update on the Swedish Christmas goat, 2008

For the new readers here, I want to let you know about a Christmas tradition in Sweden involving a giant straw goat.  And by giant, I mean over 40 feet tall.  And part of the tradition is that the goat gets burned down by arsonists almost every year.  However, last year they started putting some serious flame-retardant materials on it, so it hasn’t been burned down since.

Here’s what I wrote on it last year: the Swedish Christmas goat.

The city officials there probably think they’re quite clever in their current plans to prevent the giant goat from burning.  But what they don’t realize is that if the goat never burned, it wouldn’t be famous at all.  So with each year that it isn’t burned, it will become more obscure to the rest of the world.

And for the record, I could make it burn…  Nothing is truly fireproof, if you have the right stuff for the job…

And as you might’ve read in some recent comments, plans are underway to start a similar tradition in Mango-Man’s yard.  He doesn’t see the awesomeness of this plan yet, but we’ll eventually convince him (or just build it anyway and let him witness it first-hand).  

how to enjoy wrapping presents

I enjoy wrapping presents, but I sometimes get tired of doing it the traditional way.  (Why do I have to conform to what is “normal”?  Plus randomness is fun, as evidenced on this blog.)  Also, one of my pet peeves is when people are able to easily guess what is wrapped.  When I wrap presents, particularly for my brothers, they aren’t going to guess what’s it in.  I’ve employed various techniques to disguise it, such as including rocks, pennies, bricks, pine cones, etc., inside the box.  And of course, the box should be one other than what the actual gift came in.  You want to vary the size, weight, and sound it makes.   There’s no anticipation if they already know what it is before opening it.

One year I put pennies inside a hard plastic case inside the main box, so when the present was shaken, it would make a crashing sound that happened after the normal sound, so it sounded like it was broken.     I’ve also made presents exceedingly difficult to open before, using numerous packagings and duct tape.   Some of my presents cannot be opened in under a few minutes.   That helps people savor the moment… 

But beyond disguising it, I like to make it look unique.  One thing I’ve started doing is saving the scraps of wrapping paper from other gifts to use on one package.  Last year I did this on two different presents, which are displayed below.  (Click the images for a larger picture.)

present #1

Present #2, top

Present #2, side

Present #2, bottom

Hopefully this inspires you to be more creative with your wrapping this year.  But a quick word of warning: not everyone appreciates this “art” the same way.  It seems to work better on brothers and male friends, rather than parents, grandparents, and in-laws.

caption contest, guests at Christmas party

Let’s start the week with a caption contest!  (I know, we do that every week, but it’s such a great tradition!)  This week’s picture has some Christmas decorations in it.  The setting can be whatever you want, but for an idea, you could imagine it to be a Christmas party of family get-together.

Ready for the directions?  Write a comment explaining what’s going on here.  That’s it.  Your goal is to be funny.  Very simple.

(To see the other caption contests, click on the “Say What?” category in the sidebar.)

I finally put up Christmas lights

My wife decided she wanted Christmas lights on the outside of the house this year.  She’s been bugging me for weeks to put some up, so I finally did.  But now that I did, she won’t talk to me.  Women are just so hard to please!

caption contest, Santa and Stormtroopers

It’s a Monday, and it’s December now, so how about a Christmas-themed caption contest?  It sounds like a plan to me.   It works like always (if you aren’t familiar with them, I’ll explain).   I’ll post a picture, and you write a caption to go with it.   The caption can be dialogue from the people in the picture or analysis or commentary or just something funny to go with it.   Since a picture is worth a thousand words, there’s a lot of potential. 

For this week’s picture, here’s Santa Claus being escorted down an escalator by Imperial Stormtroopers.  I have no idea what’s going on there, so perhaps we can figure something out.

(To see the other caption contests, click on the “Say What?” category in the sidebar.)