That ridiculous horse racing toy was probably my favorite thing because I love shit like that, any little table-top toy/game like that. Any horse in Lane 4 seems to have an advantage under normal circumstances, due to a speed up which occurs at about the middle of the track. But then that same horse slows down just before the finish line. It is my canon that the horse is given fast-acting stimulants halfway through the race by his cheating jockey but then experiences the crash just before the finish, making for a dramatic and poetic finale. However, we did test this in alternate 'conditions' including placing the device on an incline to make them run uphill, which lane 4's horse can NOT handle at all, due to the aforementioned slowdown, as well as making them race into a crosswind via a blowing fan.

I gave mom a picture and keychain of her recently deceased dog. My younger sister Rebecca got a mini-drone because I had no idea what to get her and thought that might be random and fun. My older sister and her wife, the former being the person I tend to spend the most on, got a Steam Deck with some financial help from their roommate and adoptive family member, Zac. As it's the season of giving and not getting, I definitely won Christmas with that one, blew everyone else out of the water.

Then later that day we discovered that the shop has this game called Super Blackjack Battle II Turbo and seriously, look that shit up right now because it's amazing.

Perhaps best of all, dad didn't come with us to the hotel because after I pushed him out of a chair on Thanksgiving after...30ish uninterrupted years of him acting like an asshole, he decided not to try his luck with me on Christmas, so the holiday went off pretty successfully what with is primary obstacle sidelined.

Now that the event is over, I can get back to what I really love - dreading my upcoming college semester and questioning why I internet with any other human beings, anywhere, ever. And maybe play The Long Dark some more.