Beware, bad, bad, bad Beck is thinking holiday thoughts

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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  1. Why must we do these things?
  2. Have you ever known of or been a kid who got absolutely nothing for Christmas?
  3. Is there always one person in the family that everyone wants to gift? (I’m sure you’re not surprised, but it’s the Lil’Wrekker in my house)
  4. How old were you when you quit getting multiple gifts from your parents?
  5. Do all pet parents buy nice gifts for the pets? ( Clarence is proving to be a conundrum to buy for)
  6. I had a theory that you could never go wrong buying books for people. I found out the hard way it wasn’t a perfect gift, at all
  7. I used to get the kids Christmas outfits to wear. My girls don’t do that. It’s matching pajamas, now, I’ve heard
  8. Does the electric bill really go up as you turn on the Christmas lights, all month long?
  9. Is your kids stockings more candy, less toys?
  10. Do most people try and match the wrapping paper under their tree. I’m kinda anal about that.
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  1. Why must we do these things? Tradition and nostalgia, if nothing else.
  2. Have you ever known of or been a kid who got absolutely nothing for Christmas? Not that I’m aware of
  3. Is there always one person in the family that everyone wants to gift? (I’m sure you’re not surprised, but it’s the Lil’Wrekker in my house) It seems to vary in our family, especially now that there aren’t any little kids.
  4. How old were you when you quit getting multiple gifts from your parents? Has not yet happened, though my parents and I are talking about really scaling back on the gifts this year.
  5. Do all pet parents buy nice gifts for the pets? ( Clarence is proving to be a conundrum to buy for) Cannot speak for all, but we always get the pets something.
  6. I had a theory that you could never go wrong buying books for people. I found out the hard way it wasn’t a perfect gift, at all Send the books to me, they will get a good home.
  7. I used to get the kids Christmas outfits to wear. My girls don’t do that. It’s matching pajamas, now, I’ve heard I’m out of the loop on kids’ clothes, but that sounds likely to me.
  8. Does the electric bill really go up as you turn on the Christmas lights, all month long? It probably does, though the trees now have LED lights, which use less electricity than the old lights did. December is also when we use the space heater more (our family room is cold), and so, it’s hard to tell just how big the impact is on the electric bill.
  9. Is your kids stockings more candy, less toys? We don’t have kids, so no comment
  10. Do most people try and match the wrapping paper under their tree. I’m kinda anal about that. Nope, though we tend to use a small number of different paper rolls each year, so there is some matching that comes from only having three different types of wrapping paper in any given year.
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I knew a kid who ALMOST got nothing for Christmas. She and her mom had just fled an horrifically abusive boyfriend/dad and ended up several states away, in the town where I lived back then. They literally had only the clothes on their backs. No money whatsoever. Various agencies got them a tiny apartment (almost no furniture), food, and clothing. Two days before Christmas, they got a few gifts…rather not say how. You never saw such joy.

Yes, it is! You give people who don’t like books the opportunity to find out how wrong they’ve been. :slight_smile:

Yes. When I was married, we had so many outdoor lights, I thought pilots might get confused and think they were flying over Vegas. Our utility bill always jumped that month.

Yep. Candy is cheaper!

I read that they love persimmons. Also, apparently they like exercise wheels like hamsters have, but I assume a much larger size, and where the heck do you buy those?

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They make cat-sized wheels, and dog-sized wheels.

I also found this plan, for a DIY possum wheel. I am not making this up. Maybe a handy person in the Beck household could build one?

https://opossumsocietyus.org/plans-opossum-exercise-wheel/

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Ok. I’m joining the opposumsocietyus.org, immediately if not sooner.

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Being on The Dope has taught me many things and taken me many places. I never thought I’d be looking at plans for building a possum wheel. Very cool!

Oo! You should join the possum lodge! Quando omni flunkus moritati!
(If you haven’t ever watched the Red Green Show, you really should. You’d love it, Beck!)

ETA: The Possum Lodge also recites The Man’s Prayer:

I’m a man.
But I can change.
If I have to.
I guess.

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I’m afraid if I play dead the family might start planning my funeral.:exploding_head:

But I do like the concept :face_with_hand_over_mouth:!

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Our Christmas stockings were a couple small toys, some candy, then oranges, bananas and nuts in the shell.

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When my kids were small, I just wanted to place the Santa presents under the tree, unwrapped. Mr VOW called me Scrooge, and made a Family Law that Santa presents were wrapped.

Mrs OCD here would go through every pack of gift wrap, to pull out all sheets with Santa on them. I even bought a few rolls of Santa paper, for the biggies.

I worked almost as hard hiding the Santa paper as I did hiding the presents!

Years and years later, I asked the kids if they even noticed that Santa presents were wrapped in special paper.

Nobody noticed. Nobody cared.

~VOW

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I always put tags on bikes, big stuffed animals or wagons or dollhouses and the like. "To: so in so, Love: Santa!
With the two older kids being so close in age there were a few confused incidents when the gift was ambiguous enough that either kid thought it was for them.
I only wrapped clothing and shoes. Except one time Son-of-a-wrek wanted the very expensive Air Jordon basketball shoes. Santa put big tag on those shoes.
Remind me to tell the tale of what happened to the AJ high top, overpriced, got filthy looking in less than a week, shoes.

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  • Why must we do these things? – Tradition.

  • Have you ever known of or been a kid who got absolutely nothing for Christmas? – No, but I did become Santa for a kid who otherwise would have had nothing. It went on for about 12 years.

  • Is there always one person in the family that everyone wants to gift? (I’m sure you’re not surprised, but it’s the Lil’Wrekker in my house) – Probably. I know I made darn sure that everyone wanted what I gave them for a while. Then I gave up.

  • How old were you when you quit getting multiple gifts from your parents? – Probably about 19.

  • Do all pet parents buy nice gifts for the pets? ( Clarence is proving to be a conundrum to buy for). – I buy small stuff for da cats and a can of tuna. I don’t know about others.

  • I had a theory that you could never go wrong buying books for people. I found out the hard way it wasn’t a perfect gift, at all. – It is for me. Buy me books! (But yeah, I don’t get people who don’t read.)

  • I used to get the kids Christmas outfits to wear. My girls don’t do that. It’s matching pajamas, now, I’ve heard. – My family has never done this.

  • Does the electric bill really go up as you turn on the Christmas lights, all month long? – Mine did until I switched to LED lights.

  • Is your kids stockings more candy, less toys? – Doesn’t apply, no kids

  • Do most people try and match the wrapping paper under their tree. I’m kinda anal about that. – When I was living on my own, gifts were mostly wrapped all in the same theme by me until I had too much paper and needed to use it up. I went a little overboard the years that I worked at a hobby shop over the holidays and I used my employee discount to score clearanced wrapping paper and ribbon. I still have ribbon to use up and the store went out of business 20-some years ago.

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#8. Hell yes, unless you live in the Majikal Land of Free Lectricity.

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We have a few Christmas traditions, as well.

  • All presents are wrapped, even the stocking stuffers - this started as a way of slowing down our daughter’s Christmas morning present pillaging when she was young.

  • Books are very popular gifts - my wife, daughter, and I all are all hard-core readers.

  • There’s always one “misdelivered” present, with a tag such as “To Rudy and Annalore, from Ompa and Omma” (nobody of those names in the house, nor are we German). This will occasion comments like “Too bad for them, it’s ours now!” before the real recipient is invited to open it and see if we want to keep it.

  • Everybody has a special Christmas card on the tree.

  • Our cats not only get Christmas gifts, but always kindly reciprocate, with at least one gift for The Staff under the tree. They give us Christmas cards, too.

  • Our Christmas lights go on December 1 (or a few days earlier these last two COVID years), and stay on at night until Twelfth Night. They’ve gotten a bit more elaboarte over the years, with a switch to all-LED last year (also the year I decided that at almost 70, I wasn’t going to be climbing ladders to put lights under the eaves any longer).

  • We also have traditional foods - tortiere on Christmas Eve, and warm croissants with butter and jam Christmas morning.

  • We have a very eclectic collection of tree ornaments, including some original generic ones from my carefree bachelor days, old ones inherited through several family generations, unique hand-crafted items from friends and craft fairs, themed ones such as a dozen Breaking Cat News comic strip ornaments, and miscellaneous odd ones picked up here and there. We finally gave away a bunch of the ordinary ones, because we had far too many to actually fit on the tree (and we fit on every one we can!)

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They leave dead mice and birds under the tree? :grin:

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For the woefully uninformed, the Tree goes up on Dec 3.

The Son decided to break from Tradition and put his Tree up right after T-Day. I do understand he had a big, honkin’ Tree from a Tree farm, and it was his last day of vacation, but you simply cannot disrespect Tradition.

As demonstrated by his family cat, who pulled all 9-1/2 feet of Tree over, in the middle of the night.

The Daughter is late with her decorations, and I bear partial responsibility. Instead of doing the Heavy Housework Cleaning of downstairs while she worked, I claimed Birthday Privilege and sat on my butt, wearing my imaginary, but totally awesome Birthday Tiara.

But Tradition says, the Tree goes up on Dec 3, and it comes down on Jan 1, while everyone ignores the Rose Parade on TV.

~VOW

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Oh @VOW, I wanna live with you,.
Please let me.

I’ll help. I’m a good house cleaner. It’s my hobby.

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Come live with me, and your kitties too! I’ll truly, truly appreciate you.

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I’m so ‘there’

:hugs:

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Why is Clarence a problem? Here … available as mini-packs, just in time for possum Christmas!

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There are also multi-grain Cheerios and chocolate Cheerios.

If it were up to me, I wouldn’t give poor Clarence Lucky Charms. Those bits of colored “marshmallow” are deadly for to any living creature. :face_vomiting:

~VOW