The holiday break is sadly over and it's time to start another work week, HOWEVER, it's also time to get back to the robots, monsters, and misadventure! I've got a fun week of content coming for your eyeballs this week, but first, let me tell you about this holiday break I had. It started Wednesday with a relaxing evening at home with the Mrs. We watched the new episodes of Stranger Things while making some dishes for Thanksgiving dinner. We'd watch an episode and make a dish. Watch an episode and make a dish. Things like pies and cranberry sauce that can be made ahead to save on the crunch time. The new episodes were great and I'm really marveling at how much the show has changed since it began. Rewatching it this past summer was a great idea.
Thursday was Thanksgiving and we started the day watching the big parade as we always do. I've been watching it my entire life and still love doing so. Though, in the future, I may start watching the alternative presentations. I really just want to watch the floats and balloons. While some of the musical productions are neat, I really don't care. I've discovered an alternate camera angle edition of the show on Peacock where I watch it and know of some other showings. Regardless, it was great seeing Spider-Man, Mario, Pac-Man, Pokémon, and Labubu making appearances.
We spent a few hours at My Mother's house afterwards. My brother and his family came over and we all enjoyed dinner together. Of course with Christmas coming, there was a lot of opportunities to get ideas for gifts. The Mrs is an excellent gift giver, but you always need inspiration for the right ones! My brother is an outdoorsman and does a lot of livestreaming in relation. It's kind of funny seeing how his hobbies and mine are so vastly different... but use the same internet to interact with others. It also helps me figure out what to get him because I know nothing of the great outdoors.
Afterwards, the Mrs and I had our own Thanksgiving dinner Thursday evening. It was so good as she is an excellent cook. This may have been her best turkey yet! We spent the evening watching Most Extreme Elimination Challenge while I built Blokees and she played a game. It was time to rest as Black Friday neared. We initially planned to get up super early and stand in line at Target... but slept in instead. That turned out to have been a good idea as the gift bags Target gave out to the first 100 customers turned out to be a bust. They promised the moon and stars only to deliver a pile of turds. Oh well!
Friday was spent doing an amazing amount of Christmas shopping. Like, an amazing amount. According to my Galaxy Watch, I got nearly 10,000 steps in and I believe it! We started shopping in November, but took advantage of the sales to really get a lot of stuff. Today is the first of December and we're mostly done... though I've got the feeling we're going to still go nuts. We always spoil each other at Christmas and love getting our loved ones just the right things. While I focused on others, I did grab a few things for myself. Specifically some Mr Beast Labs Swarms.
I know alot of folks on social media take issue with him, I hardly have an idea who he is. However, his line of toys is really great. He partnered with Moose Toys whom have made a lot of fun stuff. Some I've even talked about here. Swarms are something I specifically like. Years prior, Moose Toys made Trash Pack and Grossery Gang. A series of awesome keshi with gross out designs I really enjoyed. Swarms are something of a spiritual successor to those with similar designs and some really cool monsters! I got a few packs happily as well as a neat 3D printed lizard figit toy from Five Below. Speaking of Five Below, they had a great series of troll dolls as classic movie monsters! I got Michael Myers! I was a big fan of trolls as a kid and feel a little of that love seeing these! So cool! Not to be left out, a Stranger Things blind pack. I got a Demogorgan in slime!
Saturday we went grocery shopping in person as holidays are a terrible time for grocery orders. Afterwards, we found ourselves checking out a different Target before enjoying a nice dinner at Outback Steakhouse. I got some more Swarms, actually there's a neat Target exclusive Christmas series. I think I've got the distribution figured out and just need two more packs to complete it. We actually discovered another newer brand of tiny toys while there that the Mrs fell in love with. Wigglitz is a delightful series of tiny 3D printed segmented animals that come on a variety of sculpts and colors. They're part figit toy and part collectible. She got several packs and Ginger the pink wolf accompanied us to dinner.
Saturday night we decorated the inside of our house for Christmas which included putting up our new tree! It's a big 7 and a half feet tall featuring pre-installed lights that can be controlled with a remote for a variety of functions. Man, living in the future sure is neat! Sunday I had planned to decorate the yard and house, but a rainy day changed those plans. Hopefully the weather will be better next week. Instead I did chores and built Blokees while watching more Most Extreme Elimination Challenge. You know, I watch old episodes of that regularly... but I think I got the entire series in over the break. Mom came over for Sunday dinner, we had Christmas tacos! We also showed Mom the first episode of the new Stranger Things season. We'll probably get an episode in each week up until the new batch of episodes at the end of the month. I'm not looking forward to it ending, but happy that it seems to be on a high note.
Well, I've got some stuff to do. I actually wrote this while running errands and doing chores. Ironically I talked about Wigglitz while refilling the bird seed on our porch. We always keep some out there, but now that it's winter, we're keeping extra. There's not alot for them to eat while it's cold, so we try to help. Actually, let me get on a soap box for a second. You've probably seen a lot of self righteous assholes on social media telling you what to think and who to give money to (it's always something that benefits them magically). Just try to be a good person and help out when and how you can. If it feels right, it usually is and those dipshits are just out for clout anyway. Don't listen to redundant mother fuckers and if that includes me, then I understand. I don't make a dime off this site, so whatever. Zone Base is just a way for me to enjoy my hobbies with whomever wants to enjoy them with me. Thank you all for reading and supporting actual independent thought. We're getting back to normal this week after the break, but we're going to have one fun Christmas here on Planet Zone! Please don't forget to share with your friends, look after your loved ones, and take care of each other. Mutual High Fives everyone!
