## I Did!

In true teaser fashion, though, before I get into what I got from HIVE for Christmas this year, I'd like to show you what I got from my family and a family friend first.


![Shirts.png](https://images.hive.blog/DQmWupSwLh3MZFdTazBxunuMeztfSXTij3usyB6uMVmjNaN/Shirts.png)


## Shirts
This is pretty much a staple gift of mine every Christmas. Not just shirts. A lot of times there are pants, too. Every once in a while, something else, like a jacket.

This time, it was confined to shirts. Some pretty snazzy shirts, though, if I do say so myself.

The one on the left is a BYU shirt, in case you didn't recognize what the Y stands for. No, it's not Yale. I guess they have a football team, but they cancelled their season. BYU didn't. BYU stands for Brigham Young University, a privately owned church school of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

My youngest son is a big BYU fan, and while I am, too, I tend to lean more to the Oregon Ducks (mainly since they've done more with their program of late). Anyway, I like the way the colors fade to white.

The one on the right is cool colored, too. I like the combination. It's probably the comfiest of the three. Yes, I've tried them all on. It's kind of a tradition to go debuting the clothing within a short period of time of receiving them.

The one in the middle are Marvel superheroes, if they were gingerbread men. And gingerbread women. Both. Equally.

I'll leave you to guess which ones.

I'm a big fan of Marvel Comics from way back, so yeah, I like this shirt. I'm not so much into running around as a walking T-shirt advertisement for anything, even my favorite teams, but that clashes with my occasional oddball need to wear something that's either somewhat outlandish and loud, like a Hawaiian shirt, or something that might be considered immature or not within my age range.

Yeah, I have a Captain America shirt, too.


![Charger.png](https://images.hive.blog/DQmSg6chZn85Xn3T7dQCKgZj7LU5xpkifhKYZtdfSRDrKds/Charger.png)


## "Wireless" iPhone Charger
My wife and I finally got new iPhones. The ones we've been using are from the 6s class five years ago, and we've been talking about upgrading now for at least two years. Even with the uncertainty of our finances thanks to layoffs due to COVID-19 restrictions, we finally decided to do it.

We may be selling them later to buy groceries, but I am hopeful we'll make it through this economic rough patch, just like every other rough patch in our nearly 32-year and counting marriage.

My oldest son knew we were getting the phones, so he and his wife got me this "wireless" iPhone charger. I put the quotations around wireless simply because it's not truly wireless. You still have to plug a wire into the wall. You just don't have to plug the other end of the wire into the phone.

Whenever technology finally gives us wireless charging, i.e, no wires, then I will drop the quotation marks.

I've used it once so far and seems to charge pretty quickly. It is cool that you just have to lean it into the stand for it to work without trying to fit some plug into the bottom of it. I may end up splurging for a mag safe charger so that more than one device can be charged at one time. For now, we've still got the other wired chargers we can use.


![Hot Chocolate & Dunking Spoons.png](https://images.hive.blog/DQmQkSxQpDNtqfdVXEytMbTc8KiDNbTyCmd1xg7F5SzwUb5/Hot%20Chocolate%20&%20Dunking%20Spoons.png)


## Hot Chocolate and Dunking Spoons
I'm a fan of hot chocolate, and I do like Swiss Miss (among others). I have to share these with my wife, though, as they were a mutual gift from a friend. The caramel ones are pretty good, and we've yet to dip into the marshmallow ones. The problem is, there aren't that many bags to a can. That's right. Instead of just filling the cans with the tasty hot chocolate powdery goodness, Swiss Miss went cheap and bagged them up, and then didn't bother to squish in like a dozen or more.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to consuming the rest. That is, if my wife doesn't give them away. The peppermint flavor will most likely end up with my daughter-in-law (if she manages to take it home) and the fourth can, not pictured, has already been re-gifted. It was plain hot chocolate, which we apparently have plenty of from a box my wife bought from Costco a few months ago, so the new, rather stylish can had to go.

Now, these dipping spoons are intriguing. I haven't really looked to see what they're all about, but maybe I'll share the experience later if I actually manage to try them before they get re-gifted.


![Mugs.png](https://images.hive.blog/DQmXmMvntinoS7Wc1EVQA5Uhwc4Uv6vKE4gVSkLEXum8QJk/Mugs.png)


## Christmas Mugs
Or maybe they're just winter mugs. There's a star on the tree, though, so I'm going with Christmas mugs.

At any rate, what good would it be to have hot chocolate without having something to put it in? Okay, it's not like we're mug deprived, but any mug that you could probably use as a cereal bowl too, I'm a fan of.

I'm not sure what the volume is in these cups, but I put a taller one along side for reference. I'm pretty sure I put in quite a bit more water into the newer, fatter mugs than I did in the taller but thinner one.

I haven't tossed in some Captain Crunch yet, but the idea of hot chocolate and Captain Crunch is amazing, even if the reality of the sugar overload is not.

We'll see if I get brave enough to try it.

## My HIVE Gift
Okay. if you're still around waiting to read about what HIVE gave to me, I'm finally done making you wait. I don't know about you, but I like the build up. It's kind of like Christmas. You have all of this anticipation over weeks if not months, and then it's all over in a flash and a flurry of wrapping paper. Seems hardly worth it.

Yes, I've been known to drag out gift giving over several days.

Right. The gift that HIVE gave to me, sometime between 10 PM Christmas Eve and 10 AM Christmas morning was:

Drumroll...


![cake-1001476_1280.jpg](https://images.hive.blog/DQmbuKgQ2qN7quoNTk7kGNJkqXSfgsprsGK5fAqVFJodV6N/cake-1001476_1280.jpg)


Ta-dah!

Okay. No, HIVE did not give me a rather weird looking cake with candles in the shape of a seven and a zero. Pixabay gave me that.

HIVE, or more specifically, many of you, gave me a ***70 Reputation Rating!***

Yeah, I know. Anti-climactic. You were expecting something else. I thought about telling you that HIVE flash mooned at, oh, $25 and then crashed, you know, something sorta kinda but not really believable, and that I managed to get 1,000 HIVE worth out before it fell back to Earth, but, well, frankly, that would be lying, and undoubtedly, someone wouldn't realize I was just having fun and pulling all you all's leg and call me out on it.

Thus, you're all stuck with my 70-rep, which I think is totally awesome and mega cool, and something I've been waiting to accomplish since I first realized 70-rep was supposed to be a big deal. You know, before the bots, the circle voting, and the self-voting and whatever else basically made it less than what it really should be.

Except for those of us who feel like we've taken the harder road and put in the time, the work, and the grind.

I'd hoped to get to 70 way before this, at least three months ago if not earlier, but I kind of like the idea of a Christmas gift from HIVE, though. I wish I could pinpoint which upvote put me over the top, but it came within a flurry of curangel and ocdb curation trail upvotes on a couple of my latest posts.

As it is, curation trails and the occasional big whale upvote (not the 0.5-2% ones, but something in the 25-50% range like us smaller accounts tend to give), moved my rep meter the most, along with the literally thousands and thousands of much smaller upvotes that came post after post after post.

I haven't attempted to do the math, but I think I can say this with reasonable authority: every upvote— large, small and in between—got me to the 70-range, and I am happy.

Now, I know that 80 rep is the new 70, but can you at least let me bask in my false and totally made up glory for at least a second before you go tearing it down?

Sigh.

Okay. Well, since I'm self-congratulating and all, I feel like I now deserve to make a few made up demands now that I've reached this new rep.

Maybe a bigger trailer would be cool.

No, let's make that an oceanview villa with plenty of private beach.

Somewhere tropical.

Okay. Better yet, I'll settle for $25 HIVE.

Make it so.

Engage.

Hit it.

Seriously, and with much sincerity, *thank you*, one and all, who have decided to throw an upvote or two (or many more) my way over the last nearly three years. You all contributed to my HIVE Christmas 2020 gift, and I am grateful.

<sub>*All images (except the last one) courtesy of Glen Anthony Albrethsen. Last image, Pixabay*</sub>