As it turns out, the Keg is a little pricey for some, and not particularly liked by others, and they can't make a reservation for me on the 16th, so they're out. The Old Spaghetti Factory is likewise full to the brim on the 16th, so we can't do that either. I've also pushed back dinner time for people who work late on saturday, so here's the new plan (now 65% more laid back):

Sometime between 5:30 and 6:00, gather at our place to watch the He-Man and She-Ra Christmas Special.

If there's only a few people around for dinner near 6:30, we'll just go somewhere close (maybe the local sushi place?), or if there's more than a few, we'll order pizza or go to the Chinese buffet around the corner.

After dinner is A Christmas Story and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.

It looks like Saturday, December 16 will be my day to watch Christmas movies. Here's the deal:

4:00pm) show up at our place if you want to watch the He-Man and She-Ra Christmas Special

5:30pm) dinner reservations at the Keg on Columbia St. in New Westminster

After dinner, back at our place (8pm? Who knows how long dinner will take), we'll be watching my two favourite holiday movies, A Christmas Story and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (getting sauced during the first movie will ease the pain of the second).

Feel free to join us for any part you wish to join in. If you want to be part of the Keg reservation, get back to me by this Monday night and I'll include you when I make the reservation on Tuesday. If the Keg turns out to be full (I doubt it will happen for that early, that far in advance) I'll switch to the Old Spaghetti Factory and post an update. Also, I've timed things just right for the first show finishing and then hopping on the bus to make the reservation, and it's an easy trip back by transit too, so no need to set up designated drivers for dinner.

I worked an overtime shift on friday, and after work I took a lengthy transit trip to do some Christmas shopping and pick up some groceries on Scott Road. Afterward, I went to my folks' place, where I picked up my brother's old Xbox. Yes, I finally have an Xbox again. I haven't actually payed him for it yet, but I figure that if my company hands out cash bonuses for Christmas again this year, I can pay him out of that and say that work bought it for me. Andrew also gave me five games: Star Wars episode 3, Star Wars Battlefront, Fable, Burnout Revenge, and The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. By the time I was done dinner and found a spot for it under the TV (I have to store it on it's side and pull it out when I want to play it, but the cables are long enough so no worries), it was getting pretty late, so I only played a little bit of Burnout, just to see the Xbox working. Saturday was a day to get some Christmas shopping done, mostly for a package to go to Prince George. Jenn and I wound up going to Brentwood, because that was the only location to pick up a specific item for a specific nephew. We also got Jenn some needed unmentionables, as well as a second, green Xbox controller just for her to use for $15 at Zellers. We actually got the PG contingent finished, except for two items, one to be bought at a place around the corner from our home, one to be bought at CNL. Jenn needed to sleep, so she went home and I went to Metrotown. I didn't go in, I just popped around to the Future Shop, picked up an item, and went to the bus loop to go to CNL. I found everything I wanted there, and Jenn and I now have 11 out of 14 people shopped for (excluding stocking stuffers for each other). I caught the bus back to Metrotown, where I just popped into EBgames, Toys r Us and Zellers to look at what was cheap for the Xbox, as well as swinging by Millenium to say hi to my sister.

I came home, did dishes, and made some dinner for Jenn. Then, I decided we needed groceries, and since there's a Roger's Video right beside the Safeway at McBride Plaza, I'd just pop in and rent a game for us to play co-op, since none of the other ones I have appeal to Jenn. They had a new copy of Chronicles of Narnia for $25, which was a better price than we'd seen for a used copy at EB, and I recalled Jenn being interested in it, so I picked that up instead of renting something. When I got home we played through the first five levels together, and it was actually pretty fun. It had preset camera angles, which were sometimes annoying to work with, but at least it wasn't split screen. We wound up staying up way too late, and as a result we are playing hooky from church today, which at least means we'll have a decent opportunity to clean up the place before D&D this afternoon.

First of all, I'd like to say Happy Holidays to my friends, and gift them all with a link to something I didn't make or pay for:
Clicky!

Jenn and I both got some HMV gift certs from Santa, and I got a $150 cash Christmas bonus from work, so I cajoled her into blowing it all today. We went out to Coquitlam Center around elevenish, after the hardcore shoppers, before the afternoon stress cases. For the most part, the mall was about as busy as Metrotown on a saturday (although the Future Shop was really packed, and the line to get into Off the Wall was comparable to the line to get onto rides at the PNE on Labour Day). First we hit the HMV, and Jenn picked up Barbarella and Super-Size Me (mostly because it cost about the same as renting it would), and I got Robots and the Faux Fireplace DVD. We then hit the Future Shop, where I inteded to spend my work bonus on Sea Quest season 1, the He-Man and She-Ra Christmas Special, and a portable CD player for putting on in the kitchen while I'm doing dishes or cooking. Well, despite my seeing multiple copies of the He-Man DVD there before, all the Christmas stuff was hidden away, and Sea Quest wasn't shelved, even though today is the official release date (the main reason why I wanted to get it). So I didn't even bother looking at boom boxes. Instead we went to Best Buy, which was not only less crowded, it was better lit, and the staff was incredibly helpful, not to mention whoever was doing the organizing for Boxing Day had a real head on their shoulders, and the checkouts were amazingly efficient. They had everything I was looking for, and I thought at first it was going to cost me $8 more than Future Shop, but the prices were lower than they were labeled, and in the end it cost the same. From now on, when I need electronics around Coquitlam Center, I'm going to Best Buy. Afterwards, I was very hungry, so we ate at Popeye's. I've been wanting to try the food there for a while now, mostly because of this loop of a girl dancing in a way which I find endearing for some odd reason. Not really a good reason to eat somewhere, especially because it isn't even a commercial, but I've been craving fried chicken and I've given up KFC, which really limits my options where I live. It turns out they're a Louisiana themed place (named after the character from the French Connection, as opposed to the cartoon character), complete with Dixieland Jazz playing in the background. The chicken was pretty good, as were the fries and the biscuits, but it was the red beans and rice that I decided to take a chance on that was the thing that makes me want to go back. Another thing I wasn't expecting was that they serve catfish, meaning I now have a second, more affordable source for the delicious poisson. Now I just need an excuse to go back.

So here's what I've done lately:

Saturday Dec. 3rd, Jenn and I bought a tree, and my dad drove it home for us, and helped me carry it in. Then we bought rum, eggnog and groceries, and set about decorating while playing some christmas cds. The next day we went out to Granville Island in search of tree toppers. There was one, and I don't mean one style, I mean ONE tree topper for sale on the whole island. And it was ugly, in that kitchy style of "this was hand crafted so I'm going to purposefully make it look like it was done by a bored 8th grader who wants to go home, and it's rough and vague appearance will allow snobby artsy types to buy it and think they're better than everyone else because they have hand crafted stuff", which seems to be very popular in some shops. The thing about massed produced items that don't look like junk is they were molded from a hand crafted prototype to begin with. Machines can't make things look better on their own, you still need to get a skilled artist to make it in the first place, so why not make professional looking hand crafted items? Then again, what would snobby artsy types want to buy then? Anyway, after lunch at Memphis Blues we went to the self-proclaimed Christmas Headquarters (or whatever), meaning the Bay downtown. They do have some impressive displays (the purple and black "gothy christmas" is particularly amusing), where we found a nice, medium sized angel for our tree that we could agree on. Then we visited my father-in-law's horse, which took a little longer than I wanted but it was OK (I probably should have gone home and let it be a father-daughter thing, because I had to work the next day). Wednesday I went shopping, and was rather successful, and thursday I did approximately nothing. I worked the weekend, and this morning Jenn and I went out to see the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. All in all, it was good. Good casting, good treatment, good effects. Some highlights for me are:
-the minotaurs. Damned impressive creature effects.
-that bit with the sword on the frozen river. Much like the running down the stairs in Moria in Fellowship of the Rings, it wasn't in the book, but it was a worthy action sequence to throw in.
-Peter is still a paladin, but they played up his flaws a little more than in the book. They actually played up Susan and Lucy's flaws too, I think to show that it wasn't just Edmund who was imperfect. The neat thing about this is that most Paladin types are entirely devoid of personality (no room for character amid all that righteousness?), but that wasn't the case here.
My only real complaint is that there were a couple of places that I felt the sound should have been more overwhelming, echoing and thunderous, as opposed to just slightly louder than normal (the table breaking and one or two of Aslan's roars). Definitely worth the watch, though. (Especially if you can catch the trailer for Lady in the Water as well).

Now I'm off to buy groceries and cook up a storm, and tomorrow I should swim and assemble Lego. We'll see what happens.

So, what have I been doing for the last 23 days? Christmas, that's what! Multiple parties and dinners, putting up decorations, buying more decorations, buying presents, retrieving presents from the post office, coordinating who's getting what and so-and-so would like this and that... and now it's over. I had a good Christmas this year, but it came and went so quickly. I think part of it may have been skipping one of my Christmas traditions, bussing to Granville Island to shop. I love the Christmas atmosphere out there, even if I don't find anything I'm looking for. Oh well. The main thing is giving gifts, and I think all of the presents I gave were well recieved, but I got so much stuff that I kind of feel guilty just because I couldn't give as much as I usually do. Having said that, here's my haul:

-Five Lego sets this year, 2 Star Wars (TIE Bomber and Jabba's Palace) and 3 Make and Create (Green X-pod, Wild Wind-up and Record and Play).
-A fair selection of clothes, two zipperneck pullovers, a turtleneck, a short sleeved button down shirt, and boxers with smiling, blue maple leaves.
-Two DVD's, the Droids cartoon and Record of the Lodoss War.
-Lots of books: Vector Prime, Dark Tide 1&2, Force Heretic 2 and The Unifying Force from the New Jedi Order series; Star Wars Tales vol. 1 and The Essential Incredible Hulk for comics; the Episode 2 illustrated encyclopedia and a, erm, "romantic ideabook" as reference material.
-Assorted neat stuff, like a key-ring 1m tape measure, a pen that blows bubbles, a foot care kit, a toast rack, a Taz ornament and gift certificates to Chapters and HBC.
-Edible stuff, like a chocolate raspberry and orange, a tub of icy squares, dijon mustard, tiger butter, life savers, and an award winning hot sauce.

I look at this list, and part of me says "Hey, look at all this neat stuff I have!", but truly, it's the thought that counts. Every gift I get I consider to be a token of appreciation, which is what I intend every gift I give to be. The fact that I was given things I'd like shows consideration of who I am, and I'm touched. I want to express my gratitude to everyone around me for giving me such a wonderful season, and it sounds cliche but it's true: the friends and family I have are the best gift of all. Happy Holidays to everyone, and let's make the New Year just as great, if not better.