Christmas Day

Good morning and a very happy Christmas day to anyone online and reading. Hopefully you're not quite online yet and are spending time either sleepin' in or hanging with your homies.

The festivities here are mellow and quiet. Last night we did our pageant (Jessica stole the show as the innkeeper, and Geoff was well behaved and wonderful as a shepherd) and dinner with the family. The kids got to bed after 9, and around 10pm when I was certain they were asleep I started my Santaing.

Evidence that i torture my children every christmas.
mwa ha ha ha.

I finished wrapping the gifts and loading up the tree by 11:30 and crashed out. Geoff got up at 7:15 and sat quietly on the couch. Doug was awake enough and woke me up to listen.

Geoff was quiet, and in total awe. He sat in front of the tree and looked at the boxes. I heard him say something to his grandfather, sleeping on the fold out couch in the livingroom. Gary said "you should go wake your mom," which was our pre-bedtime agreed upon signal that Gary knew Geoff was ready to start ripping into boxes.

We all got up, made coffee and the kids had at it. They got lots of great stuff (Geoff now has a bevy of dinosaurs, about 12-16 inches long, so that he can take over the world). Rather than get into the details of what they got swagwise, I will just say everyone is happy and thank you notes are enroute. Here are a few pictures from the morning...

Jessie received several Simpsons related items, from this rubick's head of homer, to a full chess set, to a Simpson's watch. She wanted the Mmmmmm Burgers one where Homer is grilling, but they were out. So she ended up with Krusty, and will have to live.	Geoff digs in, enjoying the stocking loot. He didn't realize it was there for a long time. They were almost done opening presents when Grandma Bonnie suggested they go look at the stockings. They both got several pairs of socks and new Oral B electric toothbrushes. Santa's big on the practical things in life...
This should be scary.	Jessie enjoys her stocking swag.
This is a riot. Geoff got a Simpsons watch that says "Are we there yet? No. Are we there yet? No." and a bevy of dinosaurs. Here is a closeup view of the watch and one dino at work.

My sister got me the "Barelaked Nadies" DVD by Barenaked Ladies. Now I have to get my PC's DVD/CD player fixed so I can watch it. D'oh!

Speaking of D'oh, for Christmas this year Doug and I had decided not to get each other presents.

So, seeing as I can't let him get away with getting NOTHING, I made him a geocache for Christmas. It's titled "Mmmmm, Geocache. Aaaaaggahhhaggh" and it's filled with Simpson related swag. Check him out !!!!

After the kids opened their presents, Doug, Gary, the dogs and I all went out to find the cache. Initially I goofed and put the coordinates for the parking area in the mocked-up cache page that I made, so I had to lead him to it rather than drag our sorry asses home to get my note (hidden somewhere in this room) with the actual coords, program them into the GPS and find it. Placing the cache was hard. I bought the stuff before I got vertigo, and then when I got the dizzies I realized I had to get it out there or else there'd be no gift for Doug... so I went out, dizzy as shit, and placed it. That's how I managed to mess up the coordinates for the mock-up. Good thing I remembered where it was.

Doug found it very easily and took out the talking beer coasters (2, from Moe's Tavern, where nobody knows your name) and the talking beer opener (which needs new batteries. I had to buy it because it was the last one anywhere that I could find... we'll get batteries later). Everything else is still in there, waiting for the residents of Geocachingland to come and pilfer and find, and fill, and grow. I love that this is out there, and people will go to it and we'll get emails saying "cool cache! Thanks for the find" and stuff.

Click here to read all about our cache, if you are interested.

If you're a cacher -- go do it! It is so easy that even Wil Wheaton can find it. He calls himself the "Worlds Worst Geocacher," but I bet he could walk right the hell up to this one. I think it would be awesome if Uncle Willie visited our cache. Maybe someday he'll come to Massachusetts and do it. I think that would rule supreme if it ever happened. I should email him the cache page and tell him about it.

Like he'd give a shit, right?

Anywho -- It's such an easy cache, that I hardly feel it is worth it to anyone to go there. Unless they bring their sleds. Which they will need today. We're supposed to get a class seven kill storm today. It was snowing lightly when we went out to the cache but this afternoon is supposed to turn into a winter wildland. Eeep. If you're anywhere between here and Ohio -- drive carefully!

Alright -- I've got scallops and bacon to be makin' (showin' off the catering girl skills) and dinner to get started. So I'll sign off for now. Merry Christmas. Be sure to go read Crazy Tracy's report for today. I think she sums Christmas up really well... and what it's all about in the long run.

Merry.