Probably chilly and damp…
Posting this late on the Eve, so not positive.
Got all the stuff for Christmas morning done. Late night. Too much sugar and nogg.
My sincere best wishes for Peace, Hope, and Love on this day to everyone reading these words.
I know Robert wasn’t religious or sentimental, but I think Christmas is one of the special days no matter your beliefs. Even from a purely secular approach it’s a fun day and important to our shared culture and mythos.
And hey, simply saying “Merry Christmas” puts a thumb in the eye of people who need thumbin’…
Enjoy the day, enjoy the people you love, raise a glass to absent friends.
nick flandrey
A very Happy Christmas to you all.
Good morning and Merry Christmas! A jolly fat man left a metric ton of presents last night, and his wife did some work too đ
I could run the Pac NW off the suppressed energy from a certain little girl, so i’d better get busy with breakfast….
n
I know Robert wasnât religious or sentimental, but I think Christmas is one of the special days no matter your beliefs. Even from a purely secular approach itâs a fun day and important to our shared culture and mythos.
I think Robert was more religious/sentimental than he let on.
America needs the time off at the end of the year IMHO. In 25 years, working for three significant-sized international companies, only the Americans I’ve met will get on a plane, travel around the world, and work 50-60 hour weeks in return for 2-3 weeks vacation and a salary for the lifestyle equivalent of < $100k/year.
Obviously, the markets needed a break in the trading today.
Merry Christmas all!
Christmas was a success here. I was actually surprised by one of my gifts. The wife liked her gifts. The boy liked his gifts. Success all around.
One of the gifts we got our son was an entry level drone. I canât wait to fly it…er, watch him fly it….
@Lynn — If you bought the car, let me know if you need help with the USB drive format. It took me a couple of hours of trial and error to get right.
“Simply saying âMerry Christmasâ puts a thumb in the eye of people who need thumbinâ⌔ â that’ll be my word to take away!
Well, presents are all open, and squealing is back to normal levels. I had a nap. Not feeling super though. One daughter is coming down with something and maybe her old man is too.
The NORAD Santa tracker convinced the oldest that “he really is real!” so we got another year. I’m glad for that. The ‘magical’ time is too short these days.
Maybe I should shower, shave, and dress? Christmas dinner isn’t going to cook itself after all….
n
@Lynn â If you bought the car, let me know if you need help with the USB drive format. It took me a couple of hours of trial and error to get right.
Nope, not yet. The wife refuses to make a decision. She likes her little Honda Civic hotrod even though shifting is hurting her right arm that she has had two surgeries on (breast cancer 13 years ago). I’ve told her that we can get a good price now but …
The particular Highlander that we are interested in has a CD player. I’ve digitized several of our CDs now so I do want to try the USB thing out eventually. If we wait until the 2020 models then the CD player will probably no longer be there.
If my eye is going to be subjected to some thumbin’, I had better remove my eyeglasses.
Happy Holidays to all!
Merry Christmas from the Crescent City!
Just curious…
At what age do most parents figure a kid should be told there
is no Santa Claus?
Just curiousâŚ
At what age do most parents figure a kid should be told there
is no Santa Claus?
45.
@spook, the kids figure it out, or are told by other kids at school. The little ones hurt when they are told, and it’s intentional from the older kids. They establish their superiority buy telling the ‘babies’ not to believe anymore.
We’ve gone to pretty great lengths to avoid actually lying to them about it, but we change subject, reflect the questions, and say things like ‘only people who believe in him get presents from him.” Their natural avarice is usually enough to shut down questions at that point.
If faced with a straight up unambiguous question from the older child, I’d ask her if it’s more fun to believe in him (or act like you do) than not.
They WANT to believe. It’s way more fun. But the older kids peck at them constantly.
We DO things to reinforce the belief and add magic- reindeer food gets left out, and in the morning there are hoof prints and a nose print on the door. There is a boot print in the ash of the fireplace, the Santa food gets eaten, etc.
I want to keep the magic alive for the little one as long as I can.
n
And the older one has a fever of 101F. Joy.
n
”The little ones hurt when they are told, and itâs intentional from the older kids. They establish their superiority buy telling the âbabiesâ not to believe anymore.”
Intentional hurt by an older child of, say, even a seven year old, would be deliberate cruelty on the part of that monstrous older child.
Children are cruel. They are only socialized and civilized during the process of growing up in a culture that values those things.
The very strange counterpart to that is they have a VERY highly developed sense of ‘fairness’. (Research says dogs do too.) They want their fairness enforced eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, and IMMEDIATELY. When that doesn’t happen you get the whine “that’s not faaiiirrrrr…..”
This is especially vexing because the default setting for the universe seems to be “unfair.”
n
”Children are cruel. They are only socialized and civilized during the process of growing up in a culture that values those things.”
And, as noted, some big babies are never socialized and civilized.
and a lot of cultures don’t value those things…
n
Which is adequate justification, all on its own, for saying it.
Yes, and that’s why we’re able to pay for half of the world’s defense and the overwhelming majority of the world’s foreign aid, as well as the vast majority of drug development and other research.
Have you seen the joke — “joke” — about declaring 50,000,000 dependents on your income tax form? It should be 3,000,000,000.
I never told the kids about Santa, other than telling traditional stories. I didn’t interfere when my wife said “Santa’s coming tonight” or whatever, but I never said it myself. “Fostering a sense of joy and wonder” be hanged, I won’t tell a lie, certainly not to my children.
Home from Christmas at the son’s. Started getting sick on Sunday (the day we arrived), Monday was not great. Christmas day was worse. After opening gifts headed back to bed for a couple more hours sleep. Drove back today leaving a day earlier than planned. Could not hold or touch the grandson for obvious reasons.
Got a DNA Ancestry kit. It will be interesting to see where my background belongs. On the other hand I am putting my information into a database that can be accessed by the government. Not exactly a comfortable feeling.
Wife’s brother got a DNA kit that not only gives his background origination but also looks for genetic markers to spot diseases. I would hate to know that I have a high likely hood of developing some form of cancer. I would love to know that I have no cancer markers. That would be a tough, knowing or not knowing. The danger becomes if some health insurance gets that data. Privacy should be a major concern.
Fortunately, the seven-year-old didn’t know the word “marginal” …
Or didn’t fall for the usual manipulation …
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/south-carolina-girl-7-who-spoke-to-trump-about-santa-says-she-still-believes
Just finished cleaning up dinner.
I only made one 3 1/2 pound ribeye roast. We had one and a half slices left. Daughter wasn’t feeling well, and the other must have found some xmas candy. I’ve got the other roast in the oven. I’d defrosted it, and it was short time, so I decided to cook it after for sandwiches and leftovers.
Wife made baked potatoes, green bean casserole (from scratch), and an apple pie.
My belly is FULL.
Daughter One’s fever is back under 100F but she’s not feeling great. It’s a bummer to be off school and sick.
I used my present (battery powered leaf blower) to move all the little bits of plastic and paper to one side of the house. I like it a LOT. Then I used it to blow the dust off the books in the bookcases. May never get around to using it outside đ
n
Genetic testing is the slippery slope. It WILL end up as some version of Gattaca, the incentives are too strong.
If you’ve had family that got typed, then you are essentially typed too (as the recent police uses demonstrated).
There can be surprises, some quite unwelcome. I have a friend that discovered he’s not the biological child of his parents, and not even the same ethnicity he was raised as. That is a pretty big shocker… My sibling discovered that there isn’t any Amerind in our background, despite the family oral history.
There are some cool aspects. Most of the sites will animate on the world map how your ancestors (and those with similar genetics) flowed around the world over time. I found that to be fascinating.
It is another example of something people would fight against if the .gov demanded it, but are happy to do to themselves… (like the constant tracking online, or putting a bell in your bedroom that anyone in the world can cause to ring at any time of day or night…)
n
Merry Christmas from the deforested panhandle of Florida. We’ve lost so many trees that the addition of a few Christmas trees is an emotional relief. Personally, my home is short 15 trees as compared to a year ago, and I live in one of the less affected areas.
Yes, and thatâs why weâre able to pay for half of the worldâs defense and the overwhelming majority of the worldâs foreign aid, as well as the vast majority of drug development and other research.
My management is currently looking for Linux admin engineers to do 65%+ travel for less than six figures, and the official policy is that airline miles are the company’s property, not compensation. That combined with the ticket pricing restrictions, lack of company credit card, and extremely short notice on jobs should make the gig a revolving door, but they’re going to give it a shot to see if anyone is sufficiently hungry to sign on the bottom line.
A Ginsberg bio pic? Really?
Again, I’m old enough to remember that Ginsberg sits in the “political payola” seat of the modern Supreme Court, Clinton payola deciding the successor of a Kennedy payola appointment in Byron White. Hopefully, Trump payola decides her successor.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/12/25/on-the-basis-of-sex-review-rbg-223557
I’m calling it an early night.
so…
Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night!
n
I used my present (battery powered leaf blower) to move all the little bits of plastic and paper to one side of the house. I like it a LOT. Then I used it to blow the dust off the books in the bookcases. May never get around to using it outside
Ok, @nick wins the coolness award on the board for Christmas day !
This is especially vexing because the default setting for the universe seems to be âunfair.â
Yup. My wife bought foam dominoes for the daughter so we could play chicken foot tonight without the noise sending piercing shrieks through her perpetual migraine due to the Lyme disease. We also had the dining room light one notch above off so the bright light would not do the same.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_foot_(game)
And that is enough seriousness on this day of joy.
Wife made baked potatoes, green bean casserole (from scratch), and an apple pie.
My belly is FULL.
We had turkey breast, green bean casserole (yes, made from scratch), some sort of weird but good spicy stovetop dressing, line jello salad, and homemade pumpkin pie.
My belly is full and then some.
No presents here, but we made a bunch of Christmas cookies. And we’re having a whole week of extra yummy meals. Which my waistline will pay for, but hey…
@Spook: Our kids are big now, but our philosophy was simple: Kids should grow up knowing that Santa is a fun tradition, but not real. Same for the Easter Bunny, or Halloween, or anything else. Kids are perfectly capable of diving into a fantasy world for a day or three – and we happily dove in with them. This doesn’t in any way harm their holiday enjoyment.
FWIW: We also explained to them that some kids do believe in Santa, and that they should not pop other kids’ balloons.
On a serious note: Why would we want to deliberately deceive our kids, over the course of many years? For me, that would be a fundamental betrayal of trust.
– – – – –
Genetic testing: Yep, there are a lot of surprises lurking. OTOH, one has to take it all with a *huge* grain of salt. There have been numerous documented cases of the staff adding or altering results, to suit private agendas. Also, the tests themselves are not always reliable. I recall two interesting cases:
– In one case, a woman with identical twins sent in samples from both, curious to see what would happen. The results were dramatically different.
– In another case, someone got results back that partly reflected their (ethnically distinct) partner. Think: saliva swap during kissing.
The tests only look at specific markers (how many, and which ones differ). Reliability is not yet there…
A good time was had by all. Eldest was disappointed that she didn’t get a laptop, but she wasn’t surprised. I had told her “no” already.
Spent the day with family, which is something I didn’t do for more than a few years. It’s a good thing to do.
#1 son and I put together a Pokemon Go character Lego set. We got to spend time together, helping each other, and chatting. We get to do that a lot, and I love it every time.
Breakfast at my sister’s house consisted of a LOT of gluten-free food, including a French Toast casserole that was just delicious. I kept to one plate there because the afternoon included a Turkey dinner at my Mother-in-Law’s. Delicious. One plate there as well. I already have a holiday bulge, and it’s time to work it off.
We talk to the kids about Santa the same way we talk about cutting off a foot for a mosquito bite or beatings for sneezing. Never going to happen. But we have a good time about it. Kids “believed” in Santa, but were never invested in the guy. It was Mom & Dad who took care of things, and they knew it.
Wrt Santa, I have the same problems talking to them about religion. When you gonna tell them there is no god? All their friends believe. . .
We’ve been careful with religions beliefs and traditions too. Same techniques of redirecting, questioning, “some people think”… etc. If she ever asks me flat out, I’ll tell her the truth as I see it, but “no sweetheart, I don’t believe there is a god who cares about us, or a heaven, or hell, life is short, brutal, pointless, and then you end” is a bit more than I want to put on my 9yo at the moment.
I love that the world is still full of magic and wonder for them, where their stories can come to life, and their imaginations never stop.
Plenty of time for cynicism and reality in the years to come.
n
@Nick: I hear you. It was much the same for us: we’re not religious (although I was raised so). When the kids were old enough to think about such things – tweens/early-teens iirc – then some discussions came up naturally. I told them what I think, with the caveat that other people believe differently.
I even took them to a church service with my (very religious) family in Texas. They mostly found it weird, but they were impressed in a way: “wow, they take it really seriously”, which was a good lesson to learn…
“life is short, brutal, pointless”
It’s not quite that stark, at least, I don’t think so. We can make a difference in the lives around us, feel useful and needed, and hope that good things will beget good things, and flow down history. And really, we don’t understand the ultimate questions. Religions, strange quantum theories, maybe we’re living in a simulation, maybe it’s turtles all the way down – who knows? Whatever the truth, there is no harm in living life as best as we know how…
“Whatever the truth, there is no harm in living life as best as we know how⌔
yes, this.
n
(most of the time, I don’t actually feel that starkly about it. There are days though….)
The Freedom From Religion Foundation has or had a kid’s book, Just Pretend, which draws comparisons about the “fun little lie” about Santa to the equivalent about religion. FFRF lists the book on their Publications page, but the link is a 404. However, their entire site shows signs of needing a lot of care so that doesn’t mean anything about the book’s continued existence.
I bought a copy of Just Pretend when my one son was six-ish. He was disturbed by the implications but didn’t reject them. And then the book was destroyed in a fury by a girlfriend who could not tolerate “basic truths” being questioned.
The premise is good but the conclusion is wrong. There is no ultimate authority to tell us what is good or right, meaning that our decisions are up to us. Yes, you’ll eventually die and have nothing left … except for the legacy you’ve left. Set a goal, get out there, make an impact, leave the world better than it was. Or just drift, go through life day by day, then die having meant nothing. It’s all in your hands. It’s an inspirational message, looked at the right way.