Your favourite Christmas present?

[Willyguitar]

??

[Scott Fonseca]

I would have to say my new laptop, my old one was well, OLD. It was running Windows 98, slowly.

[outdoorgb]

I would have to say the time I was able to spend with my wife and children.................................







That and the $300 cash from my mother-in-law...

[Hudman]

My favorite Xmas present isn't even "my present": It's my kid's Xbox 360. Normally, I would never buy something so expensive, but I was fortunate to get a nice bonus check before Xmas. Their 6 year old Gamecube was on it's last leg and Nintendo stopped making games for it last year.

 

Needless to say, I've been playing video games with my kids since Xmas morning. My son and I play wrestling, baseball, soccer and Tomb Raider. My daughter and I play Guitar Hero III (it's a little too hard for my son- but he loves to watch - he was going crazy when we beat Slash in the battle round). We are having a great time and driving my wife nuts yelling and cheering . The baby is in the middle of all of the action jabbering away and laughing too. Actually, my wife enjoys watching us having a great time. She even suggested leaving the Guitar Hero "guitar" on a guitar stand near the TV. She won't let me leave my guitars in the living room. (I wouldn't do it anyways with a house full of kids.....).

 

Heck, my mother in-law knows I'm a big kid. She bought me my own game for the 360 (Call of Duty 4). It's a bit too violent (war game) to play around my kids, but it looks like something that could be addictive in the late hours after they are in bed.....

 

It probably sounds strange that my new Alvarez RF20SM is my second favorite gift, but you only get to play with your kids for so long. They grow up so fast.....

 

It looks like I will always be a kid at heart. Oh by the way, I am crushing the myth that real guitar players can't play Guitar Hero. I'm starting to get pretty good.

[ESL94]

Spending time with my family, since I'm work & on the road so much its great to spend time with the people that mean so much to me.

I'm still waiting for my Xmas guitar, Seagull 6 MJM, its on back order. Hope to get in a couple of weeks.

Hudman, the XBOX 360 is lots of fun, I got 12 new games for Xmas.
COD4 is great game, as well as the online play...they did a great job with this one.

I'm really luck @ work we have a PS2 & Wii set up. Its great to be able to put in Guitar Hero & have some fun. An added plus; me and another coleauge keep one of our guitars in our offices and play during lunch and after work.

[Terry Allan Hall]

The best gift I got?

The look on my wife's, daughter's, sons' and grandmother's faces when they opened their presents...I guessed right every time, this go-around!

It just doesn't get any better than that!

[Hudman]

The best gift I got? The look on my wife's, daughter's, sons' and grandmother's faces when they opened their presents...I guessed right every time, this go-around! It just doesn't get any better than that!

 

That is the best part about Xmas.

 

We put the Xbox 360, an extra pink controller, Guitar Hero and 8 games in a huge box. The tag had both of their names on it from Santa. We had them open it last. I told them a 1000 times that Santa ran out of Xbox 360's (I had a hard time finding one). There was no way they expected it to be in the box. My son jumped around like he scored the game winning touchdown in the Superbowl. My daughter's jaw almost hit the floor.

[Terry Allan Hall]

That is the best part about Xmas. We put the Xbox 360, an extra pink controller, Guitar Hero and 8 games in a huge box. The tag had both of their names on it from Santa. We had them open it last. I told them a 1000 times that Santa ran out of Xbox 360's (I had a hard time finding one). There was no way they expected it to be in the box. My son jumped around like he scored the game winning touchdown in the Superbowl. My daughter's jaw almost hit the floor.

Absolutely!

I've been asking about what they'd like and the only one who had a wish list (and boy, what a wish-list! ) was the youngest boy...everyone else said, "oh, just whatever...it doesn't matter!"...

Anyway, after a lot of thinking about it, I got my wife a pair of albino sugar gliders (her previous sugar glider, "Manilito", passed away last summer)...for my daughter, I got a 60gb Ipod ("The Ipod From Hell" I call it!), so she can store her vacation movies, songs, pictures and everything else...for my oldest boy I got a wii and some games...for my youngest boy, I got a Yamaha 300cc dirtbike...and for my grandmother I got a red macaw that had been hand-raised to be very gentle and affectionate (and, hopefully, not scream a lot) and a huge cage. Wrapping the gliders, in a small cage, and the macaw, in it's cage, was a last minute job (naturally), but they never made a peep until unwrapped.

[Samilyn]

My daughter-in-law did all the cooking and I played with the kids.

[C70man]

Talked to my sons.
Got to spend time with someone I love.
Woke up to find that my guitars still had their strings on.

[12Pack]

The fact that I spent two whole days, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day - without touching, "the bottle".

[burkedajerk88]

the office season 3. i just love the office.

[bustaplz]

That is the best part about Xmas. We put the Xbox 360, an extra pink controller, Guitar Hero and 8 games in a huge box. The tag had both of their names on it from Santa. We had them open it last. I told them a 1000 times that Santa ran out of Xbox 360's (I had a hard time finding one). There was no way they expected it to be in the box. My son jumped around like he scored the game winning touchdown in the Superbowl. My daughter's jaw almost hit the floor.

 

 

My parents and I hid my little sister's Wii in a cupboard. She had no expectation of us actually getting one as they were nearly impossible to get. The look on her face when she tore off the first layer of wrapping paper and saw the big Wii logo through the tissue paper was priceless. She looked around the room at my family members to try to figure out if it was a joke. Getting a gift is never as good as getting someone else the perfect one!

[T.B.]

The fact that I spent two whole days, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day - without touching, "the bottle" .

My family had a Christmas Eve wrap party. My mother made up some ordurbs and spiked egg nog (a bottle of rum with coloring added) and we listened to classic Nat, Ella, Sarah, Sinatra, Como, Brother Ray, Christmas music. Our community Carolers came by and sung like angles. My mother cooked I think the best dinner yet and we just laughed a lot. Get-in a kick out of my husband having a mini semi stroke over the nice young man my daughter brought home from college for the holidays. She's informed me her friendship is strictly platonic. He said, "That's what all men agree to; that's what I agreed to get-ta date with you".

Trina

[Glenn F]

Well, if we count my Martin D-15 as a Christmas present, then that would be my favourite. Next would be the beautifully restored Beatles' movie 'Help!' and, after that, Civilization IV for Macs .

 

Cheers,

 

Glenn

[GrooveMonkey]

My bottle of Johnny Walker Black, it helped me forget about my Mother-in-law for a short time.

[S~R~O]

The fact that I spent two whole days, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day - without touching, "the bottle".

 

 

 

12 Pack....For Real!!!/???

If so Let me be the 1st to say Congradulations....

[MePeel]

My Sears Craftsman 80th anniversary bottle cap wrench!
Mel

[Minstrel]

New turntable.

[Michael Martin]

The day itself--the sun came out for the first time in a week, and the temp soared above freezing for the first time in I can't remember. And virtually no wind! Long afternoon walk...gorgeous light refelecting off the snow-scape...

[Hoddy]

Of course watching my daughter opening her presents was priceless, but my wife got me a Sony Bravia 32" Flat Screen TV...she had been planning it since last year...completely took me by surprise.

[Terry Allan Hall]

My bottle of Johnny Walker Black, it helped me forget about my Mother-in-law for a short time.

I can surely relate...while I'm very fond of my present Mom-In-Law, the previous one was always a great reason to utilize the wonderful memory-removing powers of grain alcohol!

[OldGuitarPlayer]

Meeting my new "Grand Niece" for the very first time.

[kwakatak]

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only sap.

This winter my in-laws cut short their winter vacation in Florida and our kids were able to see grandma and grandpa before spring time. They hadn't planned on it and it wasn't under the best circumstances (nor the worst either, though) but IMO it was nice to see the kids' faces light up when they saw them walk in the front door the week before Christmas. I think that was pretty much their best Christmas presents. Anytime I see either of them smile, it pretty much makes every day feel like Christmas.

BTW - I'm not sure but I think Justin said his first sentence yesterday. As I've shared in the past, he's nearly four and nonverbal but you can tell that when he looks you dead in the eye that he understands what you're saying to him. He and I have been butting heads over the past year because I want him to use his words when asking for something, and he (being nonverbal) throws tantrums because (IMO) he both can't find the words and wants me to guess - which I take as a good sign because most 3 year-olds I've seen are like this so it must be "normal."

Anyway, our biggest battles have been at the kitchen table. He's a very picky eater and tends to prefer maybe 2 or 3 things with any consistency - most of which aren't nourishing. On occasion I've made him scrambled eggs (with lots of cheese mixed in) and for the first few times he's taken a few bites before it gets cold and icky. Now he doesn't even look at them and will either throw it on the floor or run away either laughing (because he wants to play) or screaming (because he wants something else.) Well, yesterday was a screaming fit and I wasn't backing down either. In response to my hot-headed demands to "eat your eggs" he yelled back "donwannaeeteggs!!!"

This is huge, folks. Six months ago he seemed to be completely wild and out of control and I had nearly lost all hope because he was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Now I'm beginning to see that he's just advancing at his own rate and he's getting there. I need to learn to relate to him just as much as he needs to relate to his surroundings.

BTW - let's not forget the baby. He's not quite 10 months old and is nearly walking without help. His babbling is coming along nicely and I'm hoping that his own first words come soon. Even though the three of us spend nearly 100% of our time together I've been feeling a little lonely.

Here's to hoping that we're all able to relate to each other better in the coming year and become more of a functional family and not the circus that it's seemed to have been.

...oh, BTW - I'm also hoping to put that K&K that I bought from Whalebot in my Larrivee so that I can get out to an open mic every now and then. Had to put something on-topic in there!

[Hudman]

That's awesome Neil.

 

Justin let you know that he doesn't want your stinking eggs.

 

You are doing a great job with your kids. Raising children is one of the hardest things I ever encountered. Pray for patience and understanding (it's what I do).