merry merry. happy happy.

Dollar Store Secret Santa has been going on since college and now the group is larger and each year stockings more and more ridiculous.



The rules are simple:

- When picking names you can't get yourself or your significant other
- Items in the stocking have to be under a dollar

This year, I got Matt D and he got me. And it's fair to say, he got me good.



In my stocking was:

• 6 crafty paper hats (one pictured)
• a grow-an-ostrich in a plastic egg
• a weird foot shaped foot scrubber
• 2 small plastic skulls
• a wooden exclamation point
• a monkey covering his eyes
• a ramones-esque skull sticker
• 2 koosh-ball looking animals
• 2 stick on mustaches
• HOME in sequins (Matt D read this as a creative spelling of "homey" apparently)
• a pair of pom pom keychains (one has since been given to Matt D as a symbol of our friendship)
• a tiny box of angry bunny stickers
• a dog that kind of looks like a lion
• a child size Miami Dolphins shot glass
• a matchbook of small candles
• a wooden letter K with markers to color it
• glittery monkey stickers
• a nail file (because Matt D enjoys torturing me with flashbacks to Black Swan)
• a modded Jake The Cowboy sticker book with Jake Gyllenhaal's face and added commentary
• AND... the complete 98° discography. Three in my stocking and the last two wrapped as a present and marked "OPEN THIS LAST". That last one took a lot of dedication and apparently a lot of scouring through the bargain bins at Record Archive. Now, whenever we carpool with MAMA's house—I'll bring the tunes.

And poor Bill had to wait through stockings and presentes before he was allowed to open the 3+ foot tall present Anna carried in for him.

By the time we were done with Christmas, it was barely over an hour until the New Year—which we rang in with Christmas Crackers, paper hats and champagne.

Kind of wished someone had asked me to talk about Jefferson at this point—for my own version of Drunken History.

Oh, and PS: Still finding confetti EVERYWHERE.

auld lang syne.

Of all the New Year's parties we've thrown, I think last night was one of the best. This is probably for a couple of reasons:

• We have the coolest friends in the world, therefore success is guaranteed.

• Tuesday night's trip to Party City yeilded a bounty of decorations, hats, noisemakers and other party-enhancing accessories.
• There was an insane amount of awesome food. From mini burgers for the carnivorous crowd to some spicy vegan chilli, there was something for everyone.
• Sweet, sweet playlist put together by Matt.
  
• There was an equally crazy amount of adult beverages. Anna invented and in the same night perfected her recipe for Peppermint Dickables (frozen peppermint martini mix + vodka + chocolate milk). My drink of choice was Diet Pepsi with UV Cherry Vodka. It was amazing and at the same time it was dangerous because I couldn't taste the alcohol at all.
• Pick up games of party balloon volleyball.
• The start of a brand new challenge: Pass the Hot Dog Toaster. Check your mailbox, it may be headed your way.
• Another year of laughter when the exploited Dick Clark falls off the countdown by at least a second or more.
• Anna's Party Crackers which produced paper hats and weird, small toys that included butterfly balls, a frog and a pink over-sized paperclip.

It was a freakin' fantastic night. We did Oxford University Christmas before the party which includes the annual "Dollar Store Secret Santa Stocking Stuffer Extravaganza" followed by present opening. That's the third Christmas Matt and I have done this year and we still have two more to do this weekend when we go to Kingston to see my folks for the holiday. This was a trip that was supposed to happen the weekend before Christmas but that got snowed out. So we're heading down after work tomorrow for the weekend.

2008 is gone and long live 2009! This past year had it's ups and downs. Getting married and getting laid off seem to be the best examples of each of those respectively and we've enjoyed the good and worked through the bad. It's worked out, more or less.

2009 is going to be packed with awesome:

• Tim & Eric at the Town Ballroom in a few weeks
• Updating the bathroom this winter
  
• Louis CK in Verona in Feb
• Williamsburg with the fam in June
• Three weddings (so far) to come
  
• Everything's booked for Comic Con in SD this July
• All the awesome stuff that's just not plotted out yet

As for resolutions, I just have one. It's kind of all encompassing. I'm calling it my Superman resolution. It isn't based completely on comic nerd-itry. I figure if I have to Clark Kent it for eight hours a day, five days a week I need to really make something out of the rest of the time. My office/studio is coming together and I want to get back into all the fun, creative stuff I used to do on my own but fell out of. My print Gocco is dying (they stopped making the supplies), so I want to learn to screen print. I need to be creatively challenged and I think that and some other things will sate that need. I want to do more things with my friends and family. They keep me sane and the time spent with them are the best times I have. I want to focus on what's truly important to me. Getting healthier, happier and overall enjoying the ride by not forgetting that it is just that.