So the holidays are upon us. Geeze, it seems like the season comes faster every year.

Today’s strip is based pretty close to reality. I really do have a Amazon wish-list about that thick. It’s something like 10 pages. A lot of my friends and family were asking me what I wanted for Christmas and my birthday. So instead of trying to keep track of what items I asked for from which people, I just directed them to my wish list.

You wouldn’t believe a lot of the crap I got for having such a lengthy list. But let me tell you, a list like that just doesn’t crop up overnight. It takes several years of careful selection and pruning. I still have some items on there from 2000. Everyone carefully chose to overlook that when ribbing me.

Since this time of year is regularly reserved for family gatherings, I’m predicting a large drop off in traffic. And that’s cool. I mean, for the love of Pete, get offline join the living for a little while. Have some eggnog.

As is such, there will be no strip on Wednesday as I will be away visiting family of my own and have no way to access the site. I looked into an automatic timer to post a strip for Wednesday, but it just wasnt feasible for the moment.

Part of me is kind of bummed that I’m missing a production day. I pride myself on never having missed one since starting back in August. But obviously there are some things that are a little more important and my family would be hella-pissed if I locked myself away in a room for three hours working on “funny pictures”.

To help soften the blow, I’ve added some new interactive features to the site.

You’ve probably noticed the poll near the top of the blog. I know now probably isn’t the best time to introduce this, but it’s been something I’ve wanted to incorporate for a while an figured what the heck. There is background information that explains the question and to help you make a more informed vote. If you could lend me your feedback, it will help me greatly to plot the course of the site.

And, since ’tis always better to give than to receive, we here at Theater Hopper are proud to bring you TWO NEW GAMES playable on the site! You can find them right now on the Bonus Materials page.

Now in addition to wasting your time at work reading the strip, you can hang around and play a game of Memory or Solitaire! We do it because we love you.

Many heartfelt thanks to Jared Brinkmeyer for bringing me these applications for the site. He really went out of the way to contribute something wonderful and exceeded expectations on all points. What made it really special was I never asked him to do this work for me. He did it for the site – and that tells you exactly how awesome he is. Thank you, Jared!

And with that, I say Happy Holidays and I’ll see everyone here on Friday!