(Excuses for the future tense... I'm writing this on the evening before Christmas whilst waiting for the girls to fall asleep, and I'm not going to really sit around making a post tomorrow!)
Ahhhh... tomorrow will be a strange Christmas for our family. We will wake up in an empty house with no tree this year. However, we will be all together at least... and the kids have put out their Santa sacks as well... just on the landing between the stairs. The little one is quite worried that Santa and the elves will not be able to find it... as there is no tree, and it isn't where we normally would put a tree. We decided against putting it down in the empty living room as it just seems so weirdly cold down there in an empty room... at least up here, there is some semblance of our life still hanging around.
So... my wife is dealing with the packing of the clothes and the big bags... whilst I handle the instruments, electronics and hand luggage. We have a bit more than expected... and it will be a bit of a touch and go sort of thing as to how close to the limit we will be. There were many farewell gifts from our friends... and some of my oldest girl's friends even came out to our house to say farewell. Sadly, tomorrow... we should have been spending Christmas with one of our oldest friends in Netherlands... a tradition that we have been doing for quite a number of years. Unfortunately, one of them caught Coronavirus and they are quarantined. So, one little sad missing of a tradition to end our time here.. However, where one thing falls... another springs up hopeful... and it turns out that another of our close friends have cancelled their trip down to Spain, and we will spend our Christmas with them instead!
So, despite a bit of poopiness... things could be much worse. I think of other people who will be spending Christmas alone and I do feel quite grateful that we have each other as a family, and are still able to finish our time in Netherlands with a close family friend as well.
I'm pretty sure that our oldest doesn't believe in Santa anymore... and so she is just playing along for the benefit of the younger one. It will be fun to fill up the sacks... although, it does mean that we are going to have a bit more stuff to pack!
As for my wife and I... we don't give present for each other at this time. Our anniversary was recently, and so we always exchange gifts for that instead. Most years, we would go out to a fancy restaurant for the occasion... this year, I was a little bit hopeful that we could also take the kids... but well, real world crappiness has put paid to that idea for this year! Pity, our oldest really gets into the fancy restaurants now!
Two more days until we take our PCR tests for the travel... there is still quite a few little things that still need to be done, but the house is mostly tidy and ready to have a final clean up. That's pretty much how we will be spending the Boxing Day and possibly a bit of Christmas evening!
So... I'm just left with a little personal wish for Christmas... and this one is going to be a touch selfish and highly related to the move back to Australia. I'm hoping for a sky high Christmas pump on crypto prices until we land on the 29th. Australia does crypto taxes as capital gains taxes... which means that the higher the starting basis price for crypto when I land, the better! Of course, higher prices doesn't just benefit me... I'm pretty sure that quite a few people would be just as happy about it as me!
So... from Christmas Eve me to the rest of the world... Happy Christmas! Pump those bags and enjoy your time with friends and family! Or if you are in quarantine, make the best of it... it sucks, but things could be worse!
I can also be found cross-posting at:
Hive
Steem
Publish0x
Handy Crypto Tools
Ledger Nano S/X: Keep your crypto safe and offline with the leading hardware wallet provider. Not your keys, not your crypto!
Binance: My first choice of centralised exchange, featuring a wide variety of crypto and savings products.
Kucoin: My second choice in exchanges, many tokens listed here that you can't get on Binance!
FTX: Regulated US-based exchange with some pretty interesting and useful discounts on trading and withdrawal fees for FTT holders. Decent fiat on-ramp as well!
MXC: Listings of lots of interesting tokens that are usually only available on DEXs. Avoid high gas prices!
Huobi: One of the largest exchanges in the world, some very interesting listings and early access sales through Primelist.
Gate.io: If you are after some of the weirdest and strangest tokens, this is one of the easiest off-chain places to get them!
Coinbase: If you need a regulated and safe environment to trade, this is the first exchange for most newcomers!
Crypto.com: Mixed feelings, but they have the BEST looking VISA debit card in existence! Seriously, it is beautiful!
CoinList: Access to early investor and crowdsale of vetted and reserached projects.
Cointracking: Automated or manual tracking of crypto for accounting and taxation reports.
Stoic: A USD maximisation bot trading on Binance using long-term long strategies, powered by the AI/human system of Cindicator.
StakeDAO: Decentralised pooled staking of PoS assets.
Poloniex: One of the older regulated exchanges that has come into new ownership. I used to use it quite a lot, but have since stopped.
Bitfinex: Ahhh... another oldie, but a goodie exchange. Most noted for the close affiliation with USDT and the Basic "no-KYC" tier!
