Archerfire Decants - Christmas Presents!

[Archerfire]

In appreciation of B&B and all it's wonderful members who have contributed to my success as a vendor, Archerfire Decants is giving away five Christmas presents!

I've been thinking about and preparing this since before Thanksgiving and now I even have the perfect place to post it! Kudos to the mods for providing this spot. I hope everyone enjoys this!

This will CLOSE on Dec. 24th at 11:59 pm CST.

Who Can Enter?
Anyone and everyone who is a member of B&B, of course!

How Do You Enter?
Simply post a memorable Christmas experience. It doesn't have to be long. Keep it as simple as you wish. If you've already posted something elsewhere, post here too!

Will it help you win? Nah, I'm not going to try to judge who had the 'best Christmas experience'. How is that possible?! I just think it would be cool and uplifting for me and other members to read! A wee bit of effort for some (what I think is) cool juice isn't too much to ask... I hope. C'mon, share with us!

How Do You Win?
I'll be using a random number generator utilizing your thread post. Winners will be selected and notified on Christmas Day. I'm not going to tell you what you won. It IS a Christmas present, after all! You'll just have to open it and find out when you get it!

The Presents!

Present #1
Amouage Dia - 2ml decant
Amouage Silver - 2ml decant
Brioni - 4ml decant
Montale Taj - 2ml decant

Present #2
Creed Green Valley - 2ml decant
Creed Orange Spice - 4ml decant
Creed Original Santal - 4ml decant

Present #3
Maitre Parfum et Gantier Eau Des Iles - 4ml decant
MPG Pour la Jeune Homme - 4ml decant
MPG Racine - 2ml decant

Present #4
Penhaligon's Endymion - 2ml decant
Pen's Racquets - 4ml decant
Pen's Sartorial - 4ml decant

Present #5
Vintage Guerlain Vetiver - 4ml decant
Vintage and Discontinued Knize Twenty EDC - 4ml decant. Yeah.. that's right... Knize TWENTY!
Polo travel spray w/ box - approx. 20ml of a 30ml bottle
Grey Flannel w/ box - approx. 45ml of a 60ml bottle

[maxzoran]

Very nice PIF! Thanks for the opportunity!

One of my most favorite Christmas experiences is when my wife and I went to visit family in Ashland, WI. We all bundled up wearing Santa hats and went for a horse-drawn sleigh ride. All seven of us piled into the sleigh and off we went. Everything was going fine until the sleigh went over a hidden ditch. Bam! The yoke broke. No one was injured, but we had to wait for the driver to go back to the barn, load up some parts, and come back and fix it. So, it turned into a big snow angel making, snowball fight marathon out in the woods. It was so much fun and a memory I will never forget!

[KarlMaldensNose]

Yeah, great PIF! Nice to reminisce about some good ol' times. Here's a different one for ya...

When I was 11 years-old or so, at my grandparents' annual Christmas Eve family gathering, I decided I'd brave one of my grandpa's famous jarred vodka-brandy plums. No more than one minute after fighting the flaming fruit down my throat, I puked that badboy right back up. I was sick for the next three days. The next Christmas at the party, I tried a raw oyster, which was followed by a few more days of retching and misery. Foolish child that I was, at the party the very next year, I got my Anthony Boudain on and stood up to a ghastly cracker topped with jellied moose nose. Yup, back to the toilet for a couple more days.

My grandparents are no longer with us, but I like to honour their memory every year at Christmas by bringing an odd and daring food contribution to whatever culinary scene I happen to be toasting my eggnog at. Christmas just isn't the same unless I'm spending it in the company of some cold, hard porcelain.

Happy Holidays!

[Geordon]

My most memorable Christmas morning was when I was maybe 8. My brothers and I (4 and 3 at that time) tore down the stairs to see what Santa had left. When we got to the living room, there was practically no room to walk because the floor was covered two feet high with wrapped boxes, to what seemed like 10 feet from the base of the tree.

I dont remember what we got, lo those many years ago, but I remember the scene upon which I gazed with wide-eyed amazement.

[rickboone1]

Great offer, archerfire!

[dmachine]

Back when I was in first grade and still believed in Santa, I hatched a plan to meet the jolly old elf. After my parents went upstairs to sleep, I created a hiding spot in living room where the Christmas tree was in between the sofa and the wall. There I was determined to stay awake through the night and catch Santa in the act. Needless to say, I soon fell asleep and when I awoke early the next morning, there were the presents under the tree. I don't remember what I got, but it remains one of my favorite memories of Christmas.

[JeffJ]

My daughter walked for the first time on Christmas eve. We were at a cabin in Lake Tahoe with family from the east coast. A cousin two months older showed her the way.

[vitaman]

Thank you for the opportunity.

I remember when I was six yrs old. I got up Christmas morning and looked down stairs to see a minibike standing next to the tree. I ran back up a jumped into bed in hopes of waking up from my dream to go back down stairs to find a minibike next to the tree. I went back down and...........it was there!!

[xXClockwork]

Very nice PIF!

It is hard to pick a particular Christmas that stands out in my mind. My family (grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins) all get together on Christmas morning to have breakfast. We then proceed to the living room to open gifts. We open them one at a time, going in order from youngest to oldest. When i say one at a time, i mean 1 person opens 1 present, then on to the next. Then it comes back around. It usually takes 6 or 7 hours to complete, with a light dinner in between the last hour or two. It can be a bit tiring, but it is really cool to get to spend time with family, chatting and appreciating the gifts that we are getting. I enjoy the Christmas' with my family very much. They live in Cincinnati, and I live in Fort Worth. My mother, stepfather, sister, wife and I will be taking the trip up this year. it will be my wife's first time visiting. Very exciting!

Anyway, thanks again for the generous offer.

[TheVez2]

Thanks for the Generous PIF.

It has been quite some timesince I've been home with the whole extended family at Christmas. We did the same thing every year at Christmas and I miss that routine. I would always open my stocking first. Then after my parents woke up we'd eat a light breakfast and open the rest of our presents. After that we'd pack up and head to Grandma's house. There I was met by my Aunts, Uncles and my 12 Cousins. We had a big brunch there, and then had another gift exchange. Afte that some of them would leave to go to their third christmas with the other side of the family, but about half of us stayed and we'd play games, and run around for the rest of the day. Good times.

[Hammertime1]

Saweet that is awesome of you to do and thank you. When one of the neighbors whose annual tradition is for Santa to have breakfast at their house. One of them dressing as Santa, started the tradition of afterwards Santa comes to our house for a few minutes. The look on my kids face is priceless.

[Hidesuru]

Excellent PIF, thanks.

My memories of Christmas as a child aren't generally too specific, but more about the general routine that we followed most years. My brother and I would wake up early (as kids are wont to do) and find our stockings outside our doors. That was our parents' "peace offering" I think to let them sleep in a bit after wrapping all the presents the night before. We'd each go through and see what we got, then get together and show each other. Usually start snacking on some sort of candy or another.

Down at the end of the hallway was usually a trunk or something else. Not something we couldn't get over if we really wanted to of course, but just a 'gentle reminder' that the living room was off limits until my parents got up (which always seemed to take FOREVER! :biggrin1:). They'd get up and make breakfast while we sat and eagerly watched the pile of presents, smaller some years than others but always there. Finally we'd get down to the important part as far as we were concerned. One person would put on the santa hat and retrieve presents for everyone until all the gifts were open. Christmas was always a fun time for the family to spend together. Haven't been able to spend too many Christmases together in recent years, but I'm moving to the same town in AZ where my folks live between this Christmas and new years, so I'm hoping for some good ones in the future. Now to convince my brother to come up for the holidays.

I do remember one specific Christmas where we got together at a rented house with extended family. There was this plastic model of a 'working' engine that I really wanted. I believe it was powered by an electric motor or something like that. That was going to be my big gift that year, but my parents left it at home by mistake. Well apparently my dad drove all the way back home (several hours each way) just to get it so that I could open it on Christmas day. Sadly, while I did build most of it, I lost a few pieces along the way and never finished it. Ahh the regrets of life. :001_tongu

[Ray Guy]

Nice PIF
My most memorable Christmas was in 1964 when I was 14, I found a Garlatti Italian road bike and a J-4 Slim under the tree. I still ride that bike and still shave with that slim.

[p.m.a.]

What a great opportunity! Thanks very much, Archerfire!
Here's my Charlie Brown story: A few years ago I had been unemployed for some time and, come Christmas, we had very little money. We were able to scrounge some presents for my son, but could not afford a tree to put them under. I went out to the woods near our home and chose a nice sized pine branch. We put on it our lights, a few decorations and topped it with a little star. I was so proud of our "tree" and it really didn't look half bad. We were certainly grateful for the little things, and especially for the most important things that year, like family and health.
Good luck to everyone, and have a safe and wonderful holiday season!

[obaid]

well there is one particular memory regarding christmas. there is a church right next to my house.i remember i was around 8-9 yrs and had heard a lot about santa,and was pretty much excited:w00t:.So i hung up my socks and grabbed a chair ,and sat at the window.it was midnight,and the vigil for santa started:001_tongu.I could see the people coming for the mass,but i just use to glance at them ,and again start staring at the night sky,hoping to catch the bearded man.Well time passed slowly and i could see the people coming out of the church since the mass ended,but again i dare not at them for more then a sec,i had my eyes and heart waiting for a very important visitor :001_smile .My neck started paining,since i was staring at the sky in that same posture for so long,but `noway i would let even that pain stop me from the all important task at hand.Then i started get impatient,everyone in my house was fast asleep with me the only person awake,cuddled up in the blanket ,staring at the sky for almost close to 3hrs now. Well then i just lost my patience,got bit angry with santa taking so long.It was as if he had missed my house in the delivery schedule and that only got me more irritated.Went and woke my mother,she was surprised that i was awake so late and she consoled me that dont worry maybe santa must be late or busy,so i should just go to sleep and surely next morning my gift should be there.Well i had no choice and went to bed,sad and disheartened :sad: woke up next morning and the first thing that came in my mind was santa,rushed to check if any gift was there.And i saw a brand new toygun that i had been wanting for such a long time,kept near my study table :w00t: .All the pain,misery of the night's vigil vanished and all i could think was that santa atleast came,yea he was late but still he made it. hope i never bored you guys with this :001_tongu,but this memory has been so special for me all these years

please dont consider me as a entry,since if i win (i know i wont :001_tongu ) ,shipping etc will be problem.just wanted to share my experience

[global_dev]

Ah... memories of my first Christmas that i can recall... it was so quiet around, streets were dead silent, nothing truly was stirring.. not even a person walking a dog down my parents street like usual... it was too quiet. where was everyone? almost nothing was open but the movies and a chinese food takeout, none of my friends were around, they were all busy... what freaking boring day, if you don't celebrate X-mas. i sent out celebratory Kwanzaa cards, after i got back from living in Nairobi for a while, i got were chuckles and smiles which truly were enough for spirit.

over the years later i would come to celebrate with some friends family, but christmas for a non-christmas celebrating person... not so excitinga as a kid.. everyone is getting presents but you.. thanks for the reminder!! as if i don't get it enough every year and this year my 6 year old pointed out how early christmas decorations started..

ahhh, the sadness of growing up Rasta

[FonGu]

Great PIF! I've had two most memorable Christmas moments. It was the time each of my children were just old enough to a able to sit and enjoy what was going on around them at Christmas. I still can remember them as laughing little babies wearing footie pajamas, ripping open paper, getting tape and bows stuck in their hair, etc. These were moments of pure bliss for my wife and me.

[kroberts]

From the time I was about 7 or 8 until I was 17 or so, every year on Christmas Eve, my mother would allow us to open one gift. My younger brothers and I would go absolutely nutters waiting until 7pm or so when my mother would do us this huge blessing.

Sadly we didn't realize until our teen/pre-teen years how simply devious my mother was...because every year, every single year, our "early" gifts would be a sweatshirt/sweatpants set. In fact, in our teens year we began to notice her forked tail switching back in forth in delight as she began to ask us when we would like to open our "early" gifts.

My brothers and I still talk about this yearly Christmas Eve event to this day, and every time we do so around my mother, she cackles like the very face of evil itself...knowing in some small way she has tainted our pure and innocent souls forever.

I know there is a contest for telling these stories, but honestly it feels good to finally get this horrible memory off my chest and hopefully find some small bit of empathy from my fellow shavers.

[N2theBreech]

Thanks for the PIF.

I have a lot of Christmases to sort through. I think one of the most memorable happened when our children were 7 and 5. We never pushed them to believe in Santa, but we didn't spoil their fun either. We just didn't want them to wonder if we were fooling them about anything else. At this time, they were beginning to suspect that Santa might be just a myth for the holidays.

That Christmas morning, after the festivities were over, they went out in the yard and found... a ribbon... with sleigh bells on it! In our yard! You know where those bells must have come from—Santa's sleigh, of course! They came racing back into the house, eyes all sparkly, cheeks flushed, bouncing in all directions at once! Their words were tumbling so fast, and over top one another, that it took us a few minutes to sort out what happened. And Santa was very real for at least another year!

[Snargle]

Nice contest! Thanks for the opportunity to participate.

My most vivid Christmas memory was a Christmas Eve when I was 6 or 7 years old. I had gone to bed, but a couple of hours later, I quietly got up to get a drink of water. I looked into the living room and saw my Dad arranging "Santa's presents" under the tree. He tried to cover up by telling me that Santa was running late due to bad weather at the North Pole and had contacted parents and asked them to help him out. He never was able to explain how the presents managed to got here but Santa was stuck! It was about that time that I got some serious doubts about things like Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, etc. I managed to "fake it" for another couple of years...mostly because I thought if I let my parents know that I was on to the scam, the presents would stop coming!

[Bimmerman]

That would have to be 1977 when I was in high school. Dad took us to spend Christmas in the Philippines.

[strad84]

About this time of year I remember visiting my Grandmother's house, who lived right up the street. She would be baking cookies for the seasonal church bazaars, but with a flair. We'd enter through the pantry to a child's dream. The heavy smell of vanilla, anise, and cinnamon could almost knock you off your feet, but the colors would draw you inside. Every inch of counter space was covered in bright colors of sugary delights. There were traditional cut outs, Gingerbread men, Chocolate thumbprints, dusted wedding cakes, almond shortbread, raspberry linzer cookies, pecan crescents, peppermint meringue, lebkuchen, and peppernuts. And a dozen of other varieties, all on separate baking sheets. There were colored tins and wax paper on the kitchen table, overfilling with assorted treats ready to deliver. And the toughest decision that I ever made at the age of seven; was which one was going to be my choice from the assortment.
Although I have tried to imitate my favorite holiday traditions with my own family, this one I have never been able to repeat. How she managed to create so many culinary delights without complaint every year still amazes me. Must have been some of that holiday magic.

[grimas42]

Every Christmas I had growing up was absolutely amazing. My parents always went all out for it in every way. That being said, most most memorable one was not as fun. I was maybe 12-13 and the day started just fine. Half way through opening the presents, I became very ill and ended up having the stomach flu on Christmas day. The funny part is that all of the good parts of the day are just as vivid in my memory as the bad parts. All of my other X-mas days seem to blend together, but I remember almost every part of that day. So, all in all, that makes it a good day in my book.

[plpenn]

Very generous, thank you.

About 6 years ago my mom and I were in Austin looking for a Christmas gift for my wife and we stopped at this antique/hide shop on South Lamar. While we were walking around she saw a mirror that she really liked. I told her it was way to expensive and a piece of junk. I could tell she still really liked it (it was cool) so on the way out I grabbed a business card. As soon as dropped her off at her house I called the store and asked them what their hours were and the man on the phone said they were closing in 10 minutes. I was 35 minutes away.

I told him that we had been in the store earlier and that I wanted to buy my mom the mirror and he said he had some cleaning to do and he would hang around for a while. I went and picked up the mirror and managed to keep it a secret until Christmas morning. I made sure we were the last ones to mom's house and I left the mirror on the porch. After a few rounds of gifts I told her to go look on the porch, she cried for about an hour and still ranks it among her best gifts ever.

The reason that was so special and memorable was after all the years of her giving everything of herself to me and my brother I was able to return a little bit of the happiness she shared with us.

[Obiwan]

Thanks Randy. Great offer.

My Christmas last year is one I won't soon forget. My daughter was 2 and it was the first she she got the whole gift thing. My wife and I went a bit overboard with her gifts and got some large sized gifts that we thought would be her focal point of the day. We were so excited to have her open all of her new gifts. She came downstairs and was a bit overwhelmed. She opened 1 present played with it for what seemed to be an hour, then moved on to the next. Several hours later we through in the towel waiting. Long and short of it,Christmas took over a week to get through her gifts and she liked a $3 mini toy train the best. (This year I don't think we'll be so "lucky").

[combatwombat]

One of my my memorable Christmas was when I learned that presents were nothing to me so long as I had a great family that cared about me and that tried very hard to make me happy by always doing their best for me.

[RUSHd]

Last Christmas my mom came out of left field and gave me a Super Adjustable and two Micromatics as gifts. Then there was the Christmas I got a Sega Genesis...

[rearviewmirror]

Honestly, growing up my mom busted her butt to make sure christmas was a super special holiday. Every single room was decorated, including both bathrooms. By the time I was about 8, I knew where she wanted every decoration and loved helping. The tree always went up a few weeks before xmas, but we never decorated it until xmas eve after mass. I remember helping put up the lights outside in near blizzards, of having to climb up the ladder into the attic to get all the decorations down (that took a full day itself). I remember my entire family coming, and having so much food that we were grateful it was 10 degrees outside, so we could use the garage like a fridge!

My best memory of all this though, was one I took for granted at the time. My daughter was about 2, we spent her first xmas here in Florida, and went to my parents for her 2nd. She LOVED that my mom had decorated every inch of the house. Everything that I loved as a kid she loved. My mom and dad got her a black fleece vest, and she stripped off her clothes and spend the day walking around in the vest and her diaper. It was like I got to watch what my parents had experienced all those years. Sadly, my dad passed away 6 months later, but still to this day my daughter who is now almost 10 talks about her Grandpa all the time, and my 6yo who never got to meet him, sleeps with a picture of him next to her bed and talks about all the things we've told her about him.
Great. Now i'm at work and tearing up.

[conroygc]

Nice contest, very generous of you. I've been wanting to try new fragrances lately, but the full size bottles are cost prohibitive. Do you have a website where you sell these small bottles?

Christmas memory: When I was a kid, maybe 12 years old or so, my parents really went out of their way to "prove" the whole Santa thing. We would put out carrots for the reindeer and when I'd wake up they'd have huge teethmarks in them. One year, about midnight, there was a huge bang on the roof right above my bed. Obviously I assumed it was Santa.

Looking back I'm sure my mom just switched out the carrots with ones the local horses had already been to. Still not sure about the thud on the roof though.

[BentonClay]

In 1970, as a 7-year-old Canadian boy, I spent a year in Scotland attending a school where choir attendance was mandatory. The junior grades would gather at weekly assemblies singing the melody lines from hymns. The senior grades would file in adding their harmonies. When all our voices combined for "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" I thought I that heaven had opened up for me with the angels joining in, and to this day no musical experience has come close to the power of that event.

[daverasi]

What a great PIF!

My X-Mass memory is recent but one of my favorites. Last year was my sons first X-Mass and I'll never forget how excited he got...about empty cardboard boxes!:smile::smile:

[Ken T M]

I'm gong to be a bit cheeky and post my first contribution to the forums here, in application to a contest...

...my favourite Christmas memory is probably in Alaska, where I used to go for christmas with my mother and sister as a kid. We would stay at a friend's self-built, 2 storey log cabin at the foot of Mount Alyeska, in Girdwood. At night (any time from 4pm), the resort would switch on the floodlights on the slope so that skiers could keep going until as late as 10pm. From the balcony, the way the mountain lit up it looked like an unfeasibly gargantuan Christmas Tree... Every Christmas in Alaska was magical.

[Pilotgod]

Wow, thanks for an amazing offer!

My Christmas memory, is technically a Chirstmas Eve memory, but it ended early on Christmas morning. December 24,2009 is a day that I will never forget. I was working on the NW side of Oklahoma City, but live about 40 miles away to the SW of the metro area. There was a forecast of a snowstorm in the afternoon that might give us 6 inches by the time night fell. Because of this, my brother and I carpooled because he has a Dodge RAM truck that is a good 10 inches off the ground, whereas my car had about 4. At about 11AM is starts snowing a nice Christmas wonderland snow. This all changed as by 1PM we were in a blizzard, snow was already 6 inches deep and falling fast with a 50 mph wind blowing it. Visibility was maybe 100 yards.

My work finally let everyone go at 2PM, but by this time the parking lot was impassable and most cars were stuck. My brother was back at home after taking his wife home from her work after car got stuck in her parking lot and said he would be on his way, but it might be some time. So, I teamed up with some other guys at work and we went to try to get the cars in the parking lot moving for those that had no other options. I am a born and bred Texan and am NOT a cold weather person, so the fact it was already close to 10F with a 50 mph wind was miserable. We got a few on their way, but by 3:30 the roads were so bad that a State of Emergency was called and the Interstates were "closed" (meaning you could drive on them, but there was no emergency calls going to them and no sanders or plows). My brother called me about 4:30 and said he was stuck, but digging his way out.

At 6PM, the company I worked for stated that the security staff were being excused to go home and that as such the building is closed and we can't stay inside. Being as there were still about 10 of us with literally no where to go, we fought it and they allowed us to stay in the front foyer and closed the rest of the building down. My brother called back at 7 and said he was 5 miles away, but the drifts were nearly 5 feet in places and he had powered through a few, but wasn't sure if he could get up there and if he could, he was convinced we wouldn't get home.

At about 7:30 PM, my brother called from the nearest "Snow Route", which was a mile and a half away and said that was as close as he was able to get as the side streets are impassable with stuck cars. I told him to hold on there, I would walk there. Again, I am a Texan boy, and figured that 1 and a half miles even in a blizzard couldn't take more than 30 minutes, so I bundled up and went. After 10 minutes, I was crossing a large field (straight line route, instead of following roads) and the visibility was maybe 50 feet. With the wind roaring, snow 2 feet deep with drifts as tall as me (6 feet) I was in a world of my own. There were no lights visible, no sounds other than a cold wind. I could've been in Siberia, Antartica, or on Memorial and Quail Springs, it was all the same. I kept trudging forward and after 20 steps or so would turn around and look at my footprints and hope I wasn't drifting in a large circle and getting nowhere. At about 20 minutes I stumbled into the parking lot of a call center in the area and found an older gentleman trying to get his car unstuck. His wife was sitting in the drivers seat and he was pushing, but they weren't moving. I offered to help and after a few minutes we got him going. He was going in the wrong direction from me though, so I kept on walking.

An hour after I set out, I was numb all over and had started coughing...great, I thought, either it's the cold dry air working on me, or hypothermia. By 8:45 though I walked into the gas station where my brother was at, but they were closed for the storm, no coffee, nothing warm, just a parking lot. I hopped into the truck and off we set following a snow plow. Now, I have seen and even done some good driving in my time, but even Tanner Foust would've had a challenge at keeping this 2WD Dodge RAM going in any particular direction, but somehow we made it down the turnpike and when the snow plow took an exit we didn't need, we kept going, all the way to Mustang, OK. About half way home.

We got to Mustang around 10PM and got stopped at an intersection. There is a state highway that runs east west through the heart of town and goes along rolling hills that aren't noticed until they are slick and covered with 4 foot snow drifts. Two snow plows were stuck side by side and there was only room to get one vehicle between them at a time. We kept pushing forward and about 4 cars in front of the guy stops, not stuck, but stops. Turns out we couldn't see it, but coming off of a side street was a guy in a Ford Super Duty with a 20 ft horse trailer that had pulled out and the trailer jackknifed on him and he was now blocking the gap. We got out and went to help move cars, finally getting our own truck through there just before midnight.

The rest of the drive was slick, but manageable as by now the snow had stopped falling except for a few flakes, but the wind was blowing the drifts. So now there were bare spots with black ice next to a 6 foot drift. We got about 2 miles from home and got stuck when a car in front of went sideways on the road and into a ditch. This time, we were stuck, there wasn't a way of getting it out that we saw and we decided that we would sit in the car until we felt warm enough to walk the 2 miles. After all it was 1 AM on Chirstmas morning after a full frontal assault from a blizzard, in an area not accustomed to weather like this. Just as we were working up the courage to start walking, a Toyota 4 Runner on Mud Tires comes over the hill behind us, slows, passes us and then backs up. Two guys get out and grab a tow strap and ask if we will allow them to pull it out. About 15 minutes of digging, pulling, and cursing and we were free and back on our way. The two guys were from Nebraska, and I don't remember their names, but they said that when they saw reports two days earlier that a snow system would be moving across the area, they decided to drive to the Texas Panhandle with their 4x4 and a few tow straps and "Help people get home for the holidays." Well, they determined on Christmas Eve that Texas would be OK, but Oklahoma would need help, so they started "driving home" following the roads not considered snow routes and they were working to either get people unstuck or give them rides to shelter/home if they could. Turns out their last ride was giving someone from Elk City (100 miles West) a ride to their home just down the road.

Now, I have seen every corny Christmas miracle type movie that Hollywood can churn out, but the fact that two strangers decided that instead of sitting at home with their families, they needed to trek across three states and assist people still strikes me as an act of kindness that is hard to beat. Call them guardian angels, call them good samaritans, or just "good ole boys". Whatever the case may be, they put the finishing touch on a Christmas I will never forget.



TL; DR: Christmas Eve Blizzard 2009 in Oklahoma City. A 13 hour journey to get home nearly ends only 2 miles from the house, but instead of walking in below 0 temps with 6 foot drifts, two people from two states away help us because "People need to be home for the holidays", even though they weren't.

[Archerfire]

Great replies! I've read and enjoyed every single one of them. Thanks for sharing a part of your lives with me and anyone else who may be lurking around and reading them. I debated about asking you to post a memorable Christmas event, but now I'm glad I did. Awesome stuff for the holiday season.

Keep them coming!

[Gordy2]

Having spent 20 years in the Navy, I especially remember the first two of the three Christmases I spent in Antarctica away from family but with friends. We did our best decorating and the food was very good even back in the mid '60s during my first two deployment down there. Everyone received Christmas "Care Packages" from home but all shared their bounty with everyone else in the Hut (Quonset Hut). We made decorations and did the best we could but we were not fooling anyone knowing there was no place like home to spend Christmas. But we partied hardy and enjoyed ourselves the best we could. Christmas dinner (chow) was always prepared with really great food with turkey, ham and I believe lobster tails. The cooks we had there always put out a nice spread and "fresh" (after a trip of several thousand miles) fruits were usually available. Stuffing, several vegetables, cakes, pies and canned goodies were there for us, some to sneak out to take back to the Hut to enjoy later. I went back around 1980 for my last trip. Things had become quite, if not very "modern" and although Christmas was still spent in a similar fashion, things were not quite the same as Christmases back in the "Hut" which were no longer used for the sailor's quarters.

[chicagotrim]

Ok, Ill play...
I come from a very small family so holidays at the trim house have always been pretty small.
My wife on the other hand has a HUGE Irish Italian family. Just to give you an idea, her father has 8 brothers and sisters and her mom has 7 brothers and sisters. Crazy big. So, when we were getting serious(dating), she invited me out to Chicago to meet her parents at Christmas time and when I got there, she informed me we were going to her Uncles for a Christmas party-no big deal, right??. When we showed up, I was shocked to see 95 relatives in one house and I was a little intimidated to say the least. Ok, so that was the easy part... About 3 hours after meeting everyone, I somehow was forced to dress up as Santa Claus and make a big appearance and have all the kids sit on my lap in front of 95 people. If you can imagine, it was pretty embarrassing and fun at the same time.
Oh, did I leave out the part about me being Jewish?

[dgerson]

I'm Jewish so my Christmas memories may be a bit different then everybody else's... One that stands out is being invited to a Christmas party thrown by friends of ours when we were relatively new to living in Virginia. The hostess had requested that in lieu of gifts or food everybody bring an ornament. Well that threw me and my wife for a loop. What no bringing a babka? oooookay... And then the tricky part, where does one buy ornaments? Now we weren't ultra-religious, live in a compound, kind of Jews in any ways, but we seriously had never even contemplated the issue. Eventually with some advice from other friends, we end up at a Hallmark checking out the ornaments. And there's my wife for a good hour, inspecting and critiquing various ornaments, trying to find the "right" one (folks this Jewish girl from Brooklyn was taking this SERIOUSLY). Eventually we (she) settled on one, I paid (yikes), and off we go. We got to decorate a tree (cool), have eggnog (seriously folks, that stuff's disgusting, I'll take the rum straight please), and sing carols (I knew the melody but never realized how little of the words I knew (other then Jingle Bells, Batman smells...). Nice time, good fun, and a great memory overall. On a semi-serious note, I think the world would be a better place if we all shared our customs just a bit more. Happy holidays to all, and a very Merry Christmas to those you celebrate it!

Darrin

[Brent]

I'll participate.

I don't have one specific memory that stands out but I do enjoy how the way our family does Christmas raises an eyebrow. Being 30, my family still have a pretty extensive Christmas like when we were kids. We still buy eachother tons of presents, and it takes literally hours to open all the presents under the tree. Maybe not that unusual but my family has Christmas 3 weeks early and we don't have a traditional meal. Typically we just make a ton of our favorite foods and rather them. No turkey or ham, but stable full of chicken wings, stuffed mushrooms, meatballs, taco dip, macaroni salad, breadsticks and cheese, veggie pizza and other oddities. Somehow it works for us but whenever I tell anyone they always seem to raise an eyebrow.

[xraydoc]

I am part of a very small family, and after my uncle.got divorced it became that much smaller. However, on Christmas break my only cousin, would.come and stay with my uncle for.the Christmas season. it was the only two weeks out of the year that wd were able to see her. That always made Christmas an extra special time of year.

[Archerfire]

Thanks to all who participated and for sharing your experiences. I really enjoyed reading them.

In no particular order, the following are the winners!

Hidesuru
X-Ray Doc
p.m.a.
Pilotgod
dmachine

Thanks again and Merry Christmas!!

[TheVez2]

Great PIF. Congrats to the winners. Merry Christmas. I love this place!

[Hidesuru]

Thanks so much for the PIF, Archerfire. It was fun!

[p.m.a.]

Many thanks for your kind generosity and for the fun contest, Randy! Happy holidays!

[Pilotgod]

Thanks a lot, this was a fun PIF to read and participate in. Lots of really cool stories.

[FonGu]

Congrats to the winners!

[Hidesuru]

Reviving an old thread, but I got my decants today. I received the Penhaligon's set and I really like them. Thanks a lot for the Christmas gift, Archerfire! It even came gift wrapped, which was a nice surprise. Just too bad that my fiance is 1600 miles away for the foreseeable future, so she cant smell them on me. =\ Maybe its time to start some good old fashioned love notes and add a bit of the scent to them for a personal touch...

[dmachine]

My decants arrived today as well. I received the Amouage, Brioni, and Montale decants. Wonderful gift. Thanks again!