Nerd Compound Christmas, Irwin's Santa Photoshoot + Family Christmas

Well, here I am over a month later, posting about Christmas parties. I think I've locked myself into having to make these posts as long as I have this blog, so here's the best pictures from the Nerd Compound Christmas, Bad Santa, and my family's Christmas. 

Christmas at the Nerd Compound was a good time, with some extra people there I wasn't expecting, like the Chawdogg family and Bet and her husband. I learned this year to not even worry about making food. There was food for 3 times as many people as were there. Here's Dan plopping himself right in the middle of it. 

We pretty much just hung around and ate. Here's a solid picture of Rich and Reinert.

After awhile of this, we got to work opening the billion presents that were there. Josh somehow got volunteered to be Santa, and he did a great job, screaming at the top of his lungs for the hour or so it took to get through everything.

Highlights included this sweet Iron Man helmet that Chendostick scared Max with:

Here's Max's sweet new terrorist costume that for some reason his parents said he shouldn't wear to school:

This sketchy Ronald McDonald doll Josh found for Jesse was pretty good:

Jesse gave me a toothbrush. That may have been one of the better presents. Apparently he got a pile of them from the dentist, so I was the lucky one to receive an extra. Thanks Jesse. 

Look at this sweet gift Holly got. I'm jealous of it. It's a portrait of the Stick and Stan Lee:

Al, who nobody has seen since he got a girlfriend and who says he hates Christmas, pretty much only got stuff he would hate, like a Backstreet Boys CD Jesse found on the street and a doll of ET, who he despises. 

I lost big time in the Yankee Swap, when I traded bottles of booze for a chance to play Matt's yearly game and win $100. Dave got it and won the 100, while the box I would have picked would have only got me $15. Well done Dave. I ended up with more booze, which I traded to Jesse for Calvin & Hobbes books.

Rich did what his big idea was last year- to print and frame big pictures from our Saco River trip. They came out pretty awesome: 

I got some booze (including a bottle of Kinky Liqueur and Mountain Dew Vodka called Dude (get it? Kinky dude)), a bunch of small funny things, Calvin and Hobbes books, some awful DVDs, and what was definitely the highlight of the night for me, a Bucket Gnome snowglobe. 

Jesse took 2 classic pictures Rich took from his bedroom in college of Bucket Gnomes shoveling snow outside his apartment, photoshopped Christmas hats on them, and made them into the greatest and maybe most offensive snowglobe ever. 

Here's the other side. This is definitely a treasured possession I'll proudly display for the rest of my life. 

After presents, we just hung out and people started leaving. It was a pretty solid time, and apparently the 15th year some of these people have had this Christmas party. Crazy. Here are the other pictures worth seeing. My camera was being an asshole, so a lot of pictures I took didn't come out at all. Here's Weez in his Christmas best:

Al being disgusting:

A fantastically awkward picture of my giant head and terrorist Max:

  

And a really good one of Josh and Sarah. Whatever the hell they're doing, she is clearly loving it:

This party doesn't mean as much to me as Thanxmas does and is usually just more presents and eating than a day long mess, but it's always a good time and this year was no exception.

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I think this was actually before this party, but since Kate works at a photo place in the mall that does portraits with Santa, Josh decided to bring Irwin in and do a photoshoot with Santa, which proved to be a hilarious day that gave us some great pictures. It helped that this guy was there with us too:

It feels very odd walking into a mall with a dog. We immediately were as inconspicuous as possible too:

you put a giant arctic cat in a mall and let dogs in, you're damn right weez is getting put in it.

The photoshoot went about as well as I imagined it would. Irwin started out adorable and Kate took great pictures. But then he got slobbery and sick of the whole thing. Josh's awkward pose here sums up how frustrating it eventually became pretty well: 

If only Irwin spoke english.

Looking through everything was hilarious. Unfortunately this stuff costs a lot of money and I'm not even sure if Josh bought any pictures. Kate gave us one for Christmas which ruled though. 

It was hilarious and fun, and Kate at least posted the best one on facebook. I love this picture so much, and not just because I look weirdly thin in it. Somehow everyone looks good in this. I don't know how Josh didn't mail this to everyone he's ever met.

Just some badass dudes hanging out with Santa.

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I also went to I think my 4th Bad Santa party, maybe 5th. I'm not sure how long Parola has been doing this, but it literally consists of wearing ugly Christmas clothes, drinking, and watching Bad Santa. This year's, after an enormous one last year complete with a DJ and 40 people I didn't know, was very quiet. It was like 8 people quietly watching it, and I immediately felt stupid walking into their giant studio after driving an hour and a half to get there (including my directions taking me to the wrong city). Tobin was a no show too, so I called him and tore into him, saying he was a jerk for not showing and that this was tradition, etc. I was mad from getting lost and being so late, and bummed out that I had driven so far for just hanging out with a few people, but I was right. Even though this was quiet and just some good friends and a few people I barely know watching a movie, it's become a tradition that I don't intend on missing. It's not a complete Christmas season unless I watch Bad Santa with these people. AND, I haven't seen Parola and Katherine forever, so it actually probably worked out better this way. Lots of quality time rather than just a crowded mess.

You can't tell, but this was easily a 12 by 12 foot image, and with Parola's huge sound system, it was awesome. It was a close to a theatre as he could get it, and after Tobin showed up and I forced us to all hang out hours after maybe they had planned on because I needed some drunk to go away, it ended up being a great night. Man, I love that movie.

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The next day, I headed up to Maine for actual Christmas. I stopped at the Newington mall to get some last minute stuff and randomly ran into someone I haven't seen since the year after I graduated college. We both literally triple taked when we saw each other, then after initial re-introductions, it was like I had just seen good ole DJ Suave last week. He is now married with a child and living in Portsmouth after being a marine in Afghanistan, which I didn't even know. Crazy. Hopefully, since he's so close, he'll come to some event in the future. He was an original tenant of the Blue Zoo after all, and a WPCR legend. 

Bu-Bu-Bu-Bu- BLIX!

I got home just in time for some football, and spent the next day setting up and decorating the tree, as well as wrapping everything for my parents. This year was another weird year for us, since my Dad had a bloody nose that literally wouldn't heal- after going to the hospital and having the wound sutured like 4 separate times over 6 weeks or so, they put a balloon thing in his nose and pumped it up with air to put constant pressure on the wound. Needless to say, Dad was pretty miserable and wasn't allowed to do much- hence why I had to do most of the tree. I didn't take many pictures (he didn't want to be in any with his weird nose), but I took a few, like our lovely tree all decorated and beautiful:

My mom had a flower arrangement out this year to honor my Grandma who died last year on the 22nd. I bought a ton more and surrounded her arrangement, writing "Mom could use some more flowers" on my note to Santa, which I signed, "Mike Alexander, age 31"- yes, I know it's ridiculous that I still do this, but I love traditions and I know it makes my parents happy. Santa got chex mix, egg nog, cookies, a fortune cookie and a warm Coors Light. Gotta keep the tradition going. I mean, our cat and my brother who is in California still have stockings, so the Santa note isn't any more ridiculous. 

Christmas was great. I got way more than I was expecting, my parents loved everything I got them, the Celtics won, and we pretty much just relaxed all day watching basketball. It was all I wanted, and it ruled. 

I also learned just about everything about how to cook a Thanksgiving/Christmas dinner the way my Dad does it. I said I would do everything when I found out that he wasn't going to be super mobile, but he still ended up doing a ton of the work. But I learned a lot- let's see if I remember any of it. Dinner was, not surprisingly, absolutely fantastic.  

The other magic of this Christmas was that for maybe the 3rd time in my life, we had a white Christmas. It was snowing fairly hard with huge flakes when I woke up, and it continued through our hours of present opening. And it also conveniently stopped right as the Turkey was cooking and I went on my traditional post-presents Christmas walk.

Most of the snow pictures I've been posting on Instagram came from that walk. HDR+ some editing in snapseed+ super sticky light flakes on everything= winter wonderland.

I stayed in Maine for nearly 2 days longer than I wanted because of a way bigger storm that hit a few days later, then headed back home to have Christmas with my roommates and Hilton.

currently listening to: B.O.B.- "EPIC: Every Play Is Crucial"