Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for December 23, 2022

The advent memory challenge

I did that once. Forgot a present I bought and had hidden for about a month.

“You know me very well.”

There’s one gift he’ll never have to worry about where he hid it.

His loving arms wrapped around her.

Keep forgetting the fourth day.

My gift hiding is easy. I put them in places around my basement woodshop – where my wife rarely goes. My wife, on the other hand, has to try to remember where she hid gifts for me and our four (nearly grown) kids. I’ve literally seen her excuse herself “to the restroom” mid gift-opening. I then hear paper crinkling and scissors snipping. When she reappears, she stealthily slips something into the pile at the base of the tree.

How about from LAST YEAR!! LOL! Better late than never!

Around the Christmas in year 40 of our 49-year marriage, we ceased giving each other gifts on Christmas. Instead, when she mentions something, she desires or needs, I hop online order it and say, “Merry Christmas”. It also is how we handle anniversary gifts, birthday gifts and Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.

Anyone else willing to bet that Janis knows where each present is hidden?

Off topic: A few days ago, another poster and I had a brief conversation about crypto. Now, I can’t find it. I want to mention that Dilbert is running a humorous series about crypto. The URL is dilbert.com

My mom is recognized on her block for baking the best Christmas cookies around. One past Christmas, she gave a platter of her homemade Christmas cookies to her neighbor a week before Christmas Day, and that neighbor hid the platter from his family to surprise them on Christmas morning. Well, turned out he forgot about those cookies and didn’t find them again until a couple weeks after New Years, and they were stale by then. He messed up big time and his wife never lets him forget it as she insists on accepting Mom’s cookie platter every Christmas from now on.

Oh, great. 50 people and 23 birds running around the house.

Shaping up to be a special Christmas alright. Incoming family members flights cancelled, local family members just discovered they are infected with Covid and some are ill enough to be worried about.

Practical jokes on yourself are the best kind, especially due to a faulty memory.

Just save one for little Christmas. Easier to remember and probably would be greatly appreciated. I usually do that myself….

We’ve been gifting experiences for years now – dinners out, theater, trips to far places – whatever we want. It works for us and we have memories and pictures. (over 53 years together)

We stopped getting specific presents. Just getting as much as the family as possible under the same roof together was grand. And we’d go out to a museum or play games together or go out for dinner. And one of the blockbuster movies was chosen. But for the simple pleasure of unwrapping a surprise, we also had a grab bag of inexpensive quirky gifts. Everyone brought a few small presents, put them into a pile, and we took turns unwrapping something. Bargaining and swapping and haggling was encouraged.

Now that we no longer have the house to gather at, new traditions will have to be made.

Do these 2 ever leave the house, like to visit their son and granddaughter? A Christmas visit sure would be nice once in awhile.

I gave up on christmas years ago – got so tired of the ‘what did you get?’ mindset. I never once heard anybody ask ‘what did you give?’.

Arlo is wanna be show boater!

If you do the math for the “12 days of christmas” the total number of gifts is 365. One for each days of the year. Although I have no idea what one would do with all those “lords a leaping” or those “maids a milking”.

Honestly, I wrap presents for my family during the weeks prior to Christmas, and by the time Christmas rolls around, I am as much at a loss as to what the presents are as they are.

Works like that here too. Not online shoppers just go to one of the stores in town.

Missing a couple of my wife’s – but they’ll be just as appropriate next year. Also have something for my sister we bought last year, but we found something better while traveling, and multiple things in two COVID-delayed European tours this year.

very good

About “The Twelve Days of Christmas” – Husband and I are 18th century reenactors. One of the members of our (civilian/non-military) unit was a school music teacher and a student of 18th century music – serves as the unit’s music master.

The original song was “The Seven Days of Christmas” and all of the gifts were birds. If you check the song – the first seven gifts are all birds – Five golden rings are not jewelry – they are a type of bird!