A wonderful Christmas

Vandra and I truly had a wonderful Christmas. Her parents, my in-laws, Kathy & Ralph, flew in on December 23, but they got in late - around 12:30 a.m.

On Christmas Eve, we drove to the Poconos to see my family, and it was great. Kathy & Ralph got to meet my extended family, and all of my nieces and nephews. It was a memorable Christmas for all the right reasons. This holiday season, my first as a husband and son-in-law, made me realize how truly blessed I am, and how blessed we are as a married couple.

Togetherness and family are easily the most important things to me during the holiday season, and we were certainly fortunate this Christmas. We were also fortunate with the generosity of our parents and families.

My dad and step mom got me a Sirius Stiletto - a portable Sirius satellite radio. Man, I've been coveting one of these babies since this past summer, when they were announced. I certainly didn't think I was going to get one, and I was so thrilled when I did. I have it hooked up and configured, but this week has been so busy, I haven't had much time to toy with it yet, but I sure will get around to it this weekend and early next week.

I got lots of great goodies from Vandra, including some Edmonton Oilers stuff for my car, and an awesome Miami Heat hoodie. Geeze, I could type all day about the thoughtful, great gifts that everyone gave me.

My in-laws gave me a very generous Best Buy gift card, and combined with a few other ones that I got, including ones from Vandra and my mom, I headed off to Best Buy the day after Christmas. Boy, did I make out like a bandit.

I've been coveting a point-and-shoot digital camera for a while now, because I just don't want to haul my baby, my Canon EOS 5D, out with us when we go to a bar or just to a friend's house for a gathering. It's a bit cumbersome, and too valuable to drop on the floor or worse just to get shots of a few candids. A point-and-shoot would fit the bill just fine, and besides, unlike my first two Canon digital SLRs, the EOS 10D and 20D, my new 5D doesn't have a pop-up flash, furthering my need for a point and shoot.

So, off to Best Buy I journeyed, and I came home with what I think is a whale of a camera for the money. A HP Photosmart R967 camera - 10 megapixels, a 3" LCD screen on the back and loads of features. I didn't intend on buying one with that many features, but the price was more than reasonable. I can't get over how much the megapixels are increasing, while prices on cameras are simultaneously decreasing. The good news on that is that the consumer is the winner.

When I've had time to take lots of pictures, I'll bring you my thoughts on the camera. Come to think of it, I haven't done any reviews on my EOS 5D, either. I'll get to those later in January when I've had even more time to use all of my equipment that I bought this fall.

I'll talk about another one of my favorite gifts in another post that I'll put up shortly.

I'm so fortunate to have such wonderful, loving, generous family and friends, and for that I'm ore thankful than any gift I received this Christmas.