My Holiday Stream-of-Consciousness Rant.

It's cold and bitter outside.  My seasonal staff is slowly disappearing into the ether they magically came out of a few months ago.   I know the holidays are upon us because the schedules at home are even more impossibly hectic than they were just a few weeks ago. 

Perhaps the greatest consolation is that Saturday will be a big day with the family as we're snowed in together.  I'm hoping to finally break out the last of the Christmas decorations, bake some cookies, and all around chill. 

Sunday is the last weekend before Christmas, so you know what that means:  It's time to finish up all the games with the girls while my wife is at work.   I'd love to finish up the grand finale of the Blue Martian game, I've got a pulp game that's in the spirit of the holidays, and if I'm pushing my limits, the TMNT Heroclix boxed has one last scenario in it.   Next holiday weekend I hope is filled with Santa's Bag, Zombie Dice, and me opening up a pile of my Kickstarters that just arrived as my Christmas gifts. 

Since we've moved into the new house, I've had two gaming-heavy Christmas mornings.  The first year,  my wife went through hell to get my items through Emerald Vale (now Evolution) Games, only to have them arrive on Christmas Eve afternoon.   Last year,  I set up a wishlist on Amazon, and she got everything early... and I mean EVERYTHING on the list.  Funny thing is, I haven't actively used any of last year's gifts. 

This year, I gave a list of classic "Dad" gifts (socks, underwear, and a wallet), as well as Rory's story cubes.  I already have my rewards for Tales of the Caribbean, and Savage Rifts waiting at home, unopened, and if I'm lucky, the minis for Songs of Blades: Axe and Brimstone might make it before the Christmas Day. 

I'm shocked enough that I actually got to paint something over the past week, and even more pleased that they were the items I needed for the potential year-end games.  My queue has been repositioned and the I just need a snowy day over the holidays to sort out the other half of my bench. 

As work is winding down, I'm taking a few moments to clean up the D&D game that I've proposed but none of the players have actually offered approval of.  I'm also perusing the old gaming notebooks that covered things like the Fall-In 2015 shopping list and the last winter's painting queue (about 85% done!)  I'm a bit please a huge swath of notes on Samoa are still intact.  I'll revisit that one day when I need to fill out a Pulp Figures order (and a small Foundry order for the paint).


Despite using a notebook for some of my gaming projects, a lot of my behind-the-scenes work is done on this blog.  This post is my 1,835th on my blog.  I've got another 50 pending for a future date.  Some of those are time-sensitive, like holiday posts while others are simply working ahead (I've got five more posts ready just for December).  What's overwhelming me are the 190 drafts on file.  Some are placeholders for games (the Blue Martian game and Christmas game are set up, complete with links to where I stole my inspiration from.)   I've also got all my future Gnome Wars articles, future Savage Rifts scenarios, TONS of pulp ideas, Heroclix games, and general want lists at my fingertips.  I expect about 80% to see the light of day.


What to expect through the holidays and into the deep of Winter?    After completing the sci-fi and Heroclix storylines, I'd love to wrap up the Savage Showdown Pulp game and move it into the next "volume."    From there, I'd like to set up and stat out the Mousling Fantasy game, keep fleshing out Gnomish North America, and paint more gnomes for the Gnome Wars mega-game at Cold Wars in March.