EDIT: Tummi's 2005 Christmas Jukebox is now active!
It's Saturday! One week till Christmas Eve!
It's been a weird holiday season. Actually, it's kind of not been a holiday season. I've never been so busy in my life, and I really didn't notice just how busy I was until December rolled around and I didn't even have time to decorate -- we still haven't. Sure, we probably wouldn't have anyway as we're moving into a new apartment soon, but man, I'm so not used to not tripping over stands of Christmas lights as I head over to a table full of ceramic wind-ups. The woman is just as much of a Christmas nut as I am -- it's something I take credit for -- and we've just kinda consigned ourselves to having a crappy Christmas season knowing that our new place will afford us the chance to go absolutely batshit with the decorations next year.
2005 Stocking Stuffer: Pound Puppies! Pound Puppies are back. They look a little different and their intestines are now full of machine parts that let them do tricks, but they're back, dammit. It's with some shame that I admit to have long ago adopted a Pound Puppy and treated it as all the icky girls at school treated their Cabbage Patch Kids. These new Christmasized Pound Puppy stocking stuffers, complete with loopy strings that enable you to turn 'em into tree decorations, look more like the Pound Puppies of old than anything else currently on the market.
And now! The big list of what I'm getting everyone in my huge family for Christmas...
Niece #1: Artsy clay kit stuff. Not purchased yet.
Nephew #1: Zoo Tycoon, or whatever it's called, for Nintendo DS.
Nephew #2: One of those Playstation 2 gift packs that features six obsolete games in a big nice box for twenty bucks. He won't shit himself over the games, but he'll shit himself over getting six at once, assuming he doesn't own 'em all already.
Nephew #3: Some LEGO junk. Not purchased yet.
Niece #2: Shit, just realized that I totally glossed over this niece. Nothing yet.
Niece #3: Anchorman and Hairspray on DVD. Don't ask.
Nephew #4: Animal Crossing, whatever the new one is called, for Nintendo DS.
Niece #4: Pegasus Barbie doll and a set of miniature Pegasus Barbie horse figures.
Nephew #5: He's my godson, so he gets the big one -- one of those remote controlled Hummers that's basically the size of a real Hummer.
Niece #5: My Little Pony Butterfly Island playset.
Niece #6: Pound Puppies electronic dog. I dunno, it spins and walks and stuff.
Niece #7: Furby!
Because I have so many nieces and nephews, my siblings made the rule years ago that we should only get their kids presents. One of my brothers doesn't have any, so he wins his own -- an Atari Flashback 2 system, which I also own and strongly recommend, not because the Atari games have aged well, but because the thing just looks so damn cool. Still have a few more to go, and I can't mention certain other gifts here because of PRYING MANTIS EYES, but it's a typically expensive holiday season. This list doesn't factor in the other dozen gifts we have to get for the woman's side.
2005 Stocking Stuffer: Coal Cars! From Matchbox comes the year's coolest stocking stuffer -- a package containing two lumps of plastic coal that split apart to reveal hidden Matchbox cars! Too few companies have brought the mythology of stocking coal into the limelight. We've had to spend the past decade living off the fumes from "Santa's Coal" bubble gum sacks, which were adequate but not nearly as able to make people love coal as these babies are. Love 'em to death. The split-apart coal pieces are more fun than the cars, and will double nicely as change purses for all who aren't afraid to try new things. Best of all are all the graphics of a tricky Santa Claus on the package, winking and shushing his way into our hearts like only he can. Good going, Matchbox. You've learned how to rock.
This space doubles as your Saturday Night Christmas Thread.
REMINDING EDIT: Tummi's 2005 Christmas Jukebox is now active!
Posted by Matt on 12/17/2005. E-mail me!
Chestnuts roasted by 
I started it up and my pomeranian gizmo that was sleeping on my foot went batshit when he heard the dogs barking. I was laughing so hard! He got real embarrased and hid under the bed. That was classic! 
Also as far as the watermarking on the ads, try just making them a little smaller, more towards the corner, and set the transparency to about 50%. I know some people have watermarks that’ll fade out after a couple seconds but I have no idea what sort of program you need for that. I typically just use VirtualDub.