I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! I know I did. It was my daughter’s first one and it was a huge success. She happily toddled about, ripping wrapping paper, playing with the contents of packages, visiting family, trying food, singing, dancing, you name it. It made my heart happy.
There was an unintentional mini-theme in our gift giving this year: Star Wars. My 
favorite thing from my husband is the 15″ Chewbacca plush which wookiee-yells when hugged. It is awesome.
How did you spend the holiday weekend? Did you get any swag you’re particularly obsessed with? What was your favorite thing you gave someone else? Are you glad the holidays are over (not including New Years)?
The Afternoon Inquisition (or AI) is a question posed to you, the Skepchick community. Look for it to appear Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays at 3pm ET.
I spent a good chunk of Christmas Eve desperately trying not to laugh out loud because my Aunt’s pastor inquired about my marital status on behalf of his unmarried daughter. It gave the holiday a rather antiquated air in a creepy, yet hilarious, way. I silently calculated how much cattle and acreage such a union should be worth to pass the time.
I had a good one. My favorite to get was the first volume of the Sandman “Prelude and Nocturens”. My kids know me. My favorite that I gave? Not sure but I was thrilled with how well the pies went over. The pumpkin was gone the next day and the lemon meruinge and the goat cheese cake are both going fast.
It was lovely and sunny here! I can’t imagine Christmas in the winter!
My favourite gift was an autobot belt buckle with flashing LED lights for eyes. It’s amazing.
Christmas Eve was spent with The Girl’sâ„¢ family, and I gotta say that it was pretty idyllic and storybook. Right down to the gently falling snow that we were able to watch disappear into the dark of the wooded ravine that’s behind their house.
Christmas was spent with my family, and while not quite as storybook (no nighttime ravine snowfall) it was a great time as well.
As far as gifts go, there were missing gifts due to shipping, and duplicate gifts due to poor communication. I’m very happy with what I got though, and I’m really looking forward to the LEGO Fallingwater kit ( http://bit.ly/8qAC9N) to arrive :)
Oh, and due to the vagaries of sales, gift cards, and earned points, I was able to buy an $80 LEGO kit for $1.60 Yay!
@Cint: Depending on the winter, it can be indescribably lovely. Christmas Eve in Central Ohio was fairy-tale perfect. At least where I was, hopefully Skepchick Jen (who’s from the same area) got the same effect from it. :)
I had a great Christmas. Got to spend time with both sides of the family, got to re-connect with some one I had not seen in nearly 40 years, and got some great gifts. My wife commissioned an artist friend of ours to draw me as Captain America. That was the best.
Best Xmas evar. I got to spend the weekend with my (new to me this year) family. It was everything you’d hope a first Xmas could be. I’m especially fond of the TARDIS cookie jar I got, and was probably most excited about the magic set that I got for our 8yo. He’s a great entertainer and I love helping him think critically about what people portray as “true” around us.
I had a wonderful but a bit cold holiday. It got down to about -27 C, but we had it nice and warm inside. Got to see all my siblings, we live far from each other, and the dog loved it when everyone was home visiting.
Best thing I got, I have a new Sony Touch Reader :)
Best thing I gave… That would be either the photo book with pictures from our trip to Norway with my sister that I gave her, or the collection of Harry Potter movies I gave the other sister.
I had a pretty good one. I lost my job about a month ago, and between wrist surgery and moping, I didn’t get much done. I scrambled to get gifts together and got a great deal at a local bookstore where I managed to find a Dr. Johnson book my stepdad didn’t have, and was surprised at how happy my mum was to get burned discs of the entire Beatles discography as well as a book on Renoit written by his son. I drew both my niece’s names in fancy writing with flowers (they both have flower names), got my sister a book about a cat travelling with a reporter (she started reading it right away), and my favourite was cooking a steak for my boyfriend. I haven’t eaten meat in over 10 years (I never cooked steak even then) but I apparently make a hell of a good steak.
My favourite gift? Probably the Vincent Price movie “The Abominable Dr. Phibes”. I also got money. Yay money.
The other best part was all the food I took home. My friend gave me an entire veggie tourtière. I haven’t cooked for myself in days.
I had a fantastic Christmas and it’s still going on. My older daughter came here for Christmas and we’ve been having a great time. My youngest daughter got about $50 worth of origami paper (if you think that’s a lot, you’re wrong. It works out to about 600 – 650 sheets total) as well as a bunch of video games for her PS/2. My eldest daughter got some manga, a beautiful volume of the Chronicles of Narnia and a big Batman coloring/activity book. (Note that she’s 21 and she thinks this is awesome.) Me, I got a book of beautiful art inspired by Star Wars and a pair of talking Mythbusters bobble head dolls. We’ve been having fun playing games, playing on the computer and just enjoying each others’ company. One of the best Christmases ever.
We kept Christmas very non-consumer this year. Instead we concentrated on good food, good friends, and given a new bike path and glorious weather lots and lots and lots of biking. I’m happy!
I took my metal detector to the Mission Beach to see if the recent storms had washed in any presents. They didn’t.
If the weather allows I’ll hit up Torrey Pines beach tomorrow.
A quiet, cold, Danish family xmas chez csrster. The best _bought_ present I got (ie excluding all the wonderful things the kids made for me) would be a small heap of books from my amazon wishlist. I’m expecially looking forward to the new Basic Instructions anthology. The best present I gave would be the sexy dress I bought for the wife, and which I’m hoping to explore in depth quite soon.
A quiet home holiday with dinner out. Little in the way of presents due to funds and uncertainty. I don’t have the leave time to go visit them and Mrs. QA didn’t want to go without me.
We did Skype with the kids to watch the grandkids open their presents. :-D
My brother got me a Surly Amy tree of life necklace, which I was very excited about :)
Spent several days with my family, which was nice. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (a gift) is now ruining my resolution to spend these few me-days getting some work done. I probably would have managed to find some other way to ruin the resolution though, like catching up on skepchick…