Omg! This Christmas blew all the others out of the water. Not saying that the others were weak, they weren’t, but just being in our own house, and decorating, and family time … add it all up and it’s perfection. We have our own little tradition, just as every family, that we do the family thing on Christmas Eve and then when we return home … BAM! … present time. Yeah, we don’t wait until Christmas morning because, well I don’t know why, but I don’t need a reason for not wanting to wait. Everything went exceptionally well this year, meaning the hardest part was trying so hard NOT to give Summer her gifts early. I tried something different this year, very unmanly, I did all my shopping early. Yep, most of it was done before Thanksgiving. Wrapped and all. And if you know anything about it then I’m not a wait-er. I bought the gifts, we stared at them for awhile, now open them! Not in 2009, which was good. It was more exciting.

I love going to Summer’s grandpa’s house when everyone meets up. There’s so much going on … kids running around, talking, trampoline, and let’s not start with the food. It was awesome as always! During our visit I found out that I like sugar/sweet almonds? Actually I don’t know what was on them, but I nearly ate all of them. I think Sonya’s reindeer poop was a success. It was some sort of Chex-Mix coated in something with sprinkles, I don’t know … it was pretty sweet though. Who could forget the all-stinky vegetable tray, and ongoing joke throughout the night for some of us. Jenny discovered that there is some makeup kits out there that have a rather reverse effect and just make you look strange.

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Back to work after the holidays. It was a great 5 days all to ourselves, but as the way of life works I shall slave away in a warehouse yet again. It’s not so bad because, well, I had a lot of catching up to do so it was practically time to go before I even clocked-in. Although, I didn’t get my daily dose of caffeine simply because we were out of coffee & I didn’t discover this until it was time for bed. Damn my timing! But anyways, all was well today … I am still relatively sane after checking in 3 days worth of orders. Luckily for me, people tend to not visit dealerships around the holidays.

Of course there was the manly conversation of “what did your wife get you for Christmas?” very abruptly followed by “ugh, back to work.” Not to mention the lower IQ holders still linger around the boiler room. Someone from the back set-up area through full paint buckets into the trash compactor, and now the tires of many cars are colored silver. I didn’t feel sorry for the poor guy I saw pressure washing the mess later that day, being he is most likely the culprit.

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Man, we were excited to see this! It was the first movie Summer wanted to watch on her laptop, so I obliged because then we could watch it in the super quiet & dark house. I anxiously obtained a Blu-Ray version of Paranormal Activity and it took some time to get it copied to her laptop, which made the wait that much better. Most everyone was saying, “Scariest movie of all time!” & “Wow! I’ll never be able to sleep again!” Not to mention that it was created on a $15k budget, and grossed $9.1m it’s first week. All of this sounds great … on paper. We start watching it, and the first hour is like any other boring YouTube video, it drags on slightly. The so-called “scary” parts are really repetitive and no action really happens. When the plot is suppose to pickup and peek, I had to be awaken a couple of times. I won’t spoil it for you, I’m just saying don’t get your hopes up because now I look back and see how misleading the commercials are (but by definition that’s what they are.) It just feels like they gave it a whole Obama vote for me and the world will be perfect type of image and, of course, show all the good parts in the preview.

After a young, middle class couple moves into a suburban ‘starter’ tract house, they become increasingly disturbed by a presence that may or may not be somehow demonic but is certainly most active in the middle of the night. Especially when they sleep. Or try to.

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Howard:

When I was in 7th or 8th grade I remember the all new, all sweet Gameboy colored just came out, and Pokémon was just hitting it’s prime. Omg, did I have to have it! I told my parents to not get me anything except for this handheld box of love. I distinctly remember my step-dad asking me how much they were (around $108) and he told me he’d make it happen. Long story short, I never got one to this day, and still don’t understand why. They spent more than $100 of stuff I didn’t want or even use, but the 1 thing I did want … ehh, that’s not important and won’t keep me out of trouble.

Summer:

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Today, my day off, I am attempting to learn a new skill … how to edit and make “home videos.” Partly because I’d like to upload them for the family to see, and also because I tend to get too much footage. Yes, 10 minutes of watching a bug land on a flower long. As with any movie I want to chop it down and make it entertaining for the audience. Now I’m no Steven Spielberg, and these aren’t the next big blockbuster … I think you know where I am going. I don’t even think these videos will make it to YouTube. I obtained a copy of Sony Vegas Movie 9 & Cyberlink PowerDirector 8, and I think I will stick with the latter for simplistic reasons. The Sony program is definately not for me. Aside from the fact that I have no idea what I’m doing, it just seems to be a Ferrari when I just need to check the mail. Overkill. So I’m going to do some learning, and watch some tutorials to try and get the hang of it.

I didn’t forget … Christmas was extremely awesome this year. Just as I told Summer, I am going to go on record and say best one yet. Not only did I get everything that was on my list, but it seems like I was able to fulfill everyone else’s wishlists as well. I’ll start working on an official Christmas ’09 post later, but right now I need some more of that delicious holiday ham!

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