December Brewed, January Roasting - Happy New Year!

     The 31 days in December vanished!
     December started off with me preparing for finals, and college wrapping up for the semester.
     Mrs. CoffeewithGames' dad visited us for a week, and while he was visiting, I showed him how to operate Netflix on our PS3.  He was a professional at it by the time he left, and he was really impressed with the service.
     I ended up getting my first general doctor's appointment for the first time in probably 8 years in December, due to a pain in my abdomen, which still hasn't been "officially" diagnosed as anything.  After two office visits, and an ultrasound of my gallbladder, the only thing the doctor told me was I should cut back on my coffee intake...I may have to get another doctor!
     I finalized my registration in the middle of December, for my classes in the Spring Semester, which will be starting very soon.
     My parents flew in on Christmas Eve, and visited with us for a week, flying out on the 30th.  It snowed about 6 inches when they were here, and that was fun.  I didn't play many games at all during their visit, but my dad enjoyed using the Netflix service on the PS3, and he searched and found a lot of old detective and cop shows he used to watch.
     The month wrapped up with us having friends over for new year's eve, and we played a lot of games last night!
     So, here's a look at the different coffees I consumed and the different video games I played in December:

     Coffees Consumed in December:

• Maxwell House Coffee Master Blend - This was coffee from a 270 cup container Mrs. CoffeewithGames had purchased in November.  We finished it off early in December.
• Trader Joe's Organic Fair Trade Cafe Pajaro Blend Extra Dark Roast - What a lengthy title for some coffee!  If you missed my write-up on this coffee, you can read it HERE!  Reader Nicodemus_at_Nite, aka Charlie Chang, mailed this container of whole bean coffee, and I enjoyed throughout the months of November and December.
• One Cup of Starbucks' Christmas Blend Coffee - I ended up getting this cup of coffee early in December, I believe with my Starbucks gift card that still had a little money left on it.  The Starbucks Christmas blend is a blend of different coffee beans from around the world, and it had a nice flavor to it.
• Whole Bean Dunkin' Donuts Original Coffee - We have just about one pot left of this coffee, and then it will be gone.  I know Dunkin' Donuts has the slogan, "America Runs on Dunkin'", so I'm interested in seeing if I would enjoy their Dunkin' Dark roast more than this Original Blend.
• One Cup of McDonalds' Premium Roast Coffee - I forgot to add this to my "Coffees Consumed" list, but I purchased this the last day of school.  I had gotten up extra early to leave, and ran out of the house without making a pot of coffee.  I stopped by the closest McDonalds I knew of on my way home, and purchased their sausage burrito and this cup of coffee to go with it.
• Maxwell House Custom Roasted Dark Roast Ground Coffee - This is another 270 cup coffee container.  We still have some of it in our cabinet, and it should last a good ways through January.  It has a nice flavor for a darker roast coffee, that isn't one of the more "premium" brands.
• One Cup of Beyu Caffe's Heart & Soul Blend Coffee - Well, I discovered something new in December.  One of my neighbors told me of another neighbor that owns and runs his own coffee shop/restaurant in our downtown area.  It's called the Beyu Caffe, and Mrs. CoffeewithGames and I headed down there one weekend, to give the coffee a taste.  I tried the Heart & Soul Blend is Beyu Caffe's "signature blend", and it's roasted by a local coffee roasting company in our area.  It has a good solid flavor that was smooth, and it is a medium-dark roast.  I enjoyed it, and hope to try it again.
• Caribou's Reindeer Blend Coffee(Medium Dark Roast) - This coffee showed up underneath our Christmas tree!  Mrs. CoffeewithGames got me this as a Christmas gift, and it's described as, "Heavy, Spicy, and Caramely".  I believe Caribou's Reindeer Blend is like Starbucks' Christmas Blend, in that it only comes out around Christmas each year.
• One Cup of Beyu Caffe's Kenyan Sensation - My neighbor that told me about the coffee shop downtown, brewed a pot of this last night at his house...and he literally showed up on my front porch holding a pot of the Kenyan Sensation coffee!  He poured me a cup of the coffee, and I said out-loud at some point, "This has a nice sweet flavor."  Well, the description for it says that it has a "syrupy and sweet body" and I would agree.

     Games Played in December:

• GoldenEye 007 Wii - I have been working my way back through the game's single-player campaign, on the "Agent" difficulty setting.  I haven't been playing as much multi-player, just because we had a lot of family in visiting during December, but I'll be getting back to multi-player soon!  I'm enjoying my second play-through of the campaign, and I plan to try to complete the game on each difficulty setting...we'll see how that goes!
• Call of Duty: Black Ops - I played a little online multi-player in December, but not much.  I haven't even completed the game's single-player campaign yet!
• Rage of the Gladiator - When Nintendo finally started making WiiWare demos available again, I wondered if Rage of the Gladiator would get a demo.  Well, I contacted Ed Roman of Ghostfire Games, and he confirmed that Rage of the Gladiator is getting a WiiWare demo, but it may not be for a few months.  I posted the news of the Rage of the Gladiator WiiWare demo, along with a video from a match I recorded in December.  You can read the full news post and watch a battle against the ninja, Nagano, HERE!
• Greg Hastings Paintball 2 - I played some more of the single-player campaign, as well as a few online matches in December.  I'm having fun working my way through the single-player campaign still, and I'm finding some of the matches really challenging!
• Sports Champion - I was able to borrow the Sony Move set, with Sports Champion, from a friend for a few weeks.  So far though, the only games I have tried with the Move controllers are Ping Pong and the Gladiator Duel game.  Perhaps now that it's a new month, I can find some more time to play it, before I return it to him!
• The Beatles: Rock Band, Rock Band 3, Guitar Hero(III, IV, and/or another one?) - When we had our friends come over on new year's eve, our neighbors were some of them...and our neighbors love music video games.  I think they had six different "music" games between the Guitar Hero and Rock Band series, and we started with The Beatles: Rock Band, but moved on to the other games quickly.  What started off slowly, ended up with four people playing the games.  One singer, the drummer, and the guitar and bass.  We rotated playing the games, and we had fun doing it.

Thoughts/Questions:

     While I played a good number of games, I didn't play the games for as many hours as I did in the past few months.  December was good though, because we were able to spend a lot of time with our families that we don't see very often.

     What games did you all play during December, and did you find yourself consuming more coffee over the Christmas and New Year's holidays?
     Also, I hope that all of you have an awesome and happy New Year!