Christmas 2008

Man, that was fast, no? All that time and energy spent, and Christmas is here and gone so quickly — but it's worth it. We had a great time this year with family: lots of great food, lost of fun opening gifts, lots of great hanging-out and doing nothing together. Our main Christmas dinner this year was prepared by my sister and brother-in-law, and the family chose Greek food to be the theme — and it was awesome. I can't even begin to tell you what all the dishes were, but they were excellent. The music at our church's Christmas Eve-Eve service went really well, too, even though the practice beforehand had us all expecting the worst.

But like all Christmases, it's already here and gone — and gone too quickly. Next week will begin the routine of getting "Back To Normal" until New Year's Day. One of these days Winter will arrive, too, and I'll mentally reconnect the Holidays with the cooler weather. Texas, eh?

As for what ol' Santa Claus brought me this year, I scored pretty dadgum well — probably my best haul ever. My top cool gifts are:

A 52-inch Samsung LN52A850 LCD TV.
The Entertainment Center to house the big TV (that's not our house in the pic below).
The 50W Weller WESD51 Digital Soldering Station.
Nespresso Essenza C100 Espresso/Latte/Cappuccino machine.
An M-AUDIO FireWire Solo recording interface, to replace my USB interface.
A really nice, leather cigar case.
Some of the DVDs I've been wanting forever (Pan's Labyrinth, Blade Runner, etc.).

I also got the obligatory clothing gifts, etc. All in all, I had one of the best loot-scores ever — so maybe Christmas gifts do get better the older you get?

The only thing I didn't get, though, is that dadgum Willys Jeep I've been wanting for over a decade. What's up with that, people?!?