Something interesting happened to me Christmas Eve.
I suppose I'll start by explaining that my home is on a hill, and that there is a gravel pit with a sharp incline leading up to the alley in back where a 4-car garage should be. I drive an old 1989 Pontiac Grand Prix with peeling Blue paint and minor body damage (not my doing), and the front wheel drive does not handle winters in that driveway so well. Last year we had a series of nasty ice storms where I ended up getting stuck twice (and subsequently an hour late for work both times) despite my best efforts to keep the ice under control. So this winter, I've decided to sidestep that by just parking in the alley or in the street out front, especially since we've had a few instances of it raining and then dropping 20 degrees overnight, leaving lovely sheets of ice everywhere.
So, I left my car out in the alley instead of the driveway. People do this all the time, and it's legal within the city limits to do so unless otherwise marked. I went to the biggest freaking mall in the area to get some last-minute shopping out of the way for my mom and stepdad, but I went with my dad and sister, so we took my dad's car. So there was my car, sitting out in the open all day with no one to watch it and nothing happened to it. At about 5:45PM we finally get home from shopping. I have to pick up a friend from work at 6PM, it's about a 15-minute drive there, but I have to stop for gas, and it is raining pretty good. So to save time, I put the stuff I've just picked up in my car, start the car up to warm up, run inside to bring some of he stuff my dad had bought to the kitchen, and run back outside. I'm about to get in my car, when suddenly it clicks in my head that my car isn't where I left it. In fact, it's nowhere to be found at all. My car had just been stolen. Merry fucking Christmas.
So of course I freak out. I run inside to tell my dad what's just happened, call 911, and make a few calls to make sure my friend (who, by the way is without a car, without a home, and waiting in the freezing rain) gets picked up by someone else. I grab my insurance information to see if my policy covers theft (it does not), and tell the police what happened. They take my information, and I start informing friends what has just happened so that I'll be able to get rides to work and to parties etc. I plan for the eventuality that I'll probably never see my car again and if I do, it'll be in pieces in an empty lot or a seedy garage somewhere.
To be honest, if this had happened a few months from now I probably wouldn't even care. I'll probably be starting a new job in a few weeks, so at the very least I'd have the money to buy a junker to drive for a little while. I'll be getting a new car by the summer, so either way I'm not planning on driving this thing for much longer anyway.
Well, I spend some time by myself, cool off, and tell my sister that I'm ready to go to our mom's place for Christmas. We drove there, and I started realizing that I was handling this whole situation waaaay better than my sister or dad. Actually, I'm handling it about as well as someone reading about it happening in the paper. Well, after a few hours of hanging around at my mom's place with my aforementioned friend, who wasn't celebrating with his family, I get a call from the police.
Oh yeah, happy ending time. They found my car, and not only is it drivable, it barely has a scratch on it. The only damaged part is the glovebox, because apparently it was too hard for them to figure out how to open (there's nothing special about it) so they tore the door off. Turns out some punk just happened to be walking by (you have no idea how rare it is for someone to walk by unless they have a school ID on them) and saw my car running. He thought it would be hilarious to steal it and take him and his friends joy-riding. They cleared it of "valuables" (nothing worth more than $50 in the car, it was mostly just magazines and stuff that I'd been meaning to clear out or throw away anyway), but did so in a manner that leads me to believe that they were more interested in making room for their buddies than actually stealing stuff. I suppose they might have made off with the title or some such. Anyway, they were caught in the act when they somehow were careless enough to roll my car into a cop car. Genius. Of course the license plate rang up as stolen, and he and all his buddies are sitting in a jail cell right now. Most of the stuff they cleared out of my car I didn't care that much about and/or had little to no value. Still, I've lost some irreplaceable items, and some things are more irritating than anything. Like my truffles. I had just bought a $15 bag of assorted Lindt truffles. I HAD PLANS FOR THOSE TRUFFLES. And the ice scraper. I know it was a nice ice scraper and that it was probably one of the more noteworthy things taken from the car, but even in a stolen car, what good can possibly come of removing the ice scraper? I mean, really? In the middle of winter in Illinois where ice and snow can come out of nowhere, why would you remove the ice scraper? That's just silly.
Right now, I consider myself to be an extremely lucky individual, and getting my car back (with some of the gifts I bought for my family) was in and of itself a great christmas gift, although I did get some killer stuff otherwise anyway.

So, how was everyone else's Christmas? Anything exciting happen?

You were dang lucky to get it back especially on Christmas eve. But just think those guys are getting cold jail food an some guy named Bubba looking at them an thinking what a lucky day it is for him, haha.
I know if it were out here in AZ they would be in tent city eating bologna sandwichs for dinner an wishing that they were somewhere warm.