Miasmatic Review

Christmas, survived.

Christmas is over, that means I have a truckload of stuff to take to the Salvation Army. All the old, un-played with toys have to go in order to make room for all the new, un-played with toys. For those of you that have kids, I have a question.

Have you ever noticed that your kids receive more toys then they can play with, yet they usually have one or two that they will play with to annoyance, and never look at any of the other gifts for more then five minutes?

That’s our house. Clone received all kinds of presents from Mom, Dad, Boopie, Santa, Grandmas, Grandpas, Aunts and Uncles. Every toy had to be unwrapped, assembled (Santa and I are having a talk next year, no more of this “some assembly required” crap fat man. Else I’m going to be “deer hunting” next Christmas Eve) and in working condition. Once that was done, Clone would play with it for five minutes, stop and go to something else. He has some toys that he had me take out of the wrapping just to watch me take out of the wrapping; he hasn’t played with them at all. On the other hand, Santa gave him some toy guns. A submachine gun and a 9mm semi-auto pistol that when you pull the trigger on both the slides actually have realistic action, he loves those. He also received a toy .30-30 lever action and a Colt .45 Peacemaker in a western set. All with appropriate sounds, including a ratchet noise with the lever is cranked on the .30-30. Those toy guns are his favorite toys by far. If they where real, there would not be a standing structure with on 500 yards of our house.

Boopie, being 12, is too old for Santa. He still gets a stocking, but no presents. Which is good for him, because then Ktreva and I could sink all the money into getting him stuff he would rather have. We decided that he needed a PSP, (Play Station Portable) for Christmas. Since they are relatively new, the system and the games for them are fairly expensive still. That was his major gift from us, that and some games for it. We were going to get him a movie to watch, but wasn’t sure what kind he would want. At least I know he really likes it. He charged the battery, drained it, charged it again, drained it again and charged it a third time. Do you know how much game play that is? I would list the other stuff he received, but he pretty much ignored those.

Boopie is on his way to Florida with his biological father to visit relatives down there. Actually he probably is there as they where flying out last night. He wanted to take the PSP with, but I had to say no. Let’s just say while with his biological father I could see it being “lost” or broken. Either that or the biological will tell everyone he got it for him as he’s done in years past with really good/expensive gifts. Yes, I might sound as if I’m being snarky about not letting Boopie take his new gift. Honestly, I’m just trying to protect him. He’s going to discover things about his parents in time; I just don’t want him to find out during Christmas. That’s why I gave him the cover that I didn’t think PSPs where allowed on airplanes and I didn’t want it confiscated. I’d rather he think I’m being mean and an idiot at this point in his life.

Ktreva’s favorite gift was the Sims2 Expansion packs she was wanting. I could pretend it was the necklaces that I put much thought into before buying, but no, it was the games. Hey, I don’t blame her. There is a lot more interaction with a game then with a necklace.

My big gift was a food dehydrator. I had been talking about making my own jerky for a while now, so Ktreva decided she was going to get me the stuff to do it. She also gave me the Firefly series on DVD. Both of those are the gifts that keep on giving. I can watch firefly and eat my homemade jerky all year. You never get tired of Firefly and jerky!

Overall, it was a good Christmas in our household.