2. Are you currently on the Naughty or Nice list? How did you get there? Oh, a little bit of both I think.
3. Did you ship any gifts to friends and family this year? If so, which one traveled the farthest? I shipped all my mom's gifts to Hawaii. Luckily all my other gifts stayed local.
4. Did you buy yourself a gift this year? No, I mean I've bought stuff, but nothing more than usual.
5. What's your favorite holiday-themed movie? For the longest time it's been "The Christmas Story" which still makes me laugh out loud. I have enjoyed "Love Actually" showing up on TV during the holidays over the last couple of years. Two different kinds of movies, so equally my favorite. Oh and "A Charlie Brown Christmas" is my favorite animated Christmas movie.
6. Thinking of movies, Christmas is lucrative for Hollywood. Have you ever gone to a movie theater on Christmas Day? On the first Christmas after my dad died over 7 years ago my mom and I decided rather than spend the early afternoon, before heading out to Christmas dinner with family, just staring at each other being sad to go to the movies. We were actually surprised to find that it was packed! We've since made it something of a tradition. We do our Christmas morning together, go to the movies early afternoon, and then to dinner with friends or family.
7. Have you ever suffered an embarrassing moment at the company Christmas party? No, our work parties are always fun, but embarrassing free for me. However I once was embarrassed for a friend of mine. About 5 years ago we decided to have an ugly Christmas sweater staff party. My friend Cori showed up wearing a gaudy sweater she had jokingly purchased from Target. Shortly after her arrival an aid, who was quite a bit older than our fairly young staff, came to the party wearing the same sweater. When Cori joked about buying it for the ugly sweater contest, the woman politely answered that she hadn't realized it was supposed to be an ugly sweater contest. She had just worn it since it was her regular Christmas sweater. Probably not the typical embarrassing staff party story you were looking for but, we all felt SO bad afterwards.
8. What's your favorite beverage in cold weather? Caramel Latte from Coffee Bean - these days a decaf though.
9. What will you remember most about 2012? I'm not very good with thinking about the whole year and remembering what was good and what was bad. I love the posts where people do those at the end of each year, but I find that so difficult for some reason. Unfortunately though, with the school shooting last week, I've got that running through the back of my mind each and every day I go to what I've always considered a pretty safe job. That rattled me a bit. I'll also remember how frustrated this year was with all the Dems vs Rep nonsense that we've been hearing about ALL YEAR leading up to the election and now, even after the election is over, we are still hearing about it because the two can't get it together enough to solve the financial issues we face at the end of the year.
That Christmas party story made me wince. Must have been awful.
ReplyDeleteWe felt pretty bad for both parties...but not too bad since we still laugh about it. :)
DeleteI'd rather bring that Hawaii gift in person than ship it...
ReplyDeleteHave a great rest of your weekend!
http://harrietandfriends.com/2012/12/the-violence-and-the-politics/
It was cheaper to have amazon ship them to Hawaii than pay for another suitcase to bring it all with me. I get to give them in person though.
DeleteI love A Christmas Story also...last year my niece gave me a book written by the author...the title evades me know but it is something like, "Wanda __ and the Prom Date." ...and the Bumpus Hounds steal the turkey!
ReplyDeleteThe ugly swearter incident is funny...I was shopping for an ugly sweater once when two younger ladies approached...they were saying, "This is a nice one," and I had a feeling that they were looking for the ugliest one too...so I said, "I am trying to find the ugliest to wear to work...and they giggled and said they were too but they didn't want to offend me if I was truly shopping for one I liked.
Merry Christmas!1
Ya I'll never assume about the ugly sweater again. At least those kids were trying to be polite. :)
DeleteThat movie is great on so many levels. So many relatable Christmas events, and the Chinese restaurant at the end, so funny.
Oh, the ugly sweater story rings true for me, too. Love Actually is on my holiday must-sees, as is The Holiday.
ReplyDeleteOh ya I liked the Holliday. I don't think I realized that was a Christmas movie. I think it would be fun to house trade like that sometime but I always think who'd want to come here.
DeleteHere in MO, folks are still wearing their Ugly Christmas sweaters, but I don't think they are being Ironic. Merry Christmas to you.
ReplyDeleteHa ha, ya I bet not. Thanks you too!
DeleteWe didn't tend to have Santa in shops when I was growing up. It's really only in the last few years it's a feature. Or if we did I don't remember.
ReplyDeleteThe naughty or nice thing is wholly female. It has connotations of a chick in a red teddy, Santa hat and smile. The same concoction on a man or a male version would be slightly twisted. For some reason though, I've met more than one chick that likes her man in a Santa suit.
Chitty chitty bang bang was the go to film. Then The Great Escape followed by the Sound of Music. It got so Irish people could recite the dialogue. And you could toss in True Grit.
I was at a Xmas party once with a bad foot so couldn't move much. I sat at a table with about eight others who each went to get beers. At one point there was about 16 beers sitting before me as they would get me one when they got one themselves.
I have no stories of finding people xeroxing, faxing or otherwise bequeathing to posterity their posterior. I often wondered why that machine, and then I saw one. It's about the correct height and depth for support and traction since it's a bit higher than a table and a good bit narrower. It sorta lends itself to the activity.
Ohhhh, True Grit is a good one. I like parts of SoM, but it can be a bit of an obsession here too. Does Santa "come" to Ireland, or is it some other legend like Father Christmas or Sinterklaas and his Black Petes?
DeleteSo does the last bit mean that after 16 beers you've been known to inappropriately use the copy machine? ;).
No, I hardly partook in the past and now not at all. Made me ill more than merry. But it did have something surreal. Where a gimp with a sea of beer in front of him. Beckett could have wrote a play.
ReplyDeleteOh he came all right, Santa that is(that seems dirty somehow). But even now he's isn't a big thing in the shops. Leastwise I don't hear of it. I'm sure if I had kids I'd know.
No kidding! I went to a champagne tasting this weekend, the first I've had since March. By the 2nd champagne (about 3 sips) it made me remember why I don't drink anymore...and I love champagne! Kind of depressing, but it's hardly worth feeling like crap anymore.
DeleteMerry Christmas Pumpkin
ReplyDeleteWhy thank you! You too. :)
DeleteI typically do my "looking back" thinking and blogging around my birthday more than at New Year's
ReplyDeleteThat's a good time too, although I'm usually too depressed on my birthday for a whole lot of reflection.
Deletehahaha the ugly sweater story cracked me up.
ReplyDeleteEhehehe!
ReplyDeleteHappy holidays!!
Happy Christmas.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you do with the dog BTW.
I'm old enough to remember when Hawaii was THE place on the planet. What occured that it changed from being so 'in'. I know people that went on honeymoon from Ireland. Hmm, I suppose if it traded on that aspect too much, that would kill the buzz fast enough. Of course it could be only outside the US the zing has gone from the pot.
Rigby is with good friends while I'm gone...hopefully they will remain friends after her visit.
DeleteI'm not really the best person to talk about Hawaii and why people want to come here. I only visit because I have to. It is very pretty but since I've been visiting since I was small, it's not quite as exciting as it is for the first time visitors. I like the ocean but I'm too fair to enjoy the beach for very long and there's only so much that you can do on a tropical island that you visit every other year. With that being said, people still come in droves. Christmastime is their busiest time, so it's packed this week. What could be stopping those abroad from coming as often is the cost of the flight. It has quadrupled for me over the last couple of years. I could go to Europe for less than my flight here, that I had to take off a day and a half early from work because if I waited until I was actually on vacation that price doubled. But that's just my somewhat warped opinion on it. :-)
Actually another take might be where you all were going. Oahu is the most known island with Honolulu/Waikiki/north shore. But over the last 20 years it's become Los Angeles with prettier water. If Oahu were one's only experience, then a repeat trip might not be in the cards. The other islands are less densely populated and more what you'd picture Hawaii to be. The Big Island has grown some since we've been coming, but it has remained relatively low key and sky scraper free.
DeleteMmmm, from LHR-(LAX)-HNL it's €700. CHG €800 and Frankfort about €850. All return. Granted in cattle class, but 6 hours or 16 is zone out time anyway.
ReplyDeleteI think what I'm on about is we rarely see Hawaii as a main actor on our screens anymore. At one point we had it weekly, sometimes more. But I think it became less 'exotic'.
I don't think it ever had that 'Spring Break' feel over here. You know that vaguely debauched slightly sexy atmosphere. But neither did it take on the gay feel of SF even though much of the TV was latent with it. Nowadays no one in the UK or Ireland would say they were going to SF. They would say they were going to Napa. And what happened to Tahoe-Reno. My uncle went on honeymoon there I think. (He lived and married in Chicago. Leastwise he had a humungous photo of the place all along one wall of his lounge) But you simply don't ever hear of it now. And it had the Idaho Woods Hole cachet at one point.
Over the last few days I saw a legal program set in Cleveland Ohio of all places. Harry's Law, with Kathy Bates in the lead. On this side of the Atlantic we would consider Beirut first as a destination.
Most of us feel the same way about Cleveland. However they do boast about a rather large Irish population.
DeleteAnd actually, I feel the same way about going to Kona. :)
Mmmm, have you seen Shameless USA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shameless_%28U.S._TV_series%29
DeleteOh my, yes I have. I cringe and laugh all at the same time. Does it show there?
Delete