Saturday, December 26, 2015

Christmas 2015. Now with Flying Cars.


The longer I live, the more it amazes me how each holiday gains it's own separate personality from years past. Sometimes Christmas slips by with relative ease, other years it can be a real chore, and then there's ones that prove themselves to be truly unique. I'd say 2015 ranks in that final category. There was already a good deal of anticipation growing from the most over sized pile of presents this family has had in at least a decade, a feeling that was offset by a Christmas Eve care accident. The person involved was absolutely fine, just some bruising but the car in question is totaled. Even if there had been nothing else of interest, this year would be firmly remembered for the singular event of a Pontiac Vibe that dreamed it was one of Santa's Reindeer.

Once the Christmas Eve drama of the flying car had been put to rest, everything began to settle into a more festive mood with the usual spread of fine foods and family. Hell, most of us even went to so far as to actually go to bed at a reasonable hour and wake up early the next morning. I'm almost ashamed of myself for it. The slight imbalance to my schedule proved to be worth it however as Christmas morning then yielded a mountain of consumerism unlike any this household has witnessed in many moons. Behold the mess!

Granted there are a few large scale items within this mass such as a microwave and office chair which added quite a lot of girth to the proceedings. Still, what a beauty. I'm reminded of our old Christmas Family gatherings where presents sprawled so far from the tree as to nearly prove a fire hazard. Call me a classic materialist but this scene actually served to solidify my holiday spirit as I sat & watched the yule log while sipping holiday coffee from my Garfield Christmas mug. Of course such a serene environment cannot last forever as it was soon time to tear into some gifts. Let's check this out in batches shall we?

First up were goodies bags that essentially filled in for stockings, an important role since our stocking area doesn't have enough space for all the people in this house. Here we find a few of the more practical gifts like socks, gloves (the kind I can use with my cell phone, woot!), hygiene odds & ends, along with a wee bit of candy a glass gingerbread man full of delicious maple syrup. Also very excited for the dishwasher spinner. Maybe now people will be able to figure out whether dishes are dirty or not. There were a few bits if jerky in this baggie as well, I couldn't resist duck and alligator long enough for photo ops. Failed to photograph a candy bag from my niece, but the sting on my teeth is testament to mini milky way consumption.

These two mugs were originally from the August Villains Loot Crate. My sister hunted one down to spread a few of the items around to different people. She even went to the extra mile to get both mugs since the original crate just had one at random. They're sure to fit in nicely with our array of odd drinkware though I have no clue where to store the damn things.

Now for the entertainment arena. First up are three more additions to the horror collection. The nephew & I enjoyed the new Poltergeist a good bit when we saw it back in October. It's not an Earth-shattering innovative flick, just a fun spook story. Not sure but I believe we only watched the theatrical cut so I'm intrigued to see what extra bits are on this disc. The Town That Dreaded Sundown was a very nice surprise for me when I first saw it. It serves as such a good follow-up to the old classic and is really well made. You all should give this one a shot if you haven't already. Paranorman is amazing, deal with it. Also got Rise of the Empire which is a collection of the first two Star Wars new canon novels so I can try and play catch up. Next up is Discoveries, a dice game about the adventures of Lewis & Clark. Very excited to play this one. Oh and that Hydra pin is another piece from that villains crate.

Easily the biggest portion of my haul is all this Funko stuff. To think all this started with Phantom of the Opera way back in June. Since then, the entire family has taken on at least some interest in the pops. Especially my brother, who makes my collection seem childish. He along with my mother and sisters all took care of a good chunk of the pops I want. The wish list is down to something like ten items now though I'm sure it'll build up again. Now I've got Godzilla, Pinhead, Hordak, Macho Man Randy Savage, Metaluna Mutant, glow in the dark versions of both Cthulhu and Lo Pan., and so forth. Clearing shelf space for these guys is gonna be am undertaking. Two Dorbz got into the mix also which is great since I love these horror Dorbz. It's so damn delightful to see bloodthirsty monsters with a look of childish glee. They even layered Leatherface so his eyes and mouth are indented, ya know, under the other persons face he's currently wearing. Awesome, I wasn't the only person to get some Funko stuff though, check this out.

That's right, we made a wall! Between Pops, Dorbz, Ponies, and Mystery Minis there were thirty some Funko products scattered throughout the living room. It's rather amazing that we almost completely avoided duplicates except for my sister ending up with two King Arthur's, a situation that can be easily remedied by a quick trip to FYE. I'm kinda hoping this image will get the family placed on some corporate watch list. If you're reading this, company overlords we want Sword in the Stone, Chappie, King King, Blue Velvet, and some Final Fantasy. Thank you.


Hope everyone out there had a fun and memorable Christmas, whether you celebrate it or not. I plan to be back on here at least once before the New Year as there's still plenty of stuff to cover. Haven't even tried all the Christmas dum-dums yet. Diabetes here I come! Happy Holidays, everyone.

No comments:

Post a Comment