Btw, Sinterklaas and the tooth fairy are also in the 'maybe' category, whereas the easter bunny is definitely not real according to Broccoli.

Broccoli: "Daddy, is Santa even real?" [conversation about how to figure out if Santa is real or not] So far, plans include checking for fingerprints, DNA evidence, and using hidden cameras. ETA: next year of course, since it'd be hard to do these this year, since the presents are already contaminated with our fingerprints and DNA from after unwrapping them, it'd be hard to get Santa's fingerprints and DNA at this point, and it's too late for hidden cameras.

Komt allen tezamen, I guess (I don't keep a mental list of favorite things): https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adeste_fideles

Why couldn't anyone warn me sooner? I don't think I can obtain the ingredients for a mimosa today...

I think it's nowhere near enough money to make many middle class people excited. Looks like we'll be in the 12% bracket, and will probably save less than $100/month on taxes. I doubt we'll even really notice (we don't have a budget, just spend as we go with a decent size emergency fund), so, meh (obviously, money is money... but if I think we'll probably not notice the difference, it's not enough money to pacify me). That, combined with the unfairness of it, the bad timing (quite anti-Keynesian to cut taxes and increase the deficit when the economy is doing well), the potential negative impact on social safety net things in years to come which could potentially hurt us more than we'll benefit (life with a bipolar spouse and a special needs kid can be, uh, interesting, and we've qualified for food stamps etc in the past)... nope, not easily bought off.

Yeah, I think I had a couple of international editions in NL as well that said something along those lines that I brought to the US. They were not counterfeit, but selling them in the US would have been, I don't know... not sure that they legally can ban you from selling them in the US; maybe they can? I think one was a paperback copy of Biology of the Cell, and I think in the US they only sold those as hardcover. It's like 1000 pages or something, so not sure how many people want paperback, but it was a sturdy paperback and I don't think the paper quality was different, and realistically, I don't think the cost difference was huge (actually, not even sure if it was cheaper or more expensive in NL - probably depended on the exchange rate), but it is kind of ridiculous that you can get a paperback copy in other first world countries but not in the US. So, anyway... not sure if you'd be breaking the law by buying international editions, or if the seller is breaking the law, or both, or neither.

A dead phone, and late cinnamon buns Condolences on the phone and cinnamon buns. How did they die? Did you eat them (the cinnamon buns, not the phone I presume), or did they suffer some other fate?

Looks like we have a white xmas too. Not much though. And I'm not sure if they decided they just don't need to plow the road, or if the wind just blew snow all over the road again. It's very windy. 30mph with 50mph gusts. It's sunny, but the feels like is 20 degrees colder than the actual temp. It looks so nice for a walk... but windy feels like 4F with blowing snow isn't that exciting.

Maybe humidity too. Merry xmas!

Yeah, we've tried that - it does NOT help - any air movement causes wind chill, so, in our experience it's better to leave the ceiling fans off in winter. Also, I don't agree they collect more dust - when they're spinning, they collect dust on the edge, whereas while still they collect dust on top, but, less dust makes it all the way up to where the fans are, and, you kind of only have to dust them off before using, instead of every couple of months or w/e. These things probably depend on room dimensions, amount of dust (and maybe dust particle size), maybe outside temperature, and who knows what.

This. Though, in NL, some people do a New Year's dive into the ocean, so, I guess I shouldn't be that surprised that people go surfing in really cold weather. Though it usually isn't *that* cold at the New Year's dive (1F is about as cold as it ever gets in NL, so usually the weather at the New Year's dive is closer to 32-ish, but it really varies year-to-year... also, wind chill or lack thereof makes a big difference).

https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2017/12/24/de-kerstman-is-overal-van-berlijn-tot-bangkok-a1585840 The surfer and the guy in the last picture are on the Yenisey river in Siberia, where it's like 1F. I didn't know people went surfing in weather like that!

Celery seems to use the Greek alphabet as a stim, chanting it a zillion times a day if I don't make him stop. Anyway, he made a Scratch program, in which the cat says the Greek alphabet too. Just thought that was funny.

Better, thanks.

That's not surprising at all - I had a visa problem and couldn't get on my Icelandair flight back home last December, had to reschedule for the next day, and it cost more than the roundtrip had cost too. And that was with their special "rescheduling" prices... not sure if it would've made a difference vs just buying a one-way ticket, but they were going to call me a no-show in just a few more minutes (I'd already stood there for over an hour trying frantically to sort out the visa problem, but the Canadian visa application website was down, and then had a bug when it was back up, etc), so I didn't have time to look up the difference. Last minute prices suck. I could've saved like $50 if I'd stayed in NL an additional month, because flying mid-January is cheaper than mid-December. Yeah, no.

I don't think we own a timer. And the lights don't have a switch, so, the options are to leave them plugged in or to unplug them - can't just "turn them off".

Our indoor xmas tree lights have been on since I put them on the tree a week ago or so. They work great as a nightlight, plus, DW has been working till 6am the last few nights (at home), and the kids wake up at 8-something, so it's not a big deal either way. We don't have outdoor lights.

Never? We don't have a vacuum cleaner... (okay, we have a little handheld, which gets used occasionally for the couch or w/e) We also have zero carpet/rugs/etc.

In which case you could probably delay it till spring of senior year, if you're concerned about it taking up too much time and dragging down his GPA causing him to lose a scholarship. Obvious downsides are that if he's done a language in high school, there'd be a big gap, and, that spring of senior year might not be the time he'd want to be spending a lot of energy on a foreign language, but rather on trying to secure a job or who-knows-what, but, at least at the schools I've attended, there are no rules on *when* you have to take your gen ed courses.

Oh, I thought she meant that your secret motto was the "hiding your laughing behind your hand" emoji she had in her post. #obviouslynotpayingattention

I started the laundry an hour or so ago. Maybe that's it?

I started what? Yeah, I missed it too.

DW and Broccoli camped in the backyard a week ago. They made s'mores and slept in a tent, until DW had to go pee at 1am and was too cold after that, so they came back inside. They'd wanted to camp out in the woods, but there were 3+ft of snow in the woods, so, that didn't work (there was only slightly over a foot in our backyard).

You could do a campfire outside.

DW worked till 6am. On one of her vacation days (one of those "use them or lose them" kind of days). And now she's working again. She does say that she's planning on leaving work early a bunch of times in January.