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.

Check out these gadgets

Check out this crazy invention - it's a bread stamper! Groovy, baby. The Zuse toaster can burn black and white images onto a slice of toast. It mounts on a wall in your kitchen (or your bathroom if you eat while getting ready for work), and it's activated when you put a slice underneath.

Totally unnecessary, and totally cool. Imagine the possibilities? You could eat a picture of your boss every morning before work. Righteous! Or, with an election coming up, I could bite Rick Santorum's head off every morning before washing him down with a Red Bull. I can think of worse ways to start my day.

I doubt toast stamping will catch on, but hey, dumber habits have been created by technology. Hell, employees are being fired via text messages now. All the more reason to bite off the head of your CEO every morning, flavored with your favorite spread.

First obstacle - what if you eat wheat bread? What about African-Americans? Sounds like the Zuse people have some work to do, before Al Sharpton goes all Samuel L. Jackson on their asses.

Okay, I don't really want one, but it's pretty cool.

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Next up is something I really do want. Are you listening, Santa?

Ohhh, look at this baby. It's the Sirius Stiletto 100, and it's flat out awesome. It's like an iPod for satellite radio. You can record programs, take it with you anywhere, and if you're in an area where satellite reception isn't possible, you can listen over a Wi-Fi network.

The downside - it's pricey, so I'm hoping to get some Best Buy gift cards from Santa so I can go get one ~ our tight budget doesn't allow for this purchase right now. We've had an expensive year, and this is, without a doubt, not a priority, just a hot item on my "want" list.

I've blogged about Sirius before (and another column coming up very shortly on Howard Stern and free speech), but I'll say it once more - Sirius is amazing, and it's clearly going to be the satellite radio company a few years down the road. Sirius is trending up, while XM is going the other way. In a perfect world, the two would merge and I could get all the programming I want, but I'm very, very happy to have Sirius now.

Vandra got me Sirius last year, and I use it every day. It was a surprise, and it's one of my favorite gifts ever. Even if/when I do get the Stiletto, I will still use the unit she got me in my car and office, so the Stiletto will just make Sirius available in places I normally can't take it, like jogging, exercising, etc.