Wait, those are Milk Duds, not milk maids...

 

This entry could be subtitled: a chocolate hat for Chocolate City.

 

This year's haul:

• $3000 in Christmas bonuses.
• A $90 (guessing) Christmas dinner I let spoil in the trunk of my car (the pecan pie and two bottles of wine were salvaged)
• A Crock-Pot slow cooker
• A 4-quart Teflon™-coated pot.
• as many navel oranges as I cared to eat for a fortnight at work (Don't ask how many were eventually thrown out.)
• $25 gift card to Academy (the sports store, not Dr. B's RPG), for the express purpose of getting new athletic shoes. ($25 is sooooo not going to cover it.)
• A summer sausage, some Ritz crackers and hot mustard, and a little decorative crate of liquor-filled chocolates, which was later exchanged for a complete auto detailing kit.

  This was from the $20 gift bit at the company party. Dangit, Lewis. I wanted those knives!

• 4 Christmas cards, one of which came on the heels of a $20 donation to Greg Dean, the man who designed what to this day remains the best small-scale customized home I've ever seen in Ultima Online
• A set of kitchen knives to replace the box Lewis stole from me (after I stole them from Kurt) at the company party....actually, I bought that straight up.
• Some blue and gold M&M's from the M&M World in Times Square
• An adjustable Hershey's Chocolate bar color cap, with the Hershey's Times Square logo.

   

  (My parents went to NYC Tuesday after TubaChristmas.)

• A $30 gift card to BW3 (from Michael & Brandy)
• A blue & gold reversible winter-ish vest
• A badly-needed new pair of black slacks
• A weather radio, with a TV and lights.

Things I wanted, but didn't get

• A Wii
• A new computer
• A full set of cutlery, including a cleaver and perhaps a meat tenderizer and garlic press

Things I wanted, and thought I might have an outside chance of actually getting

• Complete Outlaw Star on DVD
• An iPod
• a DVD player

Since I neglected to do this earlier, I want to wish each and every one of you a Merry Christmas.

Except LehvakLah: Happy Hannukah.

...and Tufi Piyufi: *insert generic good wishing* Festivus.

 

And, since it's actually timely now:

Happy New Year

 

-KIE