The last time I was depressed (and I mean really depressed) I lost almost everything. I don’t talk about that year very often, because I would much rather be funny and uplifting and joyous. But it happened, and I could start to feel it happening again. I quit Facebook and social media. I stopped blogging […]
Category Archives: Gifts
The 2015 Christmas Eve Scavenger Hunt (CESH), and What Came After
Every year, my wife’s family spends Christmas Eve together, eating cookies, drinking tea and hot chocolate, opening gifts, singing carols, and running around the downtown area publicly humiliating themselves. So basically just your normal holiday traditions. We rotate the responsibilities of designing and constructing the epic photo/video scavenger hunt each year, and this time it […]
I Blinked and I Missed It
Hello, my name is Tenor Dad and I am an American. As a citizen of the United States I feel as though I am entitled to all of the things at all of the times in all of the places. The idea of choosing some things while not choosing others is only acceptable to me if […]
Your Presents Are Hidden Right There. Don’t Look.
I am, at my core, a rule follower. Yes, I like to bend them, twist them, squeak around them, and change them if I can, but in my heart of hearts I like rules. My daughter is the same way. Once there is a rule, that is it. She follows it, and expects everyone else […]
That’s It! Christmas is Cancelled!
It is not courtyard season. We don’t see our neighbors as often as we do during the summer, when the children play on the hill and the adults sit on benches drinking cold drinks. Now if we see a familiar face, it is bundled up under a scarf or a hat, and it is only […]
How to Know When You’ve Won Christmas
Well, Christmas happened. Edward and Ruby got more stuff than they could ever need, as usual, and they have been happily playing with it all ever since. And after Christmas morning we went up to my mother-in-law’s for more presents. We did have a nice day off on Friday, but then on Saturday it was […]
I Hope His Teacher Likes Baymax…
Uh oh. The last days of school are winding down before Christmas break, which means we are heading into the dangerous waters of…(dun dun duuuuuuuuuunnnnnnn!) teacher gifts. When I was a kid, we had one teacher, and we brought them one gift. It was often something terrible that either we made, or got for $5 […]
Thanks, But I Don’t Like That Anymore
Do you remember when I mentioned the many problems associated with doing your Christmas shopping early? I forgot a big one. A big one that has just come to light as of yesterday. You see, kids change their minds over the course of several months. Heck, they can change what they like in a matter […]
Do NOT Do Your Christmas Shopping Early
It sounds like a great idea. Do your Christmas shopping early, so the costs are spread out over time, and you are not rushing around on Christmas Eve looking for last minute gifts. It is like a beautiful package of common sense, wrapped up in a ribbon of duh. And yet in practice, it is […]
Thanks! It’s Just What You Wanted!
I have a problem with gift buying. Let me rephrase that. I love gift buying, but when I engage in that most blessed of activities, I sometimes run into problems caused, as usual, by my brain. My brain is good at a lot of things, but thinking is not one of them. It likes to […]