Thanksgiving Round-Up and Advent Calendar Garland (Geek Edition)

Jason and I had a great Thanksgiving, with lots of food and laughter. The Mystery Science Theater marathon was great. It was hosted by Joel, who was dressed as the Frugal Gourmet, but without the beard he ended up looking more like Chris Kimball from America's Test Kitchen. Anyway, they alternated between Mike and Joel episodes, with a little trivia game after each movie giving hints for the next one. Here's the lineup:
-Space Mutiny (a classic! One of my favorites)
-I Accuse My Parents (the only one I hadn't seen before; it was great to see a new one)
-Werewolf (most notable for the song medley they sing over the end credits. Tusk!)
-Cave Dwellers (the host segments are great in this one, especially the one about foley artists)
-Final Sacrifice (one word: Rowsdower!)
-Mitchell (everyone thought it was going to be "Manos: The Hands of Fate" but "Mitchell" is included in the latest DVD set they were advertising, in addition to being Joel's last episode)
The marathon ended with a cameo from the 'bots (who didn't have any lines) and then Joel encouraged everyone to have...a Patrick Swayze Christmas:

I wonder if this means they're going to do another online streaming event for Christmas. That would be AMAZING. 

When I was a kid, my parents would buy us candy-filled advent calendars, with one piece of chocolate each day in December up through Christmas Eve. We had an ornament calendar, too, that we re-used every year until the cardboard holder fell apart. I think we still have some of the ornaments, though. When I got older we traded in the candy for a garland of socks, with a piece of candy or small gift in each sock. We also did activity advent calendars for a few years, which is what Jason and I came up with for this December.

We came up with a list of holiday activities, which I typed up and printed out. The garland is made from stuff I found in the dollar bins at Target. The ornaments and gingerbread cookies were from separate garland kits, and they are pre-cut paper shapes. The penguins were from a foam decoration kit, and I had to punch the holes myself. After trying to perfectly center my quarter-inch hole in the top of each hat, I discovered that I already had a much smaller hole punch that would have been perfect for punching holes in the hands instead. Oh well. It looks fine as it is, and I would rather not re-string the whole thing.

I wrote the number on the front of each piece and glued the day's activity on the back. Then I decorated the front with the stickers that came with the garland kits. I ended up stringing it on thin yarn instead of the string that came with the garlands.

So what kind of activities do we have planned? It was kind of tricky to find things that work for us, because (A) We don't have kids (yet) and (B) We're both gone by 8 in the morning and don't get home from work until after 7. That leaves us with a limited amount of time during the week. For the weekdays, we'll both have several chances to choose a favorite holiday movie (like Die Hard!) Jason wanted to include Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem on our holiday movie list, but I nixed that. I can handle scary movies, but I don't like gore. We also came up with things like making hot chocolate or cutting paper snowflakes. I spaced out our "big" activities for the weekends, like baking cookies and going to see A Christmas Carol in Klingon.

Yes, in Klingon. 

This is going to be hilarious.