Christmas - Only 57 Days Away!

[Dave]

I am always fascinated by the different traditions families have around the holidays. With Thanksgiving right around the corner and Christmas shortly after it is time to start preparing for those family gatherings we all know and love. And don't forget to invite that pain in the ass aunt, even though it kills you to do so.

[Kimmy]

Originally posted by Dave
And don't forget to invite that pain in the ass aunt, even though it kills you to do so.

What do I do with the almost exhusband that has nobody? :scary: Seriously... I don't want to deal with it. Any suggestions?

Are we posting holiday traditions here? We always have our main celebration on Christmas eve and Christmas day is very relaxing. When I was a kid, we didn't open any presents until Christmas morning, but my kid opens on Christmas eve.

[Dave]

I did the same thing with my family, opening presents on Christmas Eve, until I had kids, then Christmas was fun again.

About the soon to be ex Kimmy, I face a similar dilema, just being divorced, in that I want to spend time with my children and see them open their presents but I am uncomfortable spending time like that with the ex. It is not an easy situation, or a comfortable one....and one thing I learned from my required parenting class is that if you spend time with your ex it gives your child a false sense of hope that you two will get back together...so I say...do whatever is best for your child and suck it up....the kids didn't choose this life.

[Laurie]

I love the holidays. I decorate my house like they do in "Good Housekeeping." Plus I get that itch to bake and bake and bake.

Because my parents are divorced and we have my hub's family, as well, the holidays can be very exhausting. Christmas Eve is spent with my mother's side of the family. It's always a good time. Christmas Day we spend with my husband's side of the family. The food is fabulous. After that we trek over to my dad's house and eat more.

Because we have always been away from home for the holidays, my kids typically open their presents up when we get back from the relatives. Usually, that's Christmas night. But they don't seem to mind, because prior to that they are opening gifts at 3 other places.

I have been told, however, that Christmas Eve will be spent here in the Twin Cities. My brother lives here, as well 2 of my mother's brothers.

Thank God I took the week of Christmas off. :rolleyes:


Kimmy, I think Dave's advice is better than any I could give. Just do what YOU feel is right for you and your son. :)

[Barb101]

Growing up in the 60's & 70's with 7 brothers & sisters we always had a hugh christmas. Those were definately the good ole days. It's hard to get everyone together nowadays but usually at least half of us go to Mom's every year now.

Having my own kids is always worth all the billions of dollars I end up spending on them as I watch them screech with joy when they open a present. Even if they like the boxes they come in better. :rolleyes:

Kimmy, I know the feeling. I said F him and partied with my kids:D
Too bad so sad;) :evil:

[Dave]

Great pic Barb!

I think we all have a few of those in our photo books with that classic 70's console TV in the background.

[groovehouse]

:xmas:

[Dave]

Originally posted by Laurie

I love the holidays. I decorate my house like they do in "Good Housekeeping." Plus I get that itch to bake and bake and bake.

Hey Martha Stewart....I like cookies:)

Shall I send a self addressed, stamped tin?

[Laurie]

You shall! :)

[Dave]

How about if I just wrap myself in christmas paper and lay under your tree?

[Laurie]

How 'bout just a big red bow? ;)

[Barb101]

I don't think that's fair Dave, if your going to give you have to give to us all;) :hehe:

Nice touch Laurie! (bow):thumbsup:

[Dave]

Barb, Barb, Barb......I can slide down your chimney as well, that's not a problem at all.;)

I better go stock up on big red bows...well medium red bows anyway
:OOPS:

[Laurie]

My momma always told me that "sharing" was the nice thing to do. ;)

[Dave]

:xmas: Ho Ho Ho

[JDub]

You can say that again!;)

[STIBROKER]

OK barb...you were brave enough to post a x~mas kid pic...here's mine.....

the pic's crooked because my mom was drunk when taking pic....

[Laurie]

I remember one Thanksgiving when I was about 8 years old. We were driving back from the relatives when my dad told us that he had had to put our dog, Peppy asleep. Both my brother (he was 5), and I both started crying hysterically in the car, demanding he bring Peppy back. I didn't talk to my mother or father for 2 days. Stubborn little shit, I was.

[Dave]

Laurie....was?;)

[Laurie]

Well at my age now, it's a prerequisite. :rolleyes:

[Dave]

I remember one year, I was 4, my mother was ill and had to have surgery and wasn't sure if she would see another Christmas (I didn't know this at the time). My parents didn't have a lot of money but they always managed to buy us some nice things at Christmas, we didn't get a lot but we appreciated everything we got and took care of our stuff. Well, because she wasn't sure if this was her last Christmas she went nuts on us, and at the time I still believed in Santa. There wasn't a spot on the floor of the living room that wasn't covered with gifts. I can remember coming down the stairs, the tree was lit and presents everywhere, my eyes must have been bugging out of my skull. Years later I found out why she had done that and I got chills up my spine. It turned out that her surgery was sucessful and spent many more holidays with us. She turns 64 this year, five days before Christmas......and I never know what to get her.

[samm]

MonGooSe and I totally love Christmas we big into surprising each other and playing jokes on each other and we love to cook a big ole turkey and having all the trimmings :)
this is one of our favourite christmas pics

[RodJSM]

Is that JDub on TV behind you?

[Freak]

Dave's story sparked the memory of how i found out about Santa Claus...

My mom and dad always waited to wrap the majority of presents the night of Christmas eve, to try and mask how many presents us kids were getting. Why, I don't know, but that's a different story. Anyway, they got so exhausted wrapping presents, they didn't fill my stocking up. In the morning, I woke up early of course and ran to get my loot. I was rather shocked when there was nothing in my stocking, not even coal. I ran into my parents room crying a little, and saying that Santa didn't leave me anything. My mom got a little flustered and went to her closet and pulled out a bag from kmart or somewhere full of the standard stocking filling material and said, "Um...Santa told me to give this to you!" I was young, but not dumb, :hehe: so it didn't work.

[shotglass]

Gave wife her Christmas present when I got home from work.

No, not that....I gave her the 5-disc LOTR set that was released today. She's been waiting for this thing to come out since March, and I have been waiting for it as well. She's holding the bookends and watching all the stuff even now, so it looks like I will have to cook my own dinner.

[Kimmy]

aww.. that's sweet... you're a good man, Shotglass ;)

[shotglass]

Why thank you Kimmy. But I try not to be nice too often. Don't want to get a bad rep.

[Barb101]

:xmas:

[Freak]

Well, I got all my shopping done last weekend. Every bit of it. Usually I am a typical male and wait until the 24th, then stuff stuff in gift bags so I won't have to wrap anything. This year, the kids and wife are done, as are the parents. Woohoo! The bad thing is i went slightly (ok WAAAYYY) over budget.:(

[Dave]

Freak, we all go way over budget...but remember,,,money is only dirty paper and memories last forever :sure:

[JBMoney]

Originally posted by Dave
Freak, we all go way over budget...but remember,,,money is only dirty paper and memories last forever :sure:

You be sure to remember that on your way back from Las Vegas. :cry:

[Dave]

Originally posted by JBMoney
You be sure to remember that on your way back from Las Vegas. :cry:

JB, I hope I am able to remember ANYTHING when I get home...it could be like my college years..they say I had a great time :hehe:

[Spaz59]

Christmas?:rolleyes: Great.:sure:

[Barb101]

:p

[Laurie]

LOL Barb! I love it! :laugh:

[Eagle3]

That's hilarious Barb. If we ever get enough snow this year I'm building this courtesy of Calvin. :)
http://www.alloftheabove.net/images/CAHR/snow_art/HangMan_Snow_Man.gif

[Barb101]

:scary:

[Barb101]

:rolleyes:

[Barb101]

:hehe:

[Butterlugs]

Here is a thread for joke christmas cards, humor is back this year.

[cuda]

:hehe:

[cuda]

:rolleyes:

[cuda]

;)

[cuda]

:OOPS:

[Laurie]

Merry Christmas to all my friends here! Hope you all have a memorable and safe holiday. See y'all in a few days. :) :beer:

[Dave]

Merry Christmas Laurie, take some time out of your busy holiday schedule to enjoy yourself.

Happy Holidays everyone, I probably won't be around for a while.

[Kimmy]

Merry Christmas, everyone!!:gift: :xmas:

[cuda]

*bump*

[Barb101]

*bump some more* :p

[JasmineDreamz]

Just got this in the mail and thought I'd share it with you.

[Barb101]

:cool:

[Barb101]

The Day After...

[Barb101]

The Day Before...

[STIBROKER]

just got through setting up the ping pong table...( family christmas tonight ) AND NOW DRINKING A SCOTCH......

[Barb101]

Ping Pong!! I wanna play! :D

:alien:

[Barb101]

:cool:

[Barb101]

For the Kiddies....

NORAD Tracks Santa (http://www.noradsanta.org/english/radar/index.html)

[Barb101]

:scary:

[Barb101]

:D

[Barb101]

Sorry, I'm bored :rolleyes:

Santa: An Engineer's Perspective

There are approximately two billion children (person under 18) in the world. However, since Santa does not visit children of Muslim, Hindu, Jewish or Buddhist (except maybe in Japan) religions, this reduces the workload for Christmas night to 15% of the total, or 378 million (according to the Population Reference Bureau). At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that comes to 108 million homes, presuming that there is at least one good child in each. Santa has about 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 967.7 visits per second.

This is to say, that for each Christian household with a good child, Santa has around 1/1000 of a second to park the sleigh, hop out, jump down the chimney, fill the stocking, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left for him, get back up the chimney, jump into the sleigh and get on to the next house. Assuming that each of these 108 million stops is evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false, but will accept for the purposes of our calculations), we are now talking about 0.78 miles per household; a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting bathroom stops or breaks. This means Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second---3,000 times the sound of speed. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man made vehicle, the Ulysses space probe, moves a poky 27.4 miles per second, and a conventional reindeer can run (at best) 15 miles per hour.

The payload of the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium sized Lego set (two pounds), the sleigh is carrying over 500 thousand tons, not counting Santa himself. On land, a conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that the "flying" reindeer could pull ten times the normal amount, the job can't be done with eight or even nine of them---Santa would need 360,000 of them. This increases the payload, not counting the weight of the sleigh, another 54,000 tons, or roughly seven times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth (the ship, not the monarch).

600,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance--this would heat up the reindeer in the same fashion as a spacecraft re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer would absorb 14.3 quintillion joules of energy per second each. In short, they would burst into flames almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them and creating deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team would be vaporized within 4.26 thousands of a second, or right about the time Santa reached the fifth house on his trip.

Not that it matters, however, since Santa, as a result of accelerating from a dead stop to 650 M.P.S. in .001 seconds, would be subjected to acceleration forces of 17,500 g's. A 250 pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of the sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force, instantly crushing his bones and organs and reducing him to a quivering blob of pink goo.

Therefore, if Santa did exist, he's dead now. Merry Christmas.

[Rguess21]

Originally posted by Barb101
Sorry, I'm bored :rolleyes:

Santa: An Engineer's Perspective
. This means Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second---3,000 times the sound of speed.


Sound of speed? bah-humbug:xmas: Go Santa:cool: