Phoenix Gold Phorum

Its close enough to Christmas that we're starting to plan where we'll be, who we'll see and all the other riff raff that goes along with the holiday...Christmas is awesome don't get me wrong...but I got ot thinking about all the stuff I "look forward" to every year:

1.) Relatives you never remember, but that always remember you. I "love" the awkward "Hey .... man how ya been" because you don't remember their name...but the preceed to tell you how they can't believe youre married and such because jus yesterday you were runnin around in huggies... "good" times.

2.) The nasty baked goods I recieve from great grandma every year...god bless her she's a sweetie but her gift basket that consists of you guessed it ,, fruit cake...just the thought makes me gag...plus and assortment of sugarless cookies...because hey...we all know sugars the
devil.

3.)The tense moment in which youre interrogated publically as to why you relatives don't see you and your kids more often....I mean this is great because I love being shamed for having a life and family of my own.

4.) The relative who "overshares". The diarrieah mouthed cousin or whatever who takes the simple quesion "whats new" into a 3 hour discussion that ranges from his pc gaming habbits, to the fungus that sent him to the doctors last month...Im always left speechelss...

5.) The gifts you recieve that you never ever wanted..The ugly socks, the ugly sweaters, the gift card to the place you never ever set foot in...having to fake enthusiasum year after year has me wondering...Does my family EVEN KNOW ME AT ALL!?!?!

ANYBODY ELSE FEEL MY PAIN!!???

Ah, it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy dunnit.

I actually like going up north at christmas.

There are lots of people around, but I can escape any time I want; my daughter's generally happy, my parents-in-law are cool and there's generally very little "you must do x". I think it's great and I'm looking forward to my week of loong sleep and computer games

There *will* be a payoff, though; I'll end up polishing three cars (but then, I don't really have an issue with that, either) and I'll end up reconfiguring three laptops, wireless, the christmas presents the kids get and and and. I like this style of christmas.

Bret

Bretti, you detail cars? thats what I do for a livng!! I would actually like it if my fam wanted me to do their cars...but its too cold to do it outside at the moment, and no on seems have a garage in my fam.

and don't get me wrong, I love christmas and my fam. However, of the men in my family, my father in law has a had a stroke, and tripple by pass in the last 5 years so he's not up for a lot of physical activity...I have two borther in laws...one who has seven kids of his own, and one who's bound and determined to do absolutely nothing the eniter time he's here...so that leaves me to do well...alot. But like I said its still a great time of year, a good time to celebrate.

Hey 5.9, Ive got a good use for your fruit cake. See if you can make it do a Christmas dance off your sub enclosure

I've just ordered myself a rotary and some menzerna, collinite, pads and the like. I look after several cars (this means that they have at least some semblance of protection) in the household and Christmas means I have access to a heated hall where they can be washed, dried and treated over a couple of days. Looking forward to it

Bret

I'm right there with ya on the awkwardness. My wifes family(moms side) is just too much my opposite. They want to circle up to share poems and stories after diner ...... I guess you could say that they're "brainy-christians".... I'd rather crack a fresh bottle of JACK, take a couple and play some poker while taking the lords name invien or maybe some video games with my kids. Playing Wii smashed is fun BTW!!!!
My side of the fam is 7 hours away so we don't make it there.......

haha...well I am with ya with the weird family members...but uh...well...while don't recite poetry or consider my self "brainy" and am not condescending or pompous about it, im a christian too.. . no worries though I don't offend easily...its all good.


Im a big time boston celtics fan, always have been, and they're playing on christmas day so I'm looking forward to that for sure...and fortunately we hita couple houses to see both sides of the fam in the a.m and afternoon, and end the day at home with my wifes side of the fam so i get to relax and do what i choose for the remainder of the eveving...and then clean up after everybody...

bretti sounds like you'll have a nice day in the garage!! Im jealous...this is the time of year I go absolutely insane becasue the exterior of my ride in never as clean as I'd like ti to be...so a nice heated garage to work in would be sweet what kind of buffer you rockin?

Ugh, I hate my family. On both sides of the spectrum, my family and the GF's family.

da buffer is something called a "kestrel rotary". I didn't really want a G220 Dual Action wotsit - makes me think it's a little like Jack Rabbit if you know what I mean ("vibrates and twirls, girls!") - so a rotary it is. Simple, apparently relatively good, and this one has electric speed wotsit to keep it steady when the pressure's on.
I had a very bad experience at the weekend; generally, once per year, just before christmas, I wax the big dining table. This year, I figured I'd use the polisher (it's nice to have a shiny table when family comes over) - only I managed to get it so hot it smoked for around 10 minutes on the balcony. Oops.

Anyways, the hall (I was in there last year) is cool. It means I can wash, dry and polish in peace Just need another couple of MFs, a backing pad and another MF mitt. If I can find one, it'll be pink, too - my daughter loves "helping" (she gets wheels and numberplates!).

the brits who detail are over at http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum, BTW.

Francious - you escaping, then? or do you "have" to go?

Bret

bretti_kivi wrote:
Francious - you escaping, then? or do you "have" to go?

Bret

If I want any of the sex this month I HAVE to go to her family's festivities.

Don't get me wrong...... I'm kool with whatever religion a person happens to be..... And as long as they don't try to use it against me we're kool. But in this case, it's just too much for me to deal with for long periods of time as they tend to get crazy.

What makes christmas fun for me is watching my children get excited about writing santa, decorating the house and tree and watching my daughter read christmas stories to her little brother while they drink hot coco by the tree........ That's really what I look forward to.

The only thing i´m looking forward to is to get out of the states and spend as much time as possible with my girlfriend, my family and my friends before i have to get back to CT for another 3 month!

no worries fuzzy its all good. Im more than happy to talk abut what I believe if someone wants to know. I won't shove down anyone's throat as this is not helpful to the cause.

Christmas is awesome with kids. My oldest is a little over 2 so this is first year he'll get that the gifts are for him, and that he should unwrap them! And its great to have Christmas with my parents now that they're grandparents too...they spoil my kids royally so it takes ome of the pressure off me!! And my little bro just had his first kid late last night so we'll have a new family member this christmas which is good bcause its our first without 2 grandparents that passed this year...one on each side.

Im pretty blessed, my wife's very accomidating to my "needs" things just get better this time of year...heck ..its one of things I like...you dont' ahve to shop for it, and its free...

one word:

snowmobiling

The reason we moved from the 408 up to PDX was to avoid family on holidays, and, well, every other day as well.

My wife does a Christmas chain for the kids. Each day there are different activities and they love opening the next "link" in the chain each morning. One really, really, cool thing about PDX land is all the fun activities, real home grown (huh huh huh didn't mean that hahahaha) fun stuff out on the farms and such. They used to have a killer Santa Land in the old downtown dept. store with a friggin MONORAIL for the kids.

Nutz (and any other PDXians with kids)- you should take the kids out to Wenzel Farms Fantasy trail. Google it. Or PIR lights, where they set up the race track with Christmas lights. It's great in the snow.

Yup- for me it's the kids. And drinking gallons of Snow Cap.