Christmas | The Plaid Pladd Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Christmas’

Christmas 2013!!

December 31st, 2013 by pladd

Christmas 2013 was pretty rad. Here are some of the best things that happened to me:

My mom freaking out over the quilt I made

There was a lot to freak out about

Baking cookies!

Peanut butter blossoms are my favorite Christmas cookie! Unfortunately, I dropped a whole pan of them while taking them out of the oven. The soft smooshing noises they made on the tile were both beautiful and tragic. These are the ones that survived. Until they were eaten, I guess.

My dad breakfasting like Christmas is Beer Bike

Except with higher quality liquor, of course. What an ugly hat someone made for him!

Mr. Biffle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Delicious food!

Family

A hotel room on the beach!!!

Waking up to this every morning is no bad thing

Perfect view of the sunset too!

Steven, being surprisingly chill about confronting his ancient enemy (natural light)

Playing Take Off!!!!!!!!!!

Take Off is my family’s (well, my brother and my) favorite game, which is ridiculous since it was made to teach geography in like 1991. You have to guide your planes across the globe by rolling multi-colored dice and heartlessly sabotaging each other. Seriously, it may have been made for 8-year-olds, but it is the world’s best game. My only regret is that we only have one of it, which will inevitably lead to a decades-long Ladd family feud between my brother and I if it isn’t specifically addressed in my parents’ will. Maybe we will have to PLAY FOR IT ohhhhhhhh.

I won this year, by the way.

BERN’S STEAKHOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m thinking about doing a whole post on Bern’s because it’s ridiculous. It’s like what I would have described as a child if asked to imagine how rich people live (“…And then you have a separate room JUST FOR DESSERT…”).

Also, presents!!!!!

Signet Ring!

What a cool gift!

Hobbit Pez!!!

Look how the dwarves are tinier! It’s the best!!

Girl+conman+attack goose is the best combination

I’m so glad to finally own my favorite Frances Hardinge books

Honey!

One of my mom’s students keeps bees, which is the coolest thing ever! Even cooler, I got a big jar of honey!! I’ve already tried some, and, of course, it’s delicious!

Drafts of my books!!!

This wasn’t technically a Christmas gift, but they arrived at Christmas and going over them took a lot of work so it felt like a present! Thanks, Brian!!! And Brian’s Mom!

ADVENTURE TIME GLASSES!

I’m drinking water out of the Lady Rainicorn one right now, it makes everything taste more adventurous.

Now that I’ve used up my all the remaining exclamation points I’d saved up in 2013, on to New Year’s!

Tagged: Christmas, presents, Steven

Posted in Let Me Tell You About My Life |

International Librarian Corps Signet Ring!!!!

December 3rd, 2013 by pladd

Steven’s way too hopped up on his own genius to keep things secret sometimes, which is why I got one of my Christmas presents early!!! Yay!!!

It’s a ring!

An International Librarian Corps signet ring! The International Librarian Corps has been appearing in my NaNoWriMo novels since forever. At first it was just a joke from a minor character:

Talwyn rolled her eyes at him and whipped a metal badge out of her pocket. It had an emblem that featured a quill pen writing the word KNOWLEDGE! in big letters, with the exclamation point and all, in an open book. The words “International Librarian Corps” were written across the top, and then “Librarian—First Class” along the bottom. “Suck it,” Talwyn said, putting the badge away.
“Yeah,” Amos said, turning back to the screen. “I’m still not convinced you didn’t have that made just to perpetrate this elaborate subterfuge that librarians matter.”

But eventually I wrote a whole book about a girl being sent to the ILC’s academy, the John Cotton Dana School for the Worryingly Gifted.

“You fight made up monsters?” she asked, glancing at the battle axe hanging high on the wall of the librarian’s office. “Like Where The Wild Things Are?”
“Ever since they developed the taste for human flesh, yes,” Miss Pin confirmed. “But it’s mostly not about physical confrontation. We use books to harness them. Otherwise we’d have an even greater problem on our hands. Once you write it down, it’s more or less tied in place. Of course, they try to escape all the time. Especially in libraries. Which is where I come in.”

Anyway, based on my description, Steven made this baller logo:

Based on the books, there’s no way I’m experienced enough at bookaneering to be considered a Librarain–First Class, but whatever

Using that, he had it 3D printed!!!! With this app. Truly, we live in the future.

Tagged: Christmas, ILC, librarians, Steven

Posted in Let Me Tell You About My Life |

Christmas Bounty!

January 14th, 2011 by pladd

For once, I got some mail instead of sending it the other way! Exciting! Because Steven and I only brought one checked bag between us, we decided to ship a lot of the presents we got in H-Town to Carrboro instead of trying to get them all on the plane. The packages arrived today! It was like Christmas all over again!! Mostly because I’d forgotten a lot of what I got. Because some of it is ridic. Here are some pictures!

I wish I could show you the inside of this book but I would have to give you all PIRATE 3D GLASSES! It is mostly scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean

Oh my grosh you guys! I can now bake UP TO FOUR potatoes in the microwave now. Apparently.

Still kind of skeptical about this one.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tagged: Christmas, pictures, presents

Posted in lists |

Christmas Times is Serious Times!

December 24th, 2010 by pladd

This year I am at Steven’s house for Christmas, something that everyone is treating as this big dramatic thing, when in reality this is at least the third time it’s happened. But I have quickly discovered that I can easily get things by whining that “it’s just not Christmas without ice cream for breakfast” etc. As I learned from the claymation Community Christmas special, Christmas means different things to different people (“Remote control Christmas pterodactyl!!!“), and to me, I’m always reminded of three things. I wish I had pictures, but alas, you will have to use the power of your imagination!

Gingerbread Men Ornaments
Until I was about ten, my mom would always make these gingerbread ornaments for the Christmas tree. The recipe was a little different than for cookies you are supposed to eat, and I was warned multiple times when younger that they were NOT FOR EATING and POISON! I was convinced that eating even a little bit would have killed me instantly. There were gingerbread men and also gingerbread hearts that had people’s names or “Merry Christmas” written on them in a similar NOT FOR EATING kind of frosting. The tree would smell like tree AND gingerbread, and it was fun to make new decorations every year. Then we moved to Florida and having food on a tree inside the house only attracted all kinds of bugs. That, and my brother’s allergies, necessitated moving the tree to the enclosed back porch, which brought on one of my most vivid and most terrifying Christmas memories ever.
Since the small bugs that can get into the enclosed back porch weren’t really a problem, it was the humidity that eventually brought about the retiring of this Christmas tradition. Because Florida Christmases tend to be somewhat balmy, the gingerbread men soon fell apart in the repressive moisture found in the Florida air. Since their weakest point is their narrow necks, the Christmas tree would be surrounded by decapitated gingerbread bodies, the tree itself strewn with their severed heads. It was like gingerbread Vikings had attacked our tree and made examples of all the gingerbread menfolk. After a few years of this, my mom gave up the gingerbread decorations. It’s weird that I still think about them every Christmas–and about the horrific aftermath of gingerbread carnage I’ve witnessed.

A Christmas Story
This movie is my dad’s absolute favorite movie ever, possibly. Half of it is because it’s funny, the other half is because my mom hates it. I think she feels too much empathy for Ralphie, feeling bad for him when Santa pushes him down the slide, when his mom makes him wear the horrible pink bunny suit. Or maybe she feels bad for the mother character who has to deal with her husband’s obsession with the tacky leg lamp, her Christmas dinner being eaten by the neighbor’s dog, and her authority undermined by her husband who buys Ralphie the coveted Red Rider BB Gun, even though she keeps insisting that “you’ll shoot your eye out”.

Come to think of it, my mom probably has the most experience dealing with a spouse who only likes tacky, awkward things.

The movie itself is good, I like it, and think everyone should see it at least once. But it’s not really about the movie. It’s about having the movie on 24/7 on Christmas Eve, having it in the background of everything, and having my mom complain and my dad glory at the “best parts”–which are, of course, the parts that annoy my mom. I feel like I could almost recite this movie, I’ve seen it so often.

Michigan Rummy

My family is super serious about Michigan Rummy. You know you’re grown up when you graduate to playing by yourself instead of as on a team with some adult. It’s part skill but a lot of luck, and we usually play for pennies, kept in a tupperware in my brother’s closet for this express purpose. The only downside of the game is that it’s more fun with more people, so I only get to play at times when there are 5-9 people around, times like Christmas. Hopefully I will be able to convince Steven’s family that it is the best thing ever! I have been saving my pennies.

So, yeah, that is Christmas in my heart: gingerbread carnage, my dad being happy that my mom is vaguely annoyed, and gambling. So festive right now!

Tagged: Christmas, memories

Posted in lists |

13 Adventures: #10 Bathrobe Hunt

December 20th, 2010 by pladd

Yesterday I decided my mission was to buy Steven an early Christmas present: the fluffiest, softest, best bathrobe ever. Since we are going to glorious H-Town for Christmas, I figured I might not have room in my suitcase for a glorious bathrobe, since I was planning on buying one made out of the soft wool of at least fifty lambs. So I feel no guilt for this early Christmas gift-giving.

Unfortunately, to do this, we had to go to the mall, which is basically the absolute worst place to be the Sunday before Christmas. Actually it’s a lot like Dawn of the Dead, but with more zombies.

The original with the helicopter, not the remake with the dog

Everyone was kind of scary and aggressive, and were it not for my Florida theme park-bred abilities to negotiate crowds effectively, Steven and I might still be trapped there amidst the badly echoing “live” Christmas music. Luckily I am awesome and after much questing, we got what we came for.

Steven told me I was way weird for taking pictures of him trying on bathrobes, but I told him I NEEDED photographic evidence of adventurousness

And everyone knows going to the mall the Sunday before Christmas takes bravery, fortitude, cunning, feats of strength, and noble bearing. Basically, we are knights now is what I’m saying.

Steven is also trying out a new hat, as you can see. Usually he only wears classy fedoras like some kind of private detective (picture pending) so it is a big step.

Tagged: adventures, Christmas, hats, shopping

Posted in Uncategorized |

13 Adventures: #2 Trimming the… Stairs

December 11th, 2010 by pladd

For my second adventure, I decided it was time to decorate for Christmas! I think the summer I moved to North Carolina, my mom got kind of weepy and put together this Christmas box of a few Christmas decorations, mostly ornaments that were “mine” and some new ones too. She gave me this big speech about how now I would have to decorate my own house and have Christmas for myself etc. For about a month, I thought this meant I was not allowed to come home for Christmas anymore because Now I Was An Adult or something, which seemed weird. But then I ended up going home for Christmas anyway, so the Christmas box never got opened last year. This year I decided I would use my decorations, especially since we’ll be here till practically Christmas itself! Plus, it would totally count as an adventure without leaving the house and venturing in the freezing rain.

I am not really big on Christmas trees. It feels weird having a tree in the house and the strong smell often makes my allergies freak out. Plus, this one time in Florida, there were fly eggs in our tree and I spent all of Christmas killing forty-seven flies (I counted them as they fought a battle of wits with my fly swatter and lost). Plus, messy and small apartment. So we decided to decorate the stairs!

I wish I had taken a before shot, because then you would see why “let’s decorate the stairs” wasn’t even really a choice we made–it was so obvious that we didn’t even discuss it. When we moved in, the stair banister was ugly and white and large. That very day–before we even had a bed–I decorated it with all of the scarves I own (it looked like a rainbow caterpillar)–and giant light strands were the first thing I bought at Target to further bling it out. And to add light to our dark living room. Anyway, the stairs have always been a crazy work of art, and if anything they look slightly more dignified now.

I had some rope Christmas lights–which I’ve discovered BLINK AT VARYING SPEEDS, you have no idea how happy this makes me–plus the things in my Christmas box. And some scarves I left on because they were the right colors! Here are some badly lit pictures! Read the rest of this entry »

Tagged: adventures, Christmas, decorations, pictures

Posted in Things I've Made |