Best of/Worst of Holiday experiences.

[KMChechASS69r]

What are your favorite or not so favorite holiday memories?

 

[sth]

My best holiday experience was when I got a christmas package from a friend that totally caught me off guard. I wasn't expecting a present from them and it really meant a lot to me. My worst christmas was when I found my dad putting presents under the tree and he told me there wasn't Santa. Which I kind of already suspected.

 

[jakobeast]

Probably the worst Christmas was back in 04. I was getting gifts out of the car at my folks house when a drunk driver hit me and pinned me between the two cars. Broke my leg and I have permanent nerve damage. On the good side of it, I had a 3 month vacation, which was nice. Also on a positive, I got an ok amount from the insurance company three years later, which came in handy as a month later I was laid off and couldn't get another job for almost a year, so I was able to stay afloat.

 

[bri]

As a rule I don't post because I am not delusional enough to believe that anyone has any interest in what I have to say, but this was a good thread which everyone should be able to identify with in some way and for some reason it is not getting any attention. So I will add my two cents.





When I was in Kindergarten I had the first of my horrible Christmases. I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas in the hospital in an oxygen tent because I had pneumonia and had spiked a fever of 105.6. Like every little kid, I had been looking forward to Santa coming. Even though it was a major disappointment for me, it also turned out to be one of my best memories because when I got home from the hospital I found that Santa had left me my Barbie 57 Chevy. I loved that car and spent so many hours loading all my Barbies in it and pushing it around. I still have it somewhere. it looks like Jove's car.





Christmas of 2003 was another miserable Christmas. My dad had tonsil cancer and had surgery Dec 17th. He got home from the hospital Dec 20 and had a difficult recovery ahead. Compared to us that year, Bob Cratchet and his family looked like the Rockefellers. But even though it was a stressful difficult time, I got to wake of Christmas morning and be grateful my dad was still alive which was the best gift of all.



Christmas 2004 turned out to be a rerun of 2003. My dad had cancer again and had surgery Dec 9 to have all the lymph nodes in his neck removed. But in the end I count it as a wonderful Christmas cause he was still there with us and I wouldn't trade that for all the luxuries or gifts in the world.

 

[jakobeast]

You and me Bri. We had some shitty Christmases, however, we both kinda look at them in a positive light. It goes to show you that shittyness is temporary.



Life is like a picture. We develop from negatives.

 

[jaxhawksfan]

**** Christmas. (Not the religious part. The part about people going broke so they can buy so much unneeded shit for the little bastards who don't appreciate it in the first place.)



Is that a good enough Scrooge impersonation?



My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving, although I have had my share of hurt on Thanksgivings past. 85- Mom died. 89- Motorcycle accident. 91- Roommates brother involved in auto accident while I was spending Thanksgiving with them. With all that said, Thanksgiving is a time when you get together with people you enjoy spending time with (hopefully) and you eat, drink, and watch football. You reflect on what you are thankful for and you treat each other a little bit nicer (again, hopefully.) There is no pretense of gifts, pressure of spending outrageous amounts of money, and you usually get a long weekend of a holiday out of it (depending on your job.)

 

[TSD]

**** Christmas. (Not the religious part. The part about people going broke so they can buy so much unneeded shit for the little bastards who don't appreciate it in the first place.)



Is that a good enough Scrooge impersonation?



My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving, although I have had my share of hurt on Thanksgivings past. 85- Mom died. 89- Motorcycle accident. 91- Roommates brother involved in auto accident while I was spending Thanksgiving with them. With all that said, Thanksgiving is a time when you get together with people you enjoy spending time with (hopefully) and you eat, drink, and watch football. You reflect on what you are thankful for and you treat each other a little bit nicer (again, hopefully.) There is no pretense of gifts, pressure of spending outrageous amounts of money, and you usually get a long weekend of a holiday out of it (depending on your job.)

I agree with you RE: Presents. Look on craigslist right now, and you will see half the people trying to sell everything they own are doing it so they can afford christmas presents.



Some people can't afford this shit yet feel obligated, so they will rack up debt or sell half their belongings. I honestly think it should just be something reserved for kids alone if they are gonna do it. It gets really expensive when you are buying gifts for all the family that is going to be at your christmas gathering.



and personally I hate receiving gifts.

 

[sth]

I can't believe the lack of Christmas spirit TSD and Jax. You guys are gonna end up with a lump of coal in your stockings.

 

[BlackHawkPaul]

I can't believe the lack of Christmas spirit TSD and Jax. You guys are gonna end up with a lump of coal in your stockings.

I was thinking of heading to TSD's and taking a raging poop in his stocking.



Halloween is my favorite holiday. I used to come up with some very creative costumes. My best friend and I usually worked together on coming up with concepts, but his death in 2009 put that on hold for a while. This year my wife and I broke out of the funk to get a Scott Pilgrim themed Halloween. I was Gideon Graves, and she was Ramona Flowers. Everything was going as planned, then our cat went through chronic kidney failure.



Thanksgiving on a whole has been pleasant, and I had an odd Christmas a few years back when my sister had a nervous breakdown right around December 25. I'm sure as we all get older, not everything will be perfect, but I try to maintain the positives.

 

[TSD]

I can't believe the lack of Christmas spirit TSD and Jax. You guys are gonna end up with a lump of coal in your stockings.

Its not a lack of christmas spirit, that drive of gift giving puts alot of stress on families. You can still have christmas without giving gifts.



This about sums it up:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8X0sYpENco

 

[Ymono37]

Its not a lack of christmas spirit, that drive of gift giving puts alot of stress on families. You can still have christmas without giving gifts.

QFT



It's not Christmas I have a problem with (other than the over-commercialization it brings), but the fact that family members tend to get themselves WAAAAAY too wound up regarding gifting, hosting and traditions. So even if you don't give in to that kind of mindset, you have to deal with people close to you who do and that can be just as bad as having that crazy attitude yourself.

 

[jaxhawksfan]

Yep. I made the decision several years ago that I wasn't going to buy anything for anyone other than my nephew. I also don't accept anything. I used to spend Christmas with my larger, extended family back up in the region, but the more I looked around, everyone was just stressed out and in a pissy mood. Who the hell wants to be around that? Not me. There are some hilarious people/times with my family, but after a few hours together I'm done.

 

[KMChechASS69r]

You and me Bri. We had some shitty Christmases, however, we both kinda look at them in a positive light. It goes to show you that shittyness is temporary.



Life is like a picture. We develop from negatives.

Dude, I think that quote is awesome!





For me, my worst holidays that I can remember are when I was aboot 8 years old. My dad had left to "find work" but was prolly more like to find himself. Anywho, he was gone for about two years and came back just before Xmas '74. Other than that, the only other sucky holiday time was when I was in the Corps and over seas in '83.

 

[BigPete]

Not sure if I would classify this one as bad or good, but the only Christmas that I did not spend with family in Chicago was in 2002 when I was stationed in Korea. We did not have to work that day or the next so several of us NCOs had a pot luck party. Surprise surprise we also had lots of booze.



It was a fun time, but I definitely missed being home. At least we had snow at Camp Humphreys that night. We had an epic drunken snowball fight too.

 

[KMChechASS69r]

Not sure if I would classify this one as bad or good, but the only Christmas that I did not spend with family in Chicago was in 2002 when I was stationed in Korea. We did not have to work that day or the next so several of us NCOs had a pot luck party. Surprise surprise we also had lots of booze.



It was a fun time, but I definitely missed being home. At least we had snow at Camp Humphreys that night. We had an epic drunken snowball fight too.

We had a similar occasion at Camp Muchuk, down near Pohang Xmas '83. Funny how they don't sting as much when you've filled up on fresh "anti freeze!"

 

[jaxhawksfan]

Soju are saying that you felt no pain? (See what I did there?)

 

[LordKOTL]

I think the biggest problem with the holidays--as in the quasi-religious celebrations that are the excuse for the mass-capitalistic orgy, is that I think a lot of perspective is lost by a lot of the parents nowadays.



I know i was the black sheep of the so-called "family" I was in, and I usually made out like a hobo when my step-siblings (and even my bro), made out like bandits over the holidays, but even back then it seems more of a rarity than the de facto rule that a kid got everything on their list. I think part of the whole deal with the Holidays/birthdays is that you teach your kids that they can't always get exactly what they want and they need to appreciate what they do get.



On the other part of the dichotomy, if "It's not the gift but the thought that counts", then you do have to *actually* put some thought into it. I remember getting gifts that were about 5 years too young for me and it really made me wonder if my step-relatives actually gave a smeg or just went through the motions, ya know?



Still, I think the best "Christmas" I had recently was this past one--it was the first one I had with my wife, and we had her family skyped in and a freind and my bro and SiL on my our end. Good times were had

 

[KMChechASS69r]

Soju are saying that you felt no pain? (See what I did there?)

That shit is freakin' AWESOME! We used to get it from the mama/papa sans out in the field too. We were there twice and the second for Team Spirit '84 in the spring. Soju was the best way to stay warm at night. So. Korea was the coldest fucking place I have ever been! Half the time, that's all I had in my canteen.

 

[MassHavoc]

Me and my asian crew destroy Soju on our K nights...

 

[TSD]

I think the biggest problem with the holidays--as in the quasi-religious celebrations that are the excuse for the mass-capitalistic orgy, is that I think a lot of perspective is lost by a lot of the parents nowadays.



I know i was the black sheep of the so-called "family" I was in, and I usually made out like a hobo when my step-siblings (and even my bro), made out like bandits over the holidays, but even back then it seems more of a rarity than the de facto rule that a kid got everything on their list. I think part of the whole deal with the Holidays/birthdays is that you teach your kids that they can't always get exactly what they want and they need to appreciate what they do get.



On the other part of the dichotomy, if "It's not the gift but the thought that counts", then you do have to *actually* put some thought into it. I remember getting gifts that were about 5 years too young for me and it really made me wonder if my step-relatives actually gave a smeg or just went through the motions, ya know?



Still, I think the best "Christmas" I had recently was this past one--it was the first one I had with my wife, and we had her family skyped in and a freind and my bro and SiL on my our end. Good times were had

For Christmas, my grandma always gives me gift certificates to sit down restaurants(like 100 dollars worth of 25 dollar gift cards to different places. That was fine when I had a longterm girlfriend, we made use of them. Now over the past 2 years I have a collection of gift cards to olive garden, chili's and the like. I am not going to take a new girl on a date to any of those restaurants, let alone use a gift card in front of them, nuthin says "are you impressed" than takin a girl out on a date to a place you have a gift card for. If I go catch a bite with a buddy it will more than likely be at a bar and I'm not going to go eat alone.