Pretty much the same for me and mine except I don't have a fireplace or a wood burning stove anymore.

Shame - splitting wood was half the fun. Warmed you up twice.

I'm going to New Zealand for 3 weeks to be best man at a wedding!

Tell me... how does one organise a stag do from overseas?

Play video games, hang out with friends, play in the snow.  I work from home, currently so I don't even have to worry about getting too and from work. Going to start working on an Xbox live game here soon, hopefully it turns out well.

Writing while wearing slippers.

Favorite winter past-time.

Where are you living, DG? Which part of China?
 

I'm likely going to be working in either China, South Korea or Taiwan (teaching English as a second language) in a few months, and I want to pick a warm climate.

I'm not in mainland China. I live in Hong Kong.

I'll be honest with you. I don't really like spending time in mainland China. There's always that ambient smell as if the atmosphere has been set on fire, which is because of the large number of coal plants, and in many places, the winter is miserable. There's snow, but it's not fun at all (there's not much snow, and winter is the most polluted season because there is so much coal burning). Go to South Korea.

I for one am certainly looking forward to celebrating the Yule, oh yes! I always say, there's nothing quite like becoming besotted with family, no?

I'm going to listen to a whole bunch of Ohio transplants bitch about how they can't get to work the one day out of the year that it snows in Georgia.  They really ought to stay at home if they can't deal with sitting on their ass and masturbating all day like the rest of us.  Either that or buy some fuckin' boots and start hiking--which leads me to the question--why do people who live in Ohio love to hike so fucking much?  Drives me fucking crazy.  It's a nice day outside and immediately they have to drive a hundred miles (minimum round trip) to walk around all day, looking for some animals who don't give two shits about them.  How about hiking to the liquor store and buying me that quart of brandy you owe me, Todd?  Oh, no, you'd rather burn up some gas on the way to the mountains.

Fucking Ohio people.

Working, Snowboarding, drinking, naked snowboarding (Which happens after drinking...and sometimes before drinkings), Hot Tubing, clubbing, more drinkings, oh more work, maybe some traveling to the colder parts.

Last year I spent the first part of 'winter' metaphorically licking my wounds after the 'tacks' issue.

The second half of the winter I was reimbursed by the 'gubament' and was busily spending the money on the things we needed, causes/charities, and people.

This year. The first half of winter I promised a certain someone that I would lick her instead of metaphorical wounds. heh heh.

The second half, we will do more than we did last year because there is a greater need. However, this year I will be employing the missionary tactic of making people denounce their religious beliefs before receiving aid. I've thought about getting some pins made saying "Josh gave me money when god ignored me" or something like that.

Yeah, I'll be doin' the hot soups and chili thing quite often I imagine.

Also, I'm thinkin' about three short road trips... though I probably won't have the time or    to take all three....

Just south of the Twin Cities (MN.) to visit one brother and his family.

Bourbonnais and then mighty Sandwich (IL) to visit two different friends...(well, ok, ONE of them really *is* different !  

The other might be to GA, just north of Atlanta for relatives.

Can't make up my mind just yet... but hell... I'll probably be working 48 to 96 hours a week anyway.

LOL.  That is fun!  I tend to do my spending in January, when everyone is bummed that christmas is over and their gifts have not really made them any happier.  I was raised anti-christmas as it is a pagan holiday and all that.  It is nice not to have an emotional attachment to the holiday. 

Sounds like a good idea.  Money is influence and power.  You should use yours intelligently.  What do you plan on doing about the brainwashed theist kids?  Even the smart ones don't usually really realize what they're saying when they repeat religious crap.  Or are you just focusing on adults?  (My nephews' wishlists are all Army of God paraphanalia.  Who lets young kids do that?!  )

I did mean the consumerist aspect of materialism, but can throw physicalist in there for its distracting properties now that you mention it.  That aspect is definitely not as bad as the rampant consumerism that is hard to avoid in this country, but still so many wonderful distractions to get lost in when enjoying the physical . . .