Your Holiday Stories

[scottaa1]

There's been some serious stuff posted out there, thought another post to discuss the less than serious stuff about the holiday might be nice, too, to hear about how we all enjoyed (or didn't) the Holiday.
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Went to a seafood place (Braxton's ) in Oakbrook, IL., on Xmas eve. Had the Chillean Seabass. With lobster/spinach risotto and a chardonnay sauce. Was as delicate and savory as a post by Boozie, and the wine was commensurate with a quality Metroid post.

Xmas was uber video games and spiral sliced ham. Among other things, we did detective work in a Discovery game they received, and then I let them beat me at Wii games. First time I've used the Wii nunchaku, took a bit of getting used to but quickly Uncle Scott was the go-to guy to get past difficult spots.

It was really, really wonderful playing with my niece and nephew so much. I Need to move to Chicago so I can see them every week.

SO, I ate well and played with kids, and it was very fun. I hope many of you had a similarly Happy Holiday. Let us enjoy your enjoyment!

[joelamosobadiah]

Went to Grandparents for the holidays over the weekend. Had fun with younger cousins (more like nieces and nephews to me) and family. Got to watch the Dallas game cause my Grandparents have NFL Network. Came home and our family did our Christmas here.

Then I worked Christmas day and found out I am $200 in the hole to replace hinges on my laptop which means I am on a Windows 2000 uber-slow machine for the next week so less Cafe posting for me.

Oh yeah, and the content filter on this other machine blocks the "new feature" here at the cafe (seems the url fantasycafe.com looks like a porno site)

But hey, Christmas was awesome.

[Omaha Red Sox]

We got to spend time with my brother and his family. We don't see them much since they live in Wisconsin and they have a 6 month old daughter that we got plenty of pictures and videos of.

[knapplc]

I had two odd Christmas episodes. One slightly bizarre, one not so fun.

Christmas Eve we went to the in-law's for a big meal and the usual festivities. The sister-in-law was there with the four kids and her lay-about boyfriend who despite being the father of her children refuses to marry her, of course mom and dad were there, and my wife’s “crazy” uncle. We’re making this huge meal with all kinds of stuff, and just as we start prepping everything, the sis-in-law announces we’re all going to church for 5:00 service. Uh… no we’re not, unless we’re not going to eat until 9pm everyone says. Then it gets decided that your friendly neighborhood knapplc gets to stay and cook while everyone else goes to church.

So they pack up and head off, leaving me with the pseudo brother-in-law and with crazy uncle Victor, and a huge meal to make. But I rose to the occasion, and despite some bizarre conversation about the proper method of powder-coating the insides of a gas pipeline (uncle Victor’s current job) and having to explain some computer issues to the bro-in-law (who is allegedly a computer engineer for a major Omaha company) while I’m trying to cook in an unfamiliar kitchen, I got it all done. I made roasted pork loin with stuffed baked apples, cider gravy, garlic mashed potatoes, fresh rolls, stuffing (a different kind than in the apples), corn and various crudités. And it was good.

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On Christmas Day we went to my hometown to see my family. Everything was going wonderfully until the afternoon when we were playing this game, and my 18-year-old niece got in my face about something in the game and I told her to knock it off, and she didn’t and was totally disrespectful, and I yelled at her.

I was WRONG for letting her have it like that, but she was really egging me on. So she stormed off and then my mom lit into me, and the whole day pretty much was ruined. Mom made the whole thing about her somehow, and I was having none of it so she felt very offended, and my niece and I weren’t talking for a while.

Later in the afternoon I went upstairs and apologized to my niece, and we had a really good talk and a few hugs and everything was better, but for some reason mom was still all upset as if all that had something to do with her and not me and my niece.

That’s pretty much the worst Christmas I’ve ever had, and it all just sprung up out of nowhere. I don’t know why I got so angry. I know I was tired from the day before and I didn’t need to be taunted for some dumb card game, but then I also didn’t need to blow up like I did, too.

So right now things are not so wonderful with the extended family. It’ll be OK in the not-too-distant future, but for the moment everyone is still probably a bit upset over the Christmas that wasn’t too cool.