Day 3 of 30 for #challenge30days

The whole Christmas season is something we really enjoy in our house. The first tree goes up right before Thanksgiving (yeah, I said first); pretty much as soon as you can start watching those cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies. You know, those ones where the protagonists are always having issues with Christmas because of a death of a loved one or a lost love. Yeah, I can be a bit of a sap sometimes and catch myself being interested now and then. It’s strange too when an especially good one comes along and I just happen to yawn which causes my eyes to water a bit, usually near the end when everything turns out happily ever after.

I just realized something. Gremlins (circa 1984) was really a cheesy Christmas movie. I think as a young kid with a very active imagination I might have cried during that as well, not that I actually cry now.

Kate: Now I have another reason to hate Christmas.
Billy Peltzer: What are you talking about?
Kate: The worst thing that ever happened to me was on Christmas. Oh, God. It was so horrible. It was Christmas Eve. I was 9 years old. Me and Mom were decorating the tree, waiting for Dad to come home from work. A couple hours went by. Dad wasn't home. So Mom called the office. No answer. Christmas Day came and went, and still nothing. So the police began a search...

See, it’s basically the same Cheesy Christmas script. OK, not really. Reading that now I decided I just can’t post the whole thing. Back to our Christmas season where there was no one stuck in a chimney.

This year our first tree raising happened right after Halloween and I did start to question our sanity. I came home from work and my Lazyboy was out of place. “Oh, no!” I thought. This usually means my wife, my lovely wonderful wife, wants to try something new. But then I saw the non-elegant faux tree with the colored lights up in our living room. All was still good with the world.

Right before Christmas, in years past we would take down the fake one (when I say we, I’m usually referring to my beautiful wonderful wife) and go get a real tree from the U-Cut place a few miles from where we live. This year wasn’t any different except we almost ran out of time to do it. We even debated on if we wanted a real tree because the kids are almost adults now and those traditions don’t mean as much as they once did. Well we asked, and we all agreed that we would do it at least one more year, so it was off to the Christmas Tree Farm.

I have an affinity for Christmas Tree Farms because as a teenager my first job was trimming those things through the hot summer months. One year in particular I was in danger of almost cutting off both my ears with these razor sharp, two foot butter knives we used for shaping, because of accidently finding a tree with a hornets nest in it. The guys I trimmed with got a kick out of watching both my ears swell up. They looked like someone wrapped hotdogs over them. Those bees were masters at flanking maneuvers and me wildly trying to slash them out of the air did nothing to stop em. To say I take an unhealthy joy in seeing those Christmas trees cut down is probably a bit of an overstatement; probably.

This year we ended up picking a pre-cut tree, so I didn’t get to be the lumberjack I usually am. The girls and I got hot chocolate after I tied the tree to the roof. For some reason I ended up having a splitting headache after and missed a day of work. It just occurred to me right now that it might have been caused by some kind of post traumatic stress from the hornet incident years earlier. I know, it’s a big stretch.

My wife got an Atari Flashback 8 gaming council from our oldest daughter and the wife and I have been playing a lot of old school Frogger, Asteroids and some Pitfall. Those games are still great, even though I remember Pitfall being more fun than it is now. Probably the best present ever!

For the last maybe 10 years we have gone to see a movie on Christmas Day. This year was The Last Jedi. I was not disappointed. Disney has done a much better job with the franchise than George did. I’m glad they have it now, even though Disney is still fighting with Vidangel. That might actually be another post in this series. All in all it was pretty good. It was a bit strange not having the kids be young enough to build up so much anticipation. I’ll miss those days (until Grandkids I guess).

So it’s time to call it Finito for this year’s Christmas.

Future #challenge30days Potential Post

The Phoenix Protocol - I might do some more brainstorming on this.
Tribute to my Uncle Raymond (98 years old and we just went to his funeral yesterday Jan 2nd)
The addictive dice game my wife and I play at the kitchen table now that our kids are growing up and doing their own things.
SFEOS - Developing a Crowd Founding Platform and Network of Gamers from the Ground Up.
EOS Development (Learning on the Test Network - both local and public test net)
Codemash 2018 (A yearly developer conference I attend in Sandusky Ohio) - Probably multiple posts on this. My family has been attending with me the last few years. They have fun doing the water park while I geek out with my peeps.
My life as a traveling gospel teacher.
My Personal Fight for Economic Freedom for Everyone through Crypto
My struggles to stick with things over the years on a consistent basis… This one is going to hurt a bit and not sure how much I’ll share.
Anything else I can think up...