Santa Claus brought me a new camera. A Nikon Z5. Holy sweet christmas, Robbie is going mirrorless!
Tag: Christmas
Pajamas
For the last few years Jen has been buying matching christmas pajamas for the family. To say it’s adorable is the understatement of the decade. Each time she’s done it I have had to exclude myself because I was too fat to find pajamas that fit me. I’m not a pajama guy in general so I didn’t mind too much, but I did feel bad about myself and left out. This year, 200 pounds later, Jen included me. I’m sitting here typing this, having just finished my day’s 30 minutes of exercise, wearing those christmas pajamas.
The irony here is that Jen bought them a couple of months ago and they are way too big for me. It is truly a christmas miracle.
Merry christmas, everyone.
Christmas Eve
So our annual christmas eve party with Jen’s side of the family got a little mangled this year. So what. We still pulled it off. Sure, post-Covid christmases might look a little weird, but they still work.
Merry Christmas, Nana and Papa.
Christmas Eve Eve
It’s christmas Eve Eve. The last work day before a three day Santa Clausy weekend. The work days have been quiet this week and I am thankful. Remind me to mention it next Thanksgiving.
My father is home from the rehab hospital. Did I mention that yesterday? I can’t remember.
There’s supposed to be an ass kicker of a rain storm going on outside right now. When I got out of bed around 5:40 (an hour ago) I looked outside and it didn’t seem too bad. I might sneak over to CVS after they open and see if I can get a padded mailing envelop and a sharpie or two. I have something to ship to Minnesota and it is bugging me that I haven’t taken care of it yet. I also finished my test roll of film that combines my Nikon camera with Dad’s Pentax lens. I want to send that roll off for developing to make sure the combo works before I take it to Florida. I might take the lens that came with my camera from ebay too even though it’s in pretty rough shape. Maybe alternate days? Dad’s lens the first time we go to a specific park and mine the second? Who knows.
I just finished a (simulated) four mile run. If I had actually run four miles my legs would have fallen off and my head would have exploded. You know how it is.
Christmas Eve is a big day ’round these parts. We have a little family get together every non-Covid year. This year, in the spirit of hybrid work environments, we’re having a sort of hybrid christmas eve get together. That just means the guest list is smaller and there won’t be as much food consumed. The food thing doesn’t have anything to do with the guest list, it just means I don’t have a stomach anymore. I would also like to visit both of my parents, if I can. I would also like to take Dad’s camera to the ocean, maybe. I would also like to clean the kitchen and the bathrooms and the living room a little, but that won’t take a lot of time. We’ll see if I can get to any of that stuff.
Today, apart from the usual work day stuff, I want to bake cookies and make Tewksbury Tweets. We made the dough for the cookies yesterday, but it needs to sit in the ‘fridge before going in the oven. I wanted to make some Tweets, but there was a cat documentary on Netflix and you know how that is, right?
Okay, time to eat some breakfast and take a shower and do all of that boring morning stuff that doesn’t make for a good blog entry but I often write about anyway because I am a stinking rank amateur at this stuff.
How Long Until Christmas?
How many days left until SantaDay?
I still have one present left to get. I won’t have the car until after work tonight so it will have to wait until tomorrow. Why not go out after work? Because I am planning on doing some holiday themed baking. Can you believe it? Jen and I had talked about baking cookies and I think that has to happen tonight. I also want to make some Tewksbury Tweets. I can’t eat any of these things myself, but I want to have them around for anyone who comes over on christmas eve. I snuck out to Market Basket before work and got the last thing we need to make the tweets (no relation to twitter, of course). We should be good to go. I just have to get through the work day, and then cook dinner, and then eat dinner, and then it’s baking (or no-baking for the Tewksbury tweets) time.
Santa will be here in three days. You had best be extra good if you’re on the presents vs coal bubble, right? Good luck, you naughty people.
I Don’t Want to Work Tomorrow
The kids are here today. They go to their father’s house tomorrow morning and stay there until Christmas Eve. Then they stay over until Christmas morning before going back to their fathers until the day after New Year. Then on the 4th we hop on a plane and fly to Disney World for the better part of two weeks.
Christmas is one week away. That means we have five grueling work days to go before the first of the two holidays. Then we have a holiday, then four grueling work days until the second holiday which extends into a two week vacation. Damn, I hope it’s warm in Florida in January. We did February in 2020, now we try January.
I don’t want the kids to go, but if we’re going to monopolize their times on the trip to Florida then we should give dad equal time before we leave. It’s fair, even if it sucks donkey balls.
We finally completed the last christmas decoration of the year tonight. We bought this year’s ornaments and hung them on the tree. Can you guess what mine is? Of course you can. It’s a little camera. I’ll see about getting a picture of it later because what’s more artsy then a camera taking a picture of a fake camera?
We’re spending the day with Wes Anderson movies today. The French Dispatch is on right now. Is everyone in his movies a veteran of James Bond movies? I think so.
Snow and Spirit
We got a little snow yesterday. Not a lot, just enough to more or less cover the ground. There are still spots where some leaves and grass are sticking up, but the ground is more or less white. It’s not the first snow we’ve had this season, but it’s the first that was still there the next morning. I was thinking of going out to shoot some film photos this morning but the roads are icy and I don’t wanna. Stupid snow. I hate snow.
You would think that a little snow on December 11th/12th combined with wrapping a bunch of presents over the last two days would give me a smidgen of christmas spirit. Nope. Nothing. I am notoriously late in developing that particular seasonal spirit but I’ve been trying to make it happen this year. I’ve been plugging in all of the lights most nights and watching christmas specials with Jen and all of that, but it’s just not getting through this year. It will, eventually, but I was kinda hoping to not have to wait until christmas eve, the way I often do.
Last year Jen was having trouble getting into it and we spent an evening driving around looking at people’s lights and that helped a little. I am guessing we’ll need to do that again this year. If the weather cooperates maybe we could drive to Stoneham and check out the displays at the Stone Zoo. Maybe we could go into Boston and take a stroll through the park and down Comm Ave. I don’t know. Something. The kids are coming home from school this weekend but we haven’t worked out a schedule yet. We know they will spend most of their time at Dad’s to start with as they will be spending two weeks in Florida with us just after New Year, so we want to be fair to their other house. Maybe if we get some time with them before the holiday I can talk everyone into going for a lights drive. Maybe having them nearby will be enough to make me feel a little holiday spirited.
I’m sure I’ll let you know.
It’s possible that my current lack of spirit has something to do with a savage gift wrapping injury I sustained on Saturday.
Paper cut.
Wrapping paper cut.
Ouch, babie. Ouch.
Sum Up Your Morning with a Photo
To sum up my morning today…
Christmas has exploded all over my cellar. I’m about 20% of the way through all of the wrapping.
New Xmas Tradition
Today I have birthed a new official christmas tradition…
Ready?
While wrapping gifts, watch Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Yes, MST3K is traditionally more of a Thanksgiving thing, what with the old Turkey Day Marathons, but I feel it is a wonderful addition to your Xmas gift wrapping experience.
You’re welcome.
Prep for Xmas
Before:
After:
When we were finished we did this…