Tag Archives: Advent

2015 Lego Advent Calendar: Day 1

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IMG_5980Welcome back!

It’s the most wonderous time of the year! It’s Lego Advent Calendar time!

Sound the trumpets and gong the gongs! We have 24 days of surprises and suspense!

If this is your first time reading these blogs, go straight to hell where you belong!

Or, catch up right here:

Year One
Year Two
Year Three – The most terrible year. Still angry.
Year Four
Year Five

This is the sixth year of these blogs and it’s still one of the highlights of the entire holiday season for me. Though I know there will be days of disappointment, and days of anger, there will also be days of joy and every day will have a Lego thing!

This year, I went with the Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar. The reasons are many:

First, the City Calendar this year looked like another retread of the cops-n-robbers motif. I’ve been down that road too many times. I love the Lego City stuff, but I hope next year’s City calendar is about more than just a burglary or fire. Why not theme centered on Santa’s workshop? With a Mrs. Claus!? Come on Lego. Do better in 2016.

Second, Star Wars is amazing and this season everything is Star Wars! I’m excited for the new movie. I’ll probably write thousands of words on that later in this blog. Just know that I’m a Star Wars fan.

And third, the Lego Friends Advent Calendar hurts.

There was talk of opening a different Advent Calendar. Playmobil has a few that seem cool, and it’s something I may explore in the future when I’m wealthy enough from my magic pencil empire to buy two toy calendars.

So, Star Wars it is!

As always, my amazing girlfriend was kind enough to wrap the calendar up and tape paper over some of the spoilers on the box. Lego ruins everything by showing way too much on the box art. I would pay $10 more for a plain cardboard box. I try my very best to avoid Lego Advent Calendar spoilers. Says so on my résumé.

And this is what the playmat looks like. It’s dirt or sand. The mind races with what will pop out of the calendar to fill this landscape!

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And so, with trembling hands and the sound of Christmas music in the background, I open the first door to find… Continue reading →

Lego Advent Calendar: Day 24 – The Grand Finale!

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It’s here! It’s here! The last day of the Star Wars Lego Advent Calendar!

Even if today’s item is just a few pieces of Lego coal, I’d consider this year’s calendar a success. I’ll have the full rundown of the items (in order from worst to best) at the end of this article.

Enough talk.

Who is coming down that black chimney?
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Lego Advent Calendar: Day 23

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Yesterday at approximately 5:17 p.m., the Christmas Shoes song erupted from the speakers of my car radio and clawed its way into my brain and soul.

I was so close to celebrating an entire holiday season without hearing that awful song.

I failed.

Next year. There’s always next year. *sigh* *hiccup*

This is the penultimate day of the Lego calendar. It all ends tomorrow. Today’s item better be great, because I could use a pick-me-up.

Today’s item is…
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Lego Advent Calendar: Day 22

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If you lack the Christmas Spirit this year, or if you just enjoy wonderful things, I demand you watch the Pee-Wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special, available for streaming on Netflix. It’s a thing of insane beauty, much like Naked Shower Santa.

Watch it. Or just stand outside my window today, because I’ll probably be watching it again while I wrap presents.

Pee-Wee Herman, along with He-Man, Star Wars, and Construx, was a major circle in the Venn Diagram of Lil’ Dan Bergstein. Paul Reubens and the team that made Pee-Wee’s Playhouse were geniuses and I’m a better person for their existence.

I could write thousands of words about Pee-Wee Herman, but today’s Lego item is such a wonderful bit of weirdness we need to see it…NOW!

Today’s item is…
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Lego Advent Calendar: Day 21

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Happy (almost) first day of Winter! On this darkest day of the year, it’s important to turn on your holiday lights to reminds us that even in darkness, there is light. And I have extra light!

Yes, I put color and white lights on my Christmas tree. I know this is illegal amongst decor enthusiasts, but I like it. It looks fun and it’s extremely bright.

The color lights twinkle, chase, flash, fade, and perform other typical light shows. Of course I set the lights to “combination” which means they cycle through the various twinkle options. You ever know what you’ll see when you look at my tree.

One time I looked at it, and the lights formed a constellation that spelled out “PiAno BuTts,” and that’s how I know there’s a Santa or ghosts.

My tree is good.

Today’s Lego item is…
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Lego Advent Calendar: Day 19

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It’s a good news/bad news day.

First the bad news: A villain used my credit card number and stole my identity and I spent the morning on the phone with the bank trying to figure out what happened. I’m getting a new card, but it won’t arrive for a few days. It’s not like I need to buy anything during these precious few hours before Christmas.

Good news: I still haven’t heard the Christmas Shoes song! I’m feeling good about this. Can I make it just five more days? Every day, the tension builds. Part of me wants to hear it, just to get the pain over with. I must be strong, though. I must carry on. YOU WON’T GET ME THIS YEAR, CHRISTMAS SHOES!

But the best news of the day, so far, is what lived behind door 19 of the Lego Advent Calendar.
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Lego Advent Calendar: Day 18

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Today is the very last day to order Power Pencils (magic pencils that I make myself) and have them shipped in time for Christmas! Tell your family! Tell your friends! Tell your dog…because dogs understand way more than we assume!!!

THE POWER PENCIL CHRISTMAS DEADLINE IS TODAY!

Order must be received by midnight tonight, Eastern Standard Time! Order by clicking here with your computer or computer-telephone!

Agh!

Lego time. Today’s item is…
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Lego Advent Calendar: Day 17

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I have experienced 17 consecutive days of December without hearing the Christmas Shoes song. Things are getting tense. Can I make it one more week — just one more week?

I could avoid turning the radio on and I could stop going into stores at the mall, but that seems like cheating. It’s like saying the baseball man Cliff Lee never struck me out. It doesn’t count if I don’t play.

So I will continue to turn on the radio and visit stores, but each time I do, I swallow hard and tremble. Wish me luck on this grand adventure.

Today’s Lego item comes with another warning, so you know it’s good. Continue reading →

Lego Advent Calendar: Day 16

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Hanukkah begins tonight! Since I’m half-jewish, that means I get to celebrate Hanukkah. But, if I may be a spokesperson for all the half-Jewish people in the world, let me say, once and for all, that being half-Jewish does NOT mean you get double presents.

That math never works out. If you measure it by weight, by dollar, or by the size of gifts, our total loot equals that of full-blown Jewish and Christian kids. All it really means is that when we’d visit family, one grandma had a Christmas tree and the other had a Menorah. And everything was lovely.

Speaking of lovely things. Lego!

Today’s item is…
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