Michael Malone

Happy holidays everyone!

We celebrate Christmas in the Malone-Lee-Wolf household. It's not that we're racist against other holidays or anything, but all three of us grew up with Christmas and that's what we're passing on to our daughter, Rose.

Traditions we have include--

1. Decorating the tree. And not just a holotree and decorations like some folks have. I mean yeah, we've got a sweet house that generates holographic whatsits now but there's nothing like the smell of a real pine. In a bucket of course, so we can plant it back in the ground after. No tree killing here. And we have real ornaments- some of which have been in Wolf's family for like, ever. It's pretty cool. Rose made a couple of ornaments for this year's tree too.

2. Christmas cookies and egg nog on Christmas eve. 'Cause Jenny makes the best cookies, and because egg nog rocks.

3. On Christmas day we stay home and have a big dinner, but it's often got a lot of friends and famly members coming over to join us. This year we've got Wolf's sister and her boyfriend, his parents, their basement bungs (Juice and Kyle), and an assortment of other friends including Vassago and his girlfriend coming over. Full house! Much better than when we were in the apartment.

4. NO working on Christmas weekend. We mean it. Like, if you call the office and need something investigated, you're totally waiting until Monday. Christmas is our little vacation time. Well, maybe if the whole world was falling apart we'd work just a little. But unless you're dying, it can wait til Monday.

5. Colored lights, not those bland white ones. We like colors!

6. We have a nativity scene, though 'cause we're not religious particularly, other things tend to wander into it. This year it has a toy robot, a dinosaur, and a holographic reindeer in it. And socks apparently, but I think they just rolled out of the laundry basket and aren't intentionally part of he decor.

7. We stuff stockings for each other. I know, adults with stockings can be kind of silly, but we love them. And Rose is a teenager so lots of fun things that she likes like video games and makeup and such fit in her stocking. So it's all lots of fun for everyone.

8. Fake snow is a no. It's just weird and smells bad.

9. We used to have a virtual fire set up on one of our machines, but now that the house has built in holo capabilities, we have it projecting on the wall. It even throws heat and crackles authentically.
10. Christmas crackers! They're from British people, and they make a cool bang and you get all kinds of weird little things inside. And you have to wear whatever hat you get for at least half the day after. No exceptions. Wolf in silly hats is amazingly funny, 'cause he's so serious.