OT - Twas the Day Before Christmas: Were you Naughty or Nice?

Submitted by profitgoblue on

For all you other chumps that are stuck at work like me, and you lucky bastards that don't have to work today, here's a fun little holiday thread to spread some Christmas cheer.  And Kwanza cheer.  And catch up on the Hanukkah cheer results.  And wish everyone a happy holiday season.  Here's some topics:

 

- Have you been naughty or nice? 
- What is on your Christmas list (or what did you get for Hanukkah)? 
- What did you get for special one(s) in your life? 
- What was the worst gift you ever received/gave?
 

Me, I already got my new LED television a few weeks ago so I'm thinking I'll get getting a pair of socks and maybe a shirt from M-Den under the tree.  That said, there won't be much space for my stuff anyway due to the vast number of gifts that we got our two kids.  The oldest is getting a spectacular set of legos that I will likely have to help assemble (I love it!) and the youngest is getting a bunch of chewable toys.  She is very likely to get her two front teeth this week and she's been gnawing on anything she can hold in her little hands.  The wife is getting her 1,000,000th pair of shoes and some other odds and ends.  Her best gift is the Kermit the Frog PJ pants that my son picked out for her.  I plan on guilting her into wearing them often.

 

Happy Holidays!

ChopBlock

December 24th, 2012 at 10:37 AM ^

You know you're a 90s kid when...

Call me unorthodox (get it, Jewish? Ha ha), but I actually prefer Double Dash on the gamecube, if for no other reason than that there's another layer of complexity (the pervasity of powersliding/blue boosting), so it's more of a challenge. I'm really terrible at picking up and using items, so a system that puts more emphasis on awesome driving is the thing I excell at.

I honestly can't think of a bad Christmas gift I've gotten. My family, being exceptionally frugal, never really did a lot of gifts, so anything was nice. Best Christmas gift? Probably a then-expensive system to control my model trains (Any MGoModelRailroaders on the board?). The best gift I'm giving this year is definitely an ultrabook. Weaseled my way out of paying for it, but I'm doing the customization and setupd and the whole nine yards. I think it'll go over quite well.

willywill9

December 24th, 2012 at 10:32 AM ^

Well, I went into my dad's drawers and found the greatest shirt ever... it's mine now.

Slippery Rock State Football... i think it's a 30 year old shirt.  Glorious

LSAClassOf2000

December 24th, 2012 at 10:36 AM ^

My wife and  I tend to keep the gifts for us to a short, simple list, which means that the approximately 2,000 gifts that each of the kids seem to have will have maximal space under  the tree. That being said, I got my wife some jewelry with the birthstones of each of the kids in it, and I might even get a couple items off the list I gave her, which admittedly rivaled the kids' lists for length. I'll take the Michigan gear and the DVD organizer - those are "must haves", in my mind. 

I am not sure if this is the absolute worst gift, but certainly the strangest and most out-of-context gift I ever got was a VHS tape of some kids show called "The Butter Cream Gang". I suppose if I was in early elementary school, it would be cool enough, but the three major problems with it were that I was 27  at the time, I no longer had a VHS player at that point, and I had never heard of this show in the first place. My aunt Jean is very well-meaning, but in her mind, I am forever 6 years old, I believe. 

 

profitgoblue

December 24th, 2012 at 10:36 AM ^

(Of course this thread would be negged.  Merry Christmas to you too.  I hope you get a stocking full of coal.  Oh, and by the way, moderators can see who voted up and down on threads so, you know, just saying.)

Bombadil

December 24th, 2012 at 11:00 AM ^

I'm at work. We got a company email last week that if we weren't billable we had to take mandatory vacation today. Since I've got plenty to do and little vacation, I'm the only one here.

Chrismas list - FREITAG bag.

Special gift - Rocking chair for pregnant wife.

Worst gift I received- Rogaine

 

 

bluebyyou

December 24th, 2012 at 10:50 AM ^

Being serious here, life has been very good to us in terms of materiial things.  The biggest joy this holiday season, as it has been for many years, is spending time with our sons, both Michigan men in every sense of the word, and our new grandson, whose first piece of clothing on this earh was blue with a large maize block M.

Happy holidays to my fellow Mgobloggers.

Hugh Jass

December 24th, 2012 at 11:04 AM ^

great Christmas - got her lots of great stuff as she is amazing and deserves everything I can find for her.  As for me - I probably do not deserve much but my wife will buy me something nice as she always does.  Best gift this Christmas is........a co-worker who is a die hard Notre Lame fan went to the MDEN website and bought us some coffee mugs.  The best part is that for the next 20 years he will be receiving the MDEN catalog in in the mail which will drive him crazy - AWESOME

Merry Christmas everyone!  GO BLUE

RedGreene

December 24th, 2012 at 11:08 AM ^

 

- What is on your Christmas list (or what did you get for Hanukkah)?  A mini iPad
 
- What did you get for special one(s) in your life?  My son asked for really good seats at the Verizon Center for the Wizards/Nets game on Feb 8th 
 
- What was the worst gift you ever received/gave?  I gave an old girlfriend Arbys coupons

MWW6T7

December 24th, 2012 at 11:09 AM ^

I think the worst gift  Iever got was a slinky...............when I was 28!  I went to my wifes family's house and apparently they felt the need to give me a gift and didn't ahave one there so they ran to the local drug store and picked up a slinky!   The thought was sincere but it was just funny becasue how do you react to opening a slinky when you are 28 yrs old.  And no, it wasn't a prank gift either!

 

wigeon

December 24th, 2012 at 11:15 AM ^

the wife is getting all sorts of running gear from me, and pj's and robes from the kids.  Hopefully our kids are like the N64 kids above, as they're both getting laptops (no more FB jacking!).

Merry Christmas all.  

Can't wait to see us poke the SEC balloon.  

Zoltanrules

December 24th, 2012 at 11:21 AM ^

Not Jewish just too lazy to cook and we will reenact Christmas Story (with duck) ,lol . All day will just enjoy spending time with my family with no interruptions. Got a retro game of Risk. Perhaps a late night game of global domination will cap off a great family day :) 

Happy holidays to all MGobloggers!!

Eat Your Wheatlies

December 24th, 2012 at 11:26 AM ^

When I was 11 or 12 my grandma gave me the book "How to Whistle Like a Pro," that came with a plastic record that had tunes to practice on it...

Looking forward to giving my mom her Kindle Fire HD this year...happy holidays, crew!

1989 UM GRAD

December 24th, 2012 at 11:44 AM ^

...on Christmas day. It's a great day to travel...for us Hanukkah-celebrating folks. Very quiet at the airports. My wife, otherwise known as 1991 UM Grad, and I focus our gift giving on 2023 UM Grad and 2026 UM Grad. My parents gave each of them a $100 bill, so that was probably this year's highlight for them.

Oddly, while I can't remember a specific gift, my parents - both Jewish - always left presents for me on Christmas morning. We did light a menorah but I never received daily gifts on Chanukah.

mGrowOld

December 24th, 2012 at 11:46 AM ^

Best:  Two way tie between a reel to reel tape recorder I got when I was about 10 or so and a dart hunting rifle set.  For some reason the sound of my farts was absolutely hilarious to me then (kinda is now too i guess) so would spend many a happy day recording my farts so I could play them for my horrified mother when she least expected it.  That tied with a Bengal Tiger hunting set I got that had a wind up Bengal Tiger and a dart pistol and rifle I'd shoot it with.  Yes - toys were different back in the 60's.....

Worst: Easy - a complete set of Encylopedias circa 1970 when I was 11.from my Aunt Dorothy.  I remember being so unhappy when I got those damn things cause the box was huge, heavy and I was SURE it was something beyond cool.  Talk about mismatched expectations.  Come to think of it my Aunt Dorothy also gave me my worst birthday present as when I was about 13 I got a book suitable for 8 year olds.  Nice aunt but consistently off on kids presents.

B-Nut-GoBlue

December 24th, 2012 at 4:44 PM ^

In regards to toys being different in your day, they were also probably better.  I wouldn't know, I'm in my twenties but I'm a realist and the toys then sure as hell beat the majority of toys of these days i.e. VIDEO GAMES i.e. NOT TOYS.  G.I Joes, Ninja Turtles, Legos, that sort of toy that still exists aside, I'd have to say that the toys back "in the day" were better as kids actually had to get off their asses to utilize them.  My two cents.

M-Wolverine

December 24th, 2012 at 11:48 AM ^

With the team leaving early, yesterday morning, everything is kind of spread out and done early. Wife wants to clean this week, which ugh. Best gift so far is probably Apple TV. Michigan wise got some socks, and a fleece. Oh, and this kinda neat reprints of New York Times Michigan articles. Actually got practical things wife asked for rather than fun things so hopefully she'll be happy.

mGrowOld

December 24th, 2012 at 11:54 AM ^

If you actually did just get your wife practical things she asked for you would do yourself a HUGE favor by running out now and picking up something impractical and romantic that she didnt ask for and putting it under the tree.  

Take it from somebody who made that mistake once - what women say and what they really want are miles apart.

 

M-Wolverine

December 24th, 2012 at 12:19 PM ^

She'd be happier with a gift card than jewelry. Her wish list was a skin care thing, pillow cases, a pressure cooker, etc. Friends got her all these beautiful clothes and the ones she can't return she's already thinking about regifting. I'm tired of necklaces she won't wear, or clothes that never get put on because they're "too fancy." Went with what she wants, and threw in a gift card since we get those for female friends, so she has one too. She'll probably buy pots or something. Or a juicer that has never come out of the box. Sigh.

M-Wolverine

December 24th, 2012 at 12:29 PM ^

I'm an administrator in research at the U-M Health System, primarily. So it's generally not my job that jerks around holiday plans.

And you can blame Six Zero for stopping his member profiles. When he started I figured I was good for one around 2012. But that was when he was doing it every month (or was it more?) and I figured we'd have knocked out like 36 profiles and he'd be getting desperate after 3 years.

Come to think of it, I've never really contributed much more than snark and funny pictures...no graphs or charts...maybe in the off-season I should volunteer to take that over. He's busy with the comic strip, and I could just steal all his questions so he's done all the tough work already. I did enjoy them, and it's to your point.

justingoblue

December 24th, 2012 at 1:39 PM ^

I think we're at least a few away from being desperate, with some good choices still around. I have no idea how they feel about doing it, but I'd love to see jmblue or Zone Left profiles. DG Destroys and aquaman2342 would definitely be good reads as well, and jhackney could easily be the best of all time if anyone can find him to do it.