Okay so apparently @jadestone wants to see my answers to this. So away we go. (Edit: @rainedemure apparently also wanted me to do this.)
1. How was your Thanksgiving and what are you thankful for?
My Thanksgiving was uneventful, for which I'm thankful; I'm not much of a Thanksgiving fan. But also, I'm thankful for my family, the related and the chosen both, and for the relatively blessed life I lead, all things considered.
2. Who's putting up a Christmas tree 🎄?
I probably am! Ours is a black tree with purple lights. I can't remember if we have a topper. Time to look at .stls and see if there's something vaguely Christmas spooky for a tree topper, I suppose.
3. Do you have any family tradition for Thanksgiving and Christmas?
Trying to make some new ones. I don't really have much of the family I had when I was a kid. But one thing my mother did every Christmas Eve that I'm trying to get into the swing of doing is reading "T'was the Night Before Christmas".
4. Your best advice?
When I first wrote an answer here, it was that I didn't really give out advice. Then I remembered all the online folks I'd talked to and been a sounding board for and helped them out of being really bummed. I remembered all the people who have looked for advice in an online group for aces and the advice I supplied there. All the input and advice I've given to my wife, as equal as she has given me. I have given advice. It's just that it's never really the same uniform advice. I don't think there's really a lot of uniform advice that exists. If there's one thing I guess I'd say to everyone, if I could?
You matter. Your existence matters. You might not see it, but the pet or brother or friend or just that one guy that comes into the place you work at every Tuesday because his routine needs to continue to be exact or he breaks down? They notice. Your existence matters to them. The fact that you are, even if it's just taking food from the DoorDash person or popping over to a place occasionally to buy, I dunno, an energy drink or mints or that one chocolate bar you like even though you really probably shouldn't be eating it and seeing the same person at the register that you always see. In some odd way, even if it's minor, your presence matters to people. There is no point in time where you don't matter. Regardless of what anyone says, even in this vast universe with uncountable stars and innumerable celestial bodies, your comparatively small life in the face of such vastness is akin to a single atom out of place, it matters to the system at large. It alters the whole, and you're a part of it, like it or not. You matter, and don't let anyone, including your own brain, tell you otherwise.
5. Do you have any holiday charities you donate to?
Not currently.
6. Your favorite Christmas song?
Away in a Manger, What Child is This, We Three Kings, and White Christmas are at the top of my list. But really, a fair chunk of the hymns are in my head forever, and from December 1st until December 26th is Christmas music time.
7. Your best Christmas present, your choices given or received?
As in the best gift I've given or gotten? Because I can't remember either way. Do I prefer getting or giving gifts? Both, for different reasons.
8. Do you have your Christmas shopping done?
Nope.
9. Fun question something you enjoy during the Holidays?
Seeing how people decorate their homes. Baking treats. Laying under the tree and looking up into all the lights and decorations. Trying to take it slower while everything else is pushing us to take it faster, feel more pressure, worry more, especially during the holidays.
10. Do you have plans for New Years eve?
Not at the moment.
11. Your goals for the new year 2024?
I don't plan that far ahead.
12. Your New Years resolution?
Same as last year: I resolve to make no resolution for the new year.
13. Your favorite hobbies?
Oh that's easy, the hobby that I have a degree in, Art. And also games ( both digital and physical).
14. Do you do Christmas cards?
No.
15. Share anything you want from your past holiday's?
Very well, two stories:
There was the time when I was a kid that my family got a fake tree, and my mom had a pine scented candle, and my aunt came into our house to visit and she breathed deep and said it was such a lovely tree this year (because we usually had a real one). And my mom, trying to swallow the giggles and mostly failing, informed her that the tree was fake. My aunt then looked quite festive in her green jacket and deep red face. She was teased about this every year after, and though not usually a gracious sort towards that sort of thing (she was better at dishing out than at taking it), she still got a laugh, a genuine laugh out of it.
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It was a Christmas at or near the year 2000. My mom's chronic illness hit her hard that year, and it was Christmas Eve and she was so tired. Did my brother already know everything he needed to know about Santa? Sure, but my mom insisted on continuing, on making Christmas magic (I suspect she needed the magic as much if not more than my brother). My sister wasn't there at the time so it was just my mom, my brother, and myself, and what I did was make my mom comfy on the couch, and ask her what was next, what else there was to do, and she told me a few things and then she nodded off. I finished everything else, wrapping any presents as carefully as I could, putting the requisite items in stockings hung at our fireplace like every year, I even wrapped up little candy bundles and in a flowing script I wrote on them a 'to' and 'from', signing for Santa. As I was finishing the last thing she woke up and asked what else there was to do, and I told her I'd done it all. I will never forget the look of gratitude on her face.
I'm not tagging anyone, but if you see this, and want to answer these, then go for it.
