My husband and I had a hotel room for our first New Years Eve together, but he was there for work and passed out before midnight. I rang in the New Year with cable and a beer.
When I was a wee lad of 8 years, my family went on a trip for Xmas but they mistakenly left me behind. I was incredibly independent for my age and tried to make the best of it by eating pizza, jumping on my parents bed, watching old gangster movies and making a royal mess. Then two burglars tried to rob the house. I thwarted them at every turn dishing out healthy doses of pain and frustration. Boy was it fun. You might think that this would qualify as a great holiday. Unfortunately it was my last holiday of happiness as I swiftly faded into the realm of irrelevance.
I came from a family of 8 kids. We weren't "poor" but things were tight around Christmas time. Between balancing the checkbook and trying to figure out which of my parents was shopping for who, things got really hectic.
One year, Santa didn't leave me a gift (all the gifts under the tree were labeled from Mom and Dad, and Santa would deliver one big gift per kid). Back then, I wasn't the type that spoke my mind or asked questions. I was used to not receiving much attention, so I didn't bother complaining. I was trying my best to be happy with the way things were. While I sat watching my siblings play with their cool new toys, for what felt like ages, I started wondering if I had been naughty that year. I tried to be a good kid but I figured maybe I had just forgotten about something that I did. That is probably the saddest and most depressed I ever got as a kid.
Later that day, I was helping my dad round up the wrapping paper and he pulled me aside and explained that he and Mom forgot to tell Santa what I wanted that year and handed me a hundred-dollar bill. A hundred bucks to me back then was like $1000 now. I was floored.
A couple of years ago my dad asked me if I remembered that Christmas. He then told me that as badly as I must have felt, that he likely felt ten times worse. I can't imagine how bad I would have felt in his situation, but I know it was an honest mistake. I only have 3 kids, but even still, things get crazy this time of year.
I try extra hard to make sure my kids are all accounted for on Christmas. I don't want them to go through what I went through, but more importantly, I don't want to feel the way my dad must have felt back then.
There's probably a lot of "we did nothing for New Years" stories. I have a fuzzy memory of one year I was hanging out with @snapster and we just played Sega Hockey and then went to bed. I think that's accurately "mediocre" in that it wasn't bad at all, it was just meh. Not like other years where I got terribly sick or possibly did embarrassing things or who knows what. The best New Years are the quiet ones these days.
I had my own version of Home Alone about ten years ago. I drove 650 miles to my Mom's farm on my birthday, Dec 23. Arrived late at night in heavy fog, crept down their quarter mile gravel driveway with my Civic's belly rubbing on the mound created by their 4WDs. Arrived at a cold, dark house. House was unlocked. No one home, no note, nothing. Expecting the family back I didn't want to take anyone's bed so I laid down on the floor and went to sleep with only the outdoor cat I lured into the house for company. This is in the days before we got cell phones. Woke to an empty house on Christmas eve, getting worried. Spent all day banging around scared for what might be going on. This farm was in the Middle of Nowhere, east Texas. Went grocery shopping in the late afternoon and bought all the stuff for the Christmas dinner I traditionally cooked. Slept that night on my mom's bed, still only the cat for company. Woke up Christmas morning, plugged in the tree, and started cooking. What else could I do? At about 11am the family rolled in. My sister'd had some kind of boyfriend crisis and they'd driven to Minnesota to get her. No one even thought to leave a note or to call back to the house and let me know what the heck had happened. No one seemed to think it was strange to have left me in the dark for three days. We ate the dinner I'd prepared and I stayed a couple of more days and drove home. A couple of years later they divorced and had to sell the farm, and I drove back up there and got that cat. I still have her.
@moondrake, this reminds me so much of the recent game Gone Home. Played it? It might actually feel too weird, with how similarly it starts (though there are notes left).
Every time I try to think of a mediocre holiday memory (other than New Years) all I come up with are sad ones. So, my holidays are either really good or really down. No mediocre middle ground. My birthday on the other hand - usually shares a weekend with Thanksgiving. There were several years where my mom just brought out a cake with all the pies. (My oldest sister was born a day away from Valentines and always got heart shaped cakes and stuffed animals. Youngest siblings were born a few days from Christmas and are twins, they would get "twin" combo gifts for birthday and Christmas. We have the mediocre birthday thing DOWN PAT.
@Thumperchick, With a birthday of December 23rd, I definitely hear you on the combo gifts problem. There were a few years as a kid when I put my foot down and demanded "No Christmas on my birthday!" but mostly it got swept over. Actually my most mediocre holiday was my birthday year before last when not a single one of my friends or family acknowledged my birthday. My estranged dad and one of my coworkers gave me cards or else it would have passed completely unobserved. I was a bit put out with my friends as I'd thrown expensive birthday party cookouts with bakery bought cakes for four of them that year.
@moondrake@thumperchick Having a December 26th birthday I know just what you mean by combo gifts and getting lost in the season. I was lucky though that my parents went out of their way to make sure that my birthday didn't get lost in the shuffle, even when they weren't in good financial shape. It did get lost amongst other family and friends where you get two crappy gifts instead of one better one (traumatic stuff for a kid). Parents of holiday babies can prevent holiday birthday blues.
When I was a wee lad of 8 years, my family went on a trip for Xmas but they mistakenly left me behind. I was incredibly independent for my age and tried to make the best of it by eating pizza, jumping on my parents bed, watching old gangster movies and making a royal mess. Then two burglars tried to rob the house. I thwarted them at every turn dishing out healthy doses of pain and frustration. Boy was it fun. You might think that this would qualify as a great holiday. Unfortunately it was my last holiday of happiness as I swiftly faded into the realm of irrelevance.
A great Bel-Air.
I came from a family of 8 kids. We weren't "poor" but things were tight around Christmas time. Between balancing the checkbook and trying to figure out which of my parents was shopping for who, things got really hectic.
One year, Santa didn't leave me a gift (all the gifts under the tree were labeled from Mom and Dad, and Santa would deliver one big gift per kid). Back then, I wasn't the type that spoke my mind or asked questions. I was used to not receiving much attention, so I didn't bother complaining. I was trying my best to be happy with the way things were. While I sat watching my siblings play with their cool new toys, for what felt like ages, I started wondering if I had been naughty that year. I tried to be a good kid but I figured maybe I had just forgotten about something that I did. That is probably the saddest and most depressed I ever got as a kid.
Later that day, I was helping my dad round up the wrapping paper and he pulled me aside and explained that he and Mom forgot to tell Santa what I wanted that year and handed me a hundred-dollar bill. A hundred bucks to me back then was like $1000 now. I was floored.
A couple of years ago my dad asked me if I remembered that Christmas. He then told me that as badly as I must have felt, that he likely felt ten times worse. I can't imagine how bad I would have felt in his situation, but I know it was an honest mistake. I only have 3 kids, but even still, things get crazy this time of year.
I try extra hard to make sure my kids are all accounted for on Christmas. I don't want them to go through what I went through, but more importantly, I don't want to feel the way my dad must have felt back then.
I was worried that was going to end with your dad trying to say you had been naughty. Glad he owned up to it.
There's probably a lot of "we did nothing for New Years" stories. I have a fuzzy memory of one year I was hanging out with @snapster and we just played Sega Hockey and then went to bed. I think that's accurately "mediocre" in that it wasn't bad at all, it was just meh. Not like other years where I got terribly sick or possibly did embarrassing things or who knows what. The best New Years are the quiet ones these days.
@denboy, Right... nice Home Alone reference.
I had my own version of Home Alone about ten years ago. I drove 650 miles to my Mom's farm on my birthday, Dec 23. Arrived late at night in heavy fog, crept down their quarter mile gravel driveway with my Civic's belly rubbing on the mound created by their 4WDs. Arrived at a cold, dark house. House was unlocked. No one home, no note, nothing. Expecting the family back I didn't want to take anyone's bed so I laid down on the floor and went to sleep with only the outdoor cat I lured into the house for company. This is in the days before we got cell phones. Woke to an empty house on Christmas eve, getting worried. Spent all day banging around scared for what might be going on. This farm was in the Middle of Nowhere, east Texas. Went grocery shopping in the late afternoon and bought all the stuff for the Christmas dinner I traditionally cooked. Slept that night on my mom's bed, still only the cat for company. Woke up Christmas morning, plugged in the tree, and started cooking. What else could I do? At about 11am the family rolled in. My sister'd had some kind of boyfriend crisis and they'd driven to Minnesota to get her. No one even thought to leave a note or to call back to the house and let me know what the heck had happened. No one seemed to think it was strange to have left me in the dark for three days. We ate the dinner I'd prepared and I stayed a couple of more days and drove home. A couple of years later they divorced and had to sell the farm, and I drove back up there and got that cat. I still have her.
Maybe would have been more fun had some burglars come a knockin, you could've cooked for them.
Wow. That would have freaked me out so much.
@moondrake, this reminds me so much of the recent game Gone Home. Played it? It might actually feel too weird, with how similarly it starts (though there are notes left).
Every time I try to think of a mediocre holiday memory (other than New Years) all I come up with are sad ones. So, my holidays are either really good or really down. No mediocre middle ground.
My birthday on the other hand - usually shares a weekend with Thanksgiving. There were several years where my mom just brought out a cake with all the pies.
(My oldest sister was born a day away from Valentines and always got heart shaped cakes and stuffed animals. Youngest siblings were born a few days from Christmas and are twins, they would get "twin" combo gifts for birthday and Christmas.
We have the mediocre birthday thing DOWN PAT.
I'm with you @thumperchick. My birthday's also usually the same week as Thanksgiving, so I just eat pie instead of cake.
@dave, Never heard of it. PvZ is as trendy as I get. I'll have to look at the description for it.
Unfortunately it's not iOS (yet): http://store.steampowered.com/app/232430/
Looks cool. I don't own any Apple products, but I'd like to see it for Android. That's where I do most of my gaming.
@Thumperchick, With a birthday of December 23rd, I definitely hear you on the combo gifts problem. There were a few years as a kid when I put my foot down and demanded "No Christmas on my birthday!" but mostly it got swept over. Actually my most mediocre holiday was my birthday year before last when not a single one of my friends or family acknowledged my birthday. My estranged dad and one of my coworkers gave me cards or else it would have passed completely unobserved. I was a bit put out with my friends as I'd thrown expensive birthday party cookouts with bakery bought cakes for four of them that year.
@moondrake @thumperchick Having a December 26th birthday I know just what you mean by combo gifts and getting lost in the season. I was lucky though that my parents went out of their way to make sure that my birthday didn't get lost in the shuffle, even when they weren't in good financial shape. It did get lost amongst other family and friends where you get two crappy gifts instead of one better one (traumatic stuff for a kid). Parents of holiday babies can prevent holiday birthday blues.
Love the graphic! Saved the graphic.