he is a Republican is bad. Being a Christian pastor and doing so is even worse.

Nazi’s are bad.

Someone wishing you Happy Holidays is not religious persecution.

Someone saying Merry Christmas to you is not violating freedom from religion.

There is no “War on Christmas” If there is, judging from what I saw in NYC and the commercials on TV, Christmas is winning.

Shoplifting is bad. American students shoplifting in China is stupid. Saying you should have left them in jail because you didn’t feel appreciated enough makes you an asshole.

It is not OK to hate someone because they are of a different race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, etc, etc, etc.

OK. That’s all I’ve got. Feel free to add some more in the comments.

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Month of Tater Day 3: Christmas’s War on Thanksgiving

In yesterday’s post I blamed everyone who reads my blog(all 10 of you) for not giving me something to write about. One person responded with an idea – my thoughts on Christmas season starting on or before November 11. Here we go:

This might come as a shock to all of you, but I am a bit of a complainer. Given that shocking news, I’m sure at one point I have complained about Christmas music being on the radio or Christmas displays being up in stores too early. I might have actually meant it. If I did, my mind has changed since then.

Maybe I’m getting more sentimental in my old age. Maybe I just look forward to a week off from work. Maybe I look more forward to a week away from real life every year. Whatever the reason(maybe a combination of them all) I am more excited for Christmas every year. This year we got a taste of Christmas when we traveled to Manila. They were already playing Christmas music and had decorations up at the mall. It didn’t annoy me as it did my daughter. I liked the taste of one of my favorite times of the year. I’m ready for Christmas music, Christmas movies and traveling to Kentucky to see family..

I know that people enjoy Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is not as big a deal for me as it is for a lot of people. We don’t travel. No one travels to see us. I make people watch the parade while they complain that it is boring, the four of us eat together, I make them watch football, and then I go back to work the next day. It’s nice to have the day off to spend with my family, but it’s not Christmas.

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Merry Christmas Everyone

I likely won’t post on here again until my regular Year in Books post on January 1 and possibly a general Year in Review post as well. Anyway, my gift to you is that you get a break from me begging you to read my posts. You’re welcome.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season celebrating whatever and however you celebrate either alone or with family and/or friends. How’s that for a safe, I think I covered everyone holiday greeting?

See you next year!(Don’t you hate when people say that?)

heathrn

santa-me

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