Now that the hype has died down and I'm not as likely to get lost in the overly-abundant number of other entries similar to this, I shall give inventory on my Christmas/Birthday bounty minus what was in my stocking. Basically just little nick-nacks and candy of no real interest.

First off, let me state I didn't get a single LEGO set. Haven't for years with the exception of the gift-exchange I do with a couple of my cousins. This year however, we each thought the same thing. Try something besides LEGO. So I got one of them Portal for PC and the other a book: "Ghost Recon". (By the way, they're brothers.)

So, with my blog in mind, I had my digi-cam sitting next to me throughout the whole unwrapping. I wonder why none of my family wondered why I was so interested in taking pictures of my gifts as soon as I opened them?

Added note because some can't seem to figure it out: You supposed to click on the takepic emoticons for the pictures.

Anyways, first up was a new necktie. I guess my mom got sick of me wearing the same one every-single-time. The only other tie I had didn't match with my good shirt. The long-sleeve one, that is. NO necktie I have matches that mossy-green short sleeve shirt I have. Anyways, I really like the design of this tie.

Next up, something I wanted really bad. The special two-disc edition of Rascal Flatts Greatest Hits - Volume 1. While I already had the majority of songs, it's well worth it for the few songs I didn't and the bonus disc with three Christmas songs: Rocking Around the Christmas Tree (second only to the original version), White Christmas, and an acapella I'll Be Home For Christmas. I plan on doing a small separate entry for this aawesome CD later.

Next, a simple, practical, yet quite longed for gift. A mousepad. Now I can stop using my old math book. The picture on the cover is so worn out. Sure, it's nothing fancy, just straight black. But it gets the job done. Besides, it looks really cool next to my bright red/black laptop.

Now, the last item for Christmas Day. Another CD. The PURE WANT first, self-titled CD of our latest American Idol: David Cook. Some people don't like some singers simply because they were on American Idol. I don't get this at all. If they can sing, who cares if their means of acheiving success was somewhat unorthodox? This CD is so amazing, I'll have to do a seperate entry for this as well! I don't care for the cover art though. It's not a good picture of David. He looks kinda emo to me.

As I'm sure you noticed, both CDs came with free song downloads that expire the end of this month. The hard part will be deciding what two songs I want. Nothing rap or rock that's too hard. I'm more of an alternative/80s/pop/country/light rock kinda guy.

Now we move on to the Christmas get-together we have every year. Instead of all the aunts and uncles buying gifts for each nephew/niece, once a year the aunts all go out shopping together and just pool the money. Makes it a lot easier that way.

So, first thing I got was a set of neckphones, which I'm now wearing. I must admit, I wasn't thrilled when I first opened them. I put headphones on my wishlist, but I didn't think I'd have to be so specific as to the design. I was going to return them, but I ran out of time/procrastinated/decided to give them a try. I still don't care for them much as they pinch my ears with those little clip things, but I'm slowly getting used to them. They aren't as bad as I thought they'd be; at least they don't slide off my head, but for some reason I get a sore neck after wearing them for so long. But the same thing happened when I first started driving, so I figure it will go away just the same.

And the other thing I got was yet another music CD. A quite unique one from Brad Paisley titled Play. This one is unique in that he actually does quite little singing. This particular CD is first and foremost an instrumental guitar album. And let me tell you, no country singer plays guitar better than Brad. There's just something so cool and different to his sound. I might do an entry on this CD as well. Or maybe I should just put all three in one.

In all truth though, this isn't actually the CD I unwrapped. It was really another RF Greatest Hits. Yeah, it's complicated.

What did I get from my cousins? Like last year, when I got Lesovikk, they polled together their money to buy me something. They got me the "Here and Now" edition of Monopoly. My cousins and I, we're big Monopoly fans, though we don't play as much as we used to. But we still remember the theme song word for word. The board is cool, sporting the top-rated cities and whatnot that were voted for by Monopoly fans. It also came with a random selection of six from twenty different possible mover tokens. The selection I got definitely left something desired, but it's okay. I got the mitt-and-baseball, a surfer, a matador, asian (or is it chinese?) nesting dolls, some sort of incan warrior or something (I forget), and a tribal(?) mask. But the single best part of the whole thing was that theres NO PAPER MONEY. It's all done electronically with credit cards! I know, it sounds lazy and overly-modernized. I thought the same thing when I first heard of it. But man, I can't believe how much I love this thing not that I've gotten to use it. No paper everywhere, trying to make exact change, taking up extra space, etc. I love, wub, heart, <3, and all the rest this thing.

And between my birthday and Christmas, I got $100. Oh, and a Barnes and Noble gift card. I've already spent about $70 (not including tax) on a 360 controller for my laptop, LEGO Batman the Video Game (I'll DEFINTELY be doing an entry on this. Unless Avohkah Tamer wants to. ), and Portal. The rest I plan on using for Tahu Mistika and a Glatorian. Most likely Vorox.

Well, there you have it. Maybe I should do a Happy New Year entry next? XD

<brk>