Merry Christmas!

Sometimes I'm on Facebook so much I forget that I need to share these things on my blog. :-) It's also why I blog less than I used to. If you're reading this and you don't feel like you get enough updates on me, find me on Facebook. If you search my full name, I'm the first search result. :-D

Today was Christmas and Michele and I had a good day.

First, this morning, we did our ritual stocking stuff (in separate rooms). This year, as opposed to year's past, we had an active little Cedric who wanted to take part. :-) And indeed he did, because last night we played Santa Claus and set up his train set (all glued together) in the living room! It was so fun to see him come down the stairs and see it and he spent the next 45 minutes completely addicted to it. :-)

Michele and I exchanged stockings. I got her a Domo doll, which I was proud of. You know the Domo doll, right? One of these guys:

If you read Fark, you can't help but no one the cute little Japanese critter is. :-) I also got Michele Twilight, the first of the book series everyone seems to love. I'm curious how she'll like it when she starts reading it.

Then, we exchanged gifts. Some notables include:

• I got Michele Animal Crossing and Lego Batman for Wii.
  
• Michele gave me framed photos she had done of her and Cedric, very nice!
  
• I got Michele Tales of Beedle the Bard.
  
• Michele got me 1-foot tall statuettes of Mario and Luigi!
  

Then, we came to the finale gifts. Michele got me the coolest thing, Lego Mindstorms!! I've been curious about this thing for years now. Basically, it's Lego Technic (the less blocky looking legos) with programmable components that allow you to use a computer to give "life" to what you make. As a software developer, this totally gets me going. :-) I'll be playing with this thing for a while. I'll start tinkering tomorrow, can't wait!!

For Michele, I surprised her pretty darn good by getting her a new computer -- an iMac! It's our first Mac. I fell in love with Mac because my company gives us one, and now we have our first. Michele's laptop PC (we bought 5 years ago) was really showing it's age. It was spousal abuse to force her to use it, really. The new iMac BLAZES and she loves it. Very happy!

Afterwards, we tidied up things in the house, had french toast for breakfast, and then Michele made cookies while I went on a walk with Cedric. At 1:30, we went to her parents' house for Christmas. There, we had a good time, and her mom made a DELICIOUS chicken cacciatori dinner! OMG! Then, we exchanged gifts (no comment) and had dessert before heading back home.

This evening, we tidied up even more (after all the stuff we brought home) and Michele got to know her iMac (setting up iTunes and the like) while I, well, played a game of chess and updated this blog. :-)

Oh, and BTW, we finished finding all 160 gold bricks in Lego Star Wars. Took 60 hours of playtime. Wow! Got the last one today, though we finally had to inquire with the strategy guide. Apparently, on Hoth, you need lasso the ST's, even though a couple shots kill them. Not sure how they expected anyone to even think of that one. LAME.

OK, well, Christmas has come to a close. I'm gonna retire to bed and read The Hobbit (see my resolutions next week). Tomorrow, we'll do some shopping.

Hope y'all had fun, too!!!!!!