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We started a Christmas tradition a few years ago - we bring 'presents' to the local animal shelter. 
Dogs get treats, toys, bones. Try to take them all for a walk so they can get outside for a little bit. >

Lights up ✔️  Shopping done ✔️ Tree decorated ✔️  
Merry Christmas. >

Merry Christmas 🎅 >

Just want to wish everyone a safe and happy holidays! >

Home Alone is the best Christmas movie.
The only acceptable counterargument is Home Alone 2. >

Mr. Robot Season #4 >

The sunflowers I didn't even plant are now 5'6" tall and are sporting yellow flowers, despite a straight week of freezing mornings. I have wrapped a Build-Yer-Own Skateboard kit for one of my nephews, and have also included wrist guards in case his dad raises an eyebrow. Soon I will get some applewood chips rolling in the smoker so I can start prepping an elk roast and some duck wings/legs/hearts for tomorrow's supper.
So many folk on the horizon... my wife and I each have five siblings, and they have 10 children between them, one of which has three of her own. I think I've spent more on gifts than on rent this month, and I hope to retain my Best Uncle Ever title for the 22nd straight year.
Happy whatever you celebrate, mes amis. I hope it's lovely. >

An ELK roast? That's another thing I need to add to my "meat I need to try" pile along with goose and gator. >

I shoot one elk a year up in Oregon. I hunt duck for 100 days in the winter, I take one hog, I take two or three turkeys, I fish as many salmon and halibut as I can in their seasons. Sometimes I buy chicken just for a change of pace, but it's genuinely been about four years since I had to support what I consider to be a largely inhumane and unclean meat industry.
I'm so happy I'm able to do it this way. >

Just here to wish everyone a safe and happy holidays! >

Nightmare Before Christmas gets my vote. >

Being seriously old, I think the '47 version of Miracle on 34th Street is #1 and really miss Amahl and the Night Visitors. then there was a 1-off with Art Carney as a bum who gets to be Santa for one nite, but does such a good job, he's given the permanent position - probably from the early 50's - Just did a search, and this was probably on The Twilight Zone! >

It was a Twilight Zone episode and I think Natalie Wood was the little girl in the '47 Miracle on 34th Street. >

I have played a fucking alarming amount of Disney Dreamlight Valley since installing it about 7 days ago. Alarming amount as in, have completed literally every single quest except Stitch's (he is hard gated beyond IRL days played). It is pretty addicting, and scratches the Animal Crossing itch super well.
While waiting for more content to drop in there, I'll get through some other backlog games. Currently as I type this playing "There is a Genie in my Szechuan Sauce Remastered", which is a goofy-ass sketch video with like 5 choices to make that I'll platinum in 20 minutes. 
Also really need to play more Pokémon Violet, I've only beaten the first 2 gyms. The deceptive nature of the leveled "open world" really turned me off, having to look up maps online of where it actually wanted me to go. >

Play High on Life.  It’s on Game Pass. >

I've mostly heard bad things about that game. Also my Xbox collects dust lol, I'm a PlayStation/Switch guy >

Serious question, how bad is 95N from Delaware? >

It’s -9° outside right now and this is my second winter of having severe heat intolerance thanks to Dysautonomia (POTS and IST). It’s SO weird to be comfortable and not absolutely freezing my ass off when the furnace is having trouble keeping up with warming the house. I used to always be so cold and now I have to readjust my whole temperature regulation routine and it’s so weird! 
As for Christmas movies…does anyone remember this one? It wasn’t my favorite, but I remember seeing it a lot every year as a kid and no one else I’ve ever asked about it has heard of it! >

Do you mind if I ask how it was diagnosed/what kind of doctor you saw for the severe heat intolerance? >

To better define what I mean by “heat intolerance” so you can compare it to what you experience: if I get even the slightest bit too hot, I immediately begin to pour buckets of sweat and my heart rate goes through the roof. I get really nauseated and shaky and feel so unsteady and sick that it’s like my brain shuts down and I have to lie down or I’ll lose consciousness.
Dysautonomia is dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system, so anything the ANS controls can be impacted, which is all the automatic bodily processes we don’t consciously control. So stuff like temperature regulation and sweating, tear and saliva production, bladder function, heart rate, blood pressure, pupil dilation, breathing, sleep, digestion, hormone release, blood vessel dilation and constriction, inflammation levels, etc. 
My main symptoms that sent me to the doc were: crazy heat intolerance, debilitating fatigue that had me bed/couch-ridden and avoiding even drinking anything at times because I didn’t have energy to get up to pee, intractable insomnia, periods of days to weeks of not being able to eat solid food, excessive sweating for no reason (I begin dripping sweat just standing up for more than 60 seconds), tachycardia upon standing (my HR would be 170-200bpm after a 7 min shower for example), random sudden bouts of high blood pressure that would then go away just as quickly, gastroparesis, vestibular migraines that felt like carsickness on steroids and made it literal torture to move, dry mouth and eyes, trouble emptying my bladder, difficulties regulating my temperature, horrible brain fog, and more. 
I had a bunch of endocrine stuff ruled out first by an endocrinologist (I do have some potential early thyroid issues, but nothing that would be at all responsible for my symptoms). Got sent next to a cardiologist who checked my heart out and my heart is totally healthy. Finally ended up at a neurologist who is an autonomic specialist. He did a tilt table test and some other autonomic testing and I was diagnosed with Dysautonomia manifesting as Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) and Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia (IST). 
Since then I’ve also found out I have something called Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS), which is a common comorbidity with Dysautonomia/POTS. You know those people who are so allergic to everything that they have to live in a literal bubble? That’s MCAS, though the most severe version. Thankfully I’m not that severe. 
The probable cause of both the Dysautonomia and MCAS for me is hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS). POTS, EDS, and MCAS go together so often it’s called “the triad”. EDS is a genetic connective tissue disorder that impacts connective tissue all over the body and causes hypermobility and all sorts of issues, depending on the type of EDS. I partially dislocate my hips and shoulders frequently just doing normal, everyday things. My skeleton isn’t held together as tightly as it should be, so lots of all over joint pain and muscle pain from my muscles trying to compensate for my loose connective tissues. 
Anyway, apologies! That was a super long response to your question, but I try to be really thorough when talking about this stuff because I KNOW there are people out there suffering with one or more of these typically unknown conditions (crazily enough POTS is considered unknown, but it’s more prevalent than MS!) 
So I always elaborate just in case it gives someone reading a lightbulb moment!
Edit: spelling and punctuation >

I appreciate the long response! It’s actually for one of my children. She gets shaky and nauseated when feeling even slightly warm, complains about sounds being “muffled” and has passed out from it in the past. Doctors have checked blood pressure, blood sugar, thyroid etc and just say that it’s syncope. I feel like we need more than just that though, because I can’t have a kid that just passes out at school when it’s 70 in her music room or something.
Edit to add: she also has hypermobility so hmm! Lots of similarities. >

Oh gosh poor kid! I remember feeling terrible getting too hot in school too. If you have one of those finger clip pulse oximeters and an upper arm blood pressure cuff at home, you can Google something called the NASA Lean Test and see if you’d be willing to try it with her at home. It’s used to evaluate orthostatic intolerance (which basically means not tolerating bodily position changes) and it’s the test I used at home to establish a bunch of data points to show my doctor, which is what got me the referrals I needed. There are multiple types of Dysautonomia and orthostatic intolerance being present is a good indication that more autonomic testing is needed. POTS and Orthostatic Hypotension (OH) are the two types of Dysautonomia that usually come to mind first when talking about orthostatic intolerance. 
In POTS specifically, part of the issue is with the blood vessels in the legs. Normally when we stand up, the blood vessels in the legs constrict to help fight the effect of gravity on the blood and push the blood up out of the legs so it can continue circulating through the rest of the body like normal. In someone with POTS, that blood vessel constriction doesn’t happen when we stand, so the blood pools in the legs, causing a lack of proper perfusion in the brain, lungs, and other organs. The brain senses there’s not enough blood where it should be, so it signals the heart to beat harder and faster to try and compensate. But because the blood vessels aren’t constricting, this tachycardia doesn’t do much to get the blood out of the legs. The tachycardia will persist as long as the person with POTS is still standing upright and some people with POTS might faint either right when they stand up or after they’ve been standing for awhile. (Not everyone with POTS faints and it is NOT a requirement for diagnosis.) The tachycardia will stop once they sit or lie down, as the body no longer has to fight that extra bit of gravity on the blood and it’ll circulate as normal again. 
Blood pressure changes aren’t technically part of the diagnostic criteria for POTS, outside of being used to rule out Orthostatic Hypotension, which is a big drop in blood pressure upon standing. “The current diagnostic criteria for POTS is a heart rate increase of 30 beats per minute (bpm) or more, or over 120 bpm, within the first 10 minutes of standing, in the absence of orthostatic hypotension.1,2,3,4 In children and adolescents, a revised standard of a 40 bpm or more increase has recently been adopted.4,5 POTS is often diagnosed by a Tilt Table Test, but if such testing is not available, POTS can be diagnosed with bedside measurements of heart rate and blood pressure taken in the supine (laying down) and standing up position at 2, 5 and 10 minute intervals.” >

It’s funny, at my company holiday Zoom party, the majority of answers for ”best Christmas movie” were for Die Hard. 
Not much planned, I’ll help my parents clean their place tomorrow as some of their friends are coming over for Christmas Eve, then the family Zooms on the 25th and 26th, I think. I’m hoping to find a bakery to get some stuff for New Year’s, as the Porto’s near me will no doubt be a madhouse when open next week. I have the week off form work, yet the libraries I have been wanting to go to such as the film one at USC are all closed (If anyone wants to know, I’m trying to write a screenplay again and it helps me focus being there). Probably could catch up on streaming, I still haven’t watched Andor yet. (On a slide note, I’m still frustrated that MODOK was cancelled on Hulu)
And a random thing, I was thinking about a series of books form the early aughts, the Science of Superheroes/Villains, and looking back now, one the authors were pretty condescending, and two, it’s obvious that they only did the bare minimum of research on comics, for example the Dr Doom chapter where they wonder what if he wears powered armor, when that’s been part of the character for decades. (Although i did find their concept of a Hulk who uses super-steroids and injected green fluorescent protein into himself intriguing). >

Andor is some peak Star Wars, IMO - but do be aware that the first, uh, several episodes are slow. I'd honestly almost lost hope for it by episode 4. But around episode 6 it fuckin' KICKS OFF and is edge of your seat intrigue from there til the end. >

That is good to know, thank you. >

Went to the doctor yesterday and tested positive for both the flu and COVID. Felt like death and had 103 fever for about 36 hours. Fever broke today and feel almost normal.
Sucks I won’t get to see my nephew open his gifts but I also don’t have to drive in the snow.