Christmas Eve 2021

 

The tree and stockings are up, the presents are wrapped, and there's nothing left to do but enjoy the day before Christmas. For those of you who caught my Christmas Traditions post last year, you know I'm not about to let this day come and go in the blink of an eye.

With the pandemic hopefully behind us, this year we'll be playing host to Sandy's youngest son and his wife, which should make things fun. Their mom went way overboard for them, but I suppose that's to be expected.

On Christmas I'll be in the kitchen as usual for most of it, making up lunch and dinner. As of this writing, I'm still fine tuning my menu for the day, which doesn't leave me much time to get it together. Fortunately, her kids volunteered to take care of breakfast, so I don't have to worry about that one.

In addition to pacing the day of presents, I've come up with a fun scavenger hunt for her kids. I'll be hiding six envelopes around the house, each one with a clue as to where the next is. To help incentivize them to keep on the hunt, each envelope also has a gift card inside. At the end of it, there will be a twist, which I won't spoil just yet.

What I'm struggling with the most is what movie we'll watch midday. With theaters open, streaming options are not as plentiful as they were last year. Hopefully I'll come up with something because I have zero interest in going to the theater.

Leading up to the day, I also went on my annual trip to Toy Exchange to meet up with my brother and exchange gifts. It was here that I picked up my traditional Christmas Eve item(s). Again, going back to my Christmas Tradition's post, I always give myself a gift on Christmas Eve to help get me through the excitement. This year's selection was awesome, if I do say so myself!

The Cobra S.N.A.K.E. Battle Armor was a "figure" I had wanted to add to my collection for the longest time, but I never took the plunge on ebay. It was just never the right time when I came across one.

Finding this one in the wild, 100% complete, was certainly a no brainer to nab up, and I'm glad to finally have it in my collection. I was a little shocked at how small it was, but I suppose it makes sense considering the size of the figures. Had I known this, I can't help but feel like I would have made it a larger priority to get sooner.

Legendary Wings was a game my brother and I got to rent from the local grocery store back in the day, and while I remember it being difficult, was still fun. I'm trying to be careful with my NES game buying because I have a tendency to get out of control with it, and I really do want to focus on the games we actually had as kids prior to branching out. There are actually only five or six games left on my list from my childhood, so I'm not doing too bad.

This one I did have as a kid, and no, it's not accounted for in my above note of five or six games. I had already deducted The Punisher from the list. This game was so difficult back in the day, but so much fun. It's a side scrolling rail shooter, and one that would have been so much better if it was compatible with the Zapper. Sadly, it wasn't.

While I was at Toy Exchange, I knew I wanted to pick up something Star Wars related, but I didn't know what. I looked at a few vehicles and creatures, but ended up passing on them because I already had my heart set on a G.I. Joe vehicle. Then my eyes caught these two double sided mugs from Deka.

I actually had the one below for the longest time as a kid, and used it to rinse my mouth after brushing. It eventually got incredibly dirty, and thrown out. I'll be adding these to my collection of Burger King glasses, keeping them all in the same display case together.

I had to walk away from Toy Exchange before I ended up with A Cobra Rattler and Serpentor Air Chariot. They're on my list, but not something I needed right away. Of course, I rectified the Air Chariot during my trip to Echo Base.

All of this stuff is awesome, and in and of itself would have made for a fantastic Christmas! I'm fortunate to be blessed with the ability to buy these kinds of things for myself, and thank God for every minute of it.

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