Family Christmas...

This Saturday is my family's (by family I mean my brother and sisters) Christmas gathering which we fondly call "The Laughlin Family Christmas".

We have been doing this for quite a few years now. Each year we gather up all the kids from the four of us (there are currently 11 kids), our significant other's and any pets or friends and go to one of the family residences and eat, exchange gifts, visit and play games. Last year we had the gathering at my oldest daughter's, "One," new home. This year the holiday festivities are being held at my brother's house. My youngest sister rents the basement of my brother's place, so it technically could be her house too, but she doesn't really own it and since she is the youngest sibling, we usually don't count her anyway. (Kidding "Bugga"!)

We have a "Secret Santa" gift exchange for the old people (16 and over). The names are picked sometime around Memorial day or shortly there after. Since it is a biological trait of our family to have no short term memory, by December no one recalls who they are supposed to get a gift for, which makes one think that the secret part wouldn't work very well. However it works fine because the same lack of memory cells also means no one retains any recollection of an overheard secret name! We did finally learn to assign one person the task of keeping the official list, otherwise we would be completely lost. Anyway, we are all on a tight budget (seemingly every year), so we try to keep the cost of the gifts reasonable, at the $25 range.

The kids (those under 16) however, make out really good. They each get multiple gifts. They get a gift from each of their Aunt and Uncle pairs, except that my youngest sister currently doesn't have a guy yet so there are only three uncles... and Sweetie isn't officially an Aunt yet, but she's pretty close, so there are only three aunts. Sometimes there are a few extra gifts given out if a friend or other family member decides to be generous.

The last couple of years, we started a second "gag gift" exchange for the "old folks" called a "White Elephant"... I don't know where the name came from, but we usually have a fun time with that, probably more fun with that than the regular gift exchange.

The group shares the cooking or at least the food purchases. This year, as with most years since my ham incident (oh yeah, I haven't written about that yet), I don't cook. I am pretty good at getting snack type items like pop (soda for those in the rest of the country), chips, pretzels, etc. There is usually always plenty of food, and tons of people to eat it, and not too much goes to waste.

This year is the first Christmas without our Mom. She passed away earlier this year (no I didn't write about it). I never had a close relationship with my mom, because I was raised by my grandmother, but she was a good person, with a good heart, and I will miss her unique personality this year. I will also miss the noodles, and deviled eggs she made each year... My Dad passed away many years ago, my grandparents who raised me have also passed, so I am officially an orphan. That is if you can consider a man in his 4Th decade with 4 kids a orphan.

After the food and gift exchange, and when most people are still blind from the repeated flashes from the cameras, we decide to relax and visit or play games. Almost every year someone gets a game as a gift, so we usually hang out until late in the evening gaming, and picking on our youngest sister.

Anyone have any unique holiday traditions they care to share?

Later Lou

Back to work...

The weekend is over. My nephew came over Friday night, and stayed until late Saturday night. I took him to his Flag Football game, and his Indoor Soccer game. He had a great time at both, but unfortunately neither of his teams got a win. He had the most fun with his new PlayStation 2 game: "LEGO: Star Wars" that his Dad picked up for him earlier in the day before he came to my place. It is a two player game, and he convinced me, and "Two" to play the game with him most of weekend, that is when he wasn't doing Football or Soccer.

Saturday was full of driving. I got up early to take "Two" to work, then took my nephew to his games, with a stop back at home in between to change, and then picked up "Two" from work late afternoon. After "Two" got home, we had decided to go to see the 'Bee Movie'. After about two minutes of the movie, I wanted to put in ear plugs. Jerry Seinfield's whiny voice was in every scene. I liked the TV show "Seinfeld", but this movie wasn't "Seinfeld." To be honest, the movie is very cute, but it's very, very, very much designed to appeal to a very, very young audience. I had a hard time tolerating the movie. The youngest two of the group, "Four" and my nephew loved it. Everyone else thought it was lame, and stupid. This was definitely not a movie I will be adding to the DVD library. Sunday was not as full, it was kind of a "lazy day". I did have to get up and take "Two" to work early, and pick him up late afternoon, but other than that, the day was pretty quiet. "Three" and "Four" went back to "Ex's" place when I picked up "Two" from work. So most of the evening was just him and I. As I left to go pickup "Two" from work, and I was going to the car, my tennant was going into her apartment. I stopped her and said "Hi", and asked how she was doing. She said she was ok, but that she needed to talk with me. I hoped it was in regards to her paying her rent from October, and now November. I was right, but not in the way I had hoped. She told me that they were moving out, and they would be out by this Thursday. As a matter of fact, her daughter had already found another apartment and had left, and she would be gone already if she could be. She felt unsafe in the apartment because apparently someone left her door unlocked and someonelse came into the house and took some pills and some money, and they did it all within 5 minutes. Now, I have lived in my duplex for over 3½ years now, and I have never had a single problem. I am not dismissing her, or suggesting that she didn't lose the money and pills... I am only wondering two things: 1) How did they know they could get into the house and out within 5 minutes, that there was money and pills, and exactly where they were (house wasn't trashed) 2) Why didn't the thief take anything else worth more money? I told her that I was sorry to hear about her problems, and I expressed my displeasure at not being informed, as I could have done something to help her be more secure by installing a security system or something. The real kicker to the whole conversation wasn't that she was moving out, as that will probably be a good thing... The kicker was that she said she will have to pay her back rent in "payments". My mortgages and utilities don't accept payments... oh wait... they already ARE payments! :-) I am betting that since she plans on being out by this Thursday, Nov 8th, that she will feel she doesn't owe November's rent... (sigh) I am really beginning to not like being a landlord. So to solve the immediate needs I have to advertise the apartment again, and as soon as she moves out completly, I need to clean it and get it rented out again! Hopefully it doesn't need any major repairs, because I haven't the foggiest idea where I would get the cash for that! Tonight I am going over to "Sweetie's" for dinner, and we are going to discuss a "plan of attack" for the duplex. She is already talking about skipping work on Friday and going to clean out the apartment. Got to love the practical side in her, but if I am skipping work with her, I would rather not be "working". Later Lou

Ratchet and Clank: Deadlocked

Josh got a new game for Christmas this year, and we have been enjoying it together. The game is Ratchet and Clank: Deadlocked This is the 4th game in the series, and we have owned, and played all of them. This installment has less weapons, and the levels are not as difficult to complete, however there is a new part to this game that makes it worth it: Co-operative play. In the previous game they added a multi-player mode that allowed two or more players to go to special arenas and shoot each other, or work toward a common goal. They have included that feature in this game as well. The new feature of this game is that two players go through the actual story part of the game together as a team. In this mode, each player has their own "split screen". You share the same weapons and ammo, and both players can't use the same weapon at the same time. The game forces cooperation by requiring the players to stay within a certain distance of each other, and requiring both players to work together to get past obstacles.... For example the one player keeps the robots away long enough for the other person to open the door. This game allows Josh and I to play together. We have to work as a team, each using our individual strengths in the game. But don't tell him, but when he isn't around I play it in single player mode, and create mayhem, and destruction all by myself!