The Christmas Countdown!

[polander]

Welcome back to our second installment of the 2007 Christmas Countdown! I hope everyone enjoyed the first soda review. Got a couple more of those coming in the near future, so keep dropping by. Today I wanna share some nostalgic thoughts about Christmas morning. If you're from one of those crazy families that opens your presents at Midnight, after Christmas Eve, then this may not apply to you. But stick around! We've got a real good commercial at the end!

When I was a young lad, I had plenty of Christmas Eve traditions. When we lived in Connecticut and had an upstairs I'd ritually check all the steps to see which ones squeaked. One year I actually had a written gameplan, Indiana Jones style, that I checked with a pilfered flashlight at 3 a.m. to sneak downstairs and eyeball the presents under the tree. Santa always put the typical mish-mash of gifts for my two brothers and myself under the tree, but two instances stick out in my mind where we found the 'big present' after all the other things were open.

You're familiar with the concept of the 'big present', right? Typically the last gift you open; usually the most expensive one that Santa could wrangle, or the one that you'd been begging for all year and, after opening boxes of sweaters and underwear, you'd given up hope on. Then Mom and Dad chime in, "Well maybe Santa left something in the kitchen." Or, "Maybe you should take the wrapping paper out to the trash."

And then, what the heck?!, new bicycle on the patio! Santa got confused twice at our house that I can remember. The first was when we lived in South Carolina. I was in Kindergarten (at Men Riv Elementary School - Home of the Fightin' Roadrunners!), my brother Dave was probably 3 and Al was just a slug if he was even born yet. Christmas Morning rolled over and I remember opening up boxes and finding Thundercats figures. A C-3PO bubble bath container also sticks out in my mind for some reason. Anyway, all the presents were opened up, the cats were frolicking in the shredded wrapping paper and my Dad says, "Hey, what's that in the kitchen? Maybe Santa left something in there." Confused, I made my way to the doorway and, eureka! There she was!



The Cat's Lair! Fully assembled and ready to house all of my Thundercats. This sucker had everything...trap door, rotating cat head, some sort of light-gun shooter that never really worked, and those big blue paws opened up with levers on the backside. The biggest drawback was that there was no door big enough for the Thundertank to come roaring out of, but hey, what do kids know about scale? This gigantic playset hung around our home for many a year, until eventually meeting its doom before we moved to Florida. I hope it lives on somewhere today, fetching high bids on eBay and delighting fat collectors around the globe.

Wacky Santa Mix-Up #2 occurred while we were living in Tennessee. I think I was in 2nd Grade. Again, Christmas morning rolls in and everything gets opened up. It was a big year for Ghostbusters, what with 'The Real Ghostbusters' dominating the Saturday morning ratings and 'Ghostbusters 2' waiting in the cinematic wings. Everything in the living room is a mess, so Dad tells us, "Get all this wrapping paper together and take it into the kitchen!" Sure enough, something couldn't fit under the tree!



The Firehouse playset. This thing was a dream come true for any kid. It's nearly 3 feet tall and the ceilings are high enough to house pretty much any type of figures. Sick of Ghostbusters? Let's get some Battle Beasts in there! Or maybe a time-traveling He-Man? In any event, this place was awesome, and actually big enough to park the Ecto-1 toy inside of! Not pictured is the working firepole, with a base that spun all the way down to accommodate quick Ghostbusting action. There's a big slime vent in the roof, as well, so as to facilitate the dripping of toy slime through that grate on the top floor. It also came with a big red Ghost Containment Unit. This thing stuck around our house for a good long while. I think it may have disappeared during a hurricane in Florida. Lousy Mother Nature!

So, what's the best 'big present' that you've ever received? I'd like to hear it! Leave some comments and share your story!



Today's commercial isn't about consumerism. It's about playing it safe around electricity! ROLL IT!

Click to view

This public service announcement was brought to you by Louie the Lightning Bug, a memorable figure from my early TV-watching days. This spot always takes me back to watching TV on the Boston superstation when we lived in Connecticut. I'd wake up early for school, alongside my Dad getting ready for work, and eat oatmeal while I watched 'Small Wonder'. Those were the days. But I digress. Heed Louie! Don't overload those plugs! Don't stick your fingers in sockets! And for heaven's sakes, play it safe around that tree!

-Paul