Christmas has come and gone.

I was fortunate enough to receive The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 (which is an amazing FPS), It’s A Wonderful Life on DVD (one of the best movies ever), a pair of gloves (to help cure my ‘cold related skin burning’ on my left hand), and a toaster oven (for making thousands of different sandwiches in CLV next term). From my co-workers, I received a bottle of white wine, a huge box of chocolate truffles, more chocolate and a Christmas ornament. I am also going to get a Wii Points card so that I can buy some games on the VC.

I was thinking Kid Icarus, Kirby’s Adventure, Punch-Out! and Super Mario Bros. 3. That would use up the whole card. I have also thought of substituting the latter two (which I own on the NES) with Super Metroid. That would work too. Super Metroid is pretty much the only Metroid game that I have yet to beat. I’m looking forward to it.

As for the gifts that I got everyone else, I purchased my father a rather dorky looking hat with ear flaps. Despite how ridiculous he looked in said hat, he loved it because it will keep his ears warm when he walks Sophie.

For my brother, I purchased the simple yet elegant Orange Box. He completed Half Life 2: Episode One and Episode Two yesterday, and has been playing Team Fortress 2 ever since. He is thoroughly enjoying it, and I fear I may have endangered his studies for next term.

For Sam, I purchased some absurd red boots/slippers from La Senza, which are apparently the most recent fashion to be “in”. I thought that they were ridiculous, but she loved them. For Vic, I purchased a black robe with monkeys on it. Again, an absurd fashion from La Senza. I do not understand why these things are popular with girls. They look like any other robe…but they have monkey heads on them. Trends continue to confound me. My sisters loved their gifts, but they were outshined by the cellphones (with cameras and mp3 playback) that my parents purchased for them.

Oh well.

For Sophie, I purchased a springy deer toy. It has a squeaker in the head and buttocks. The body is some sort of elastic band. Golden retrievers are apparently easily entertained, because she loves toys with flailing limbs so that she can toss them about and the limbs whip her in the face. I don’t know if she finds this comforting, or if she is just retarded. Given her typical behaviour, I am leaning towards the second option.

For Tabi, I purchased the only thing I knew she would enjoy. Cat treats. Those treats with the commercial where they shake the bag and the cat jumps through the wall. Yeah. She loves them. I just gave her three. Cats are lucky. We demand a trick from Sophie before she gets a treat. Tabi just gets to eat her fill.

My mother was - as always - the most difficult to shop for and the gift that I was most concerned about. I purchased some throw pillows for the new couch in the living room because she has expressed an interest in some nice cushions with tassles. So, I bought three of these:

They went over quite well. They were colour co-ordinated with everything else in the room. The colours in the cusions tied in to the colours in everything else, which my mother is a big fan of. Ultimately, the gift was a huge success. I also got her a Josh Groban CD, which she enjoyed thoroughly.

All in all, it was a good Christmas. Went to Brampton, as usual. Filled up on Christmas food. My Tia Matilda and Tia Lourdes make the best stuffing on this planet, and I ate half a plate full, plus another plate full yesterday. Delicious. We had the usual Portuguese spread. Two huge turkeys, roast beef, crab, shrimp, potatoes, mushrooms, a huge salad, and some brussel sprouts with onions. Yum. I don’t think there was any rabbit this year though, which was surprising. For dessert, we had the usual favourites: carrot cake, checkerboard cake, strawberry and blackberry (usually kiwi) cheesecake, little cream cheese tarts, butter tarts, oreo cupcheesecakes, strawberry cupcheesecakes, rice pudding, etc, etc. So delicious and so fattening. There was also a large gingerbread house with little gingerbread people.

Which reminds me. On the 23rd, we were baking gingerbread and I made a Dickerdoodle. I’ve got eight pictures or so that I was going to send to Gabe at Penny Arcade, but I think my sister has the camera. I’ll post them when she gets back from Mississauga. We also made several anatomically correct Gingerbread People (must be politically correct). Unfortunately, one of the Gingerbread women had Gingerbreast cancer. It was tragic. Ultimately, it led to her death. We mourned (and devoured) her.

Anyway, I have to work on my work report. I have vowed to do absolutely nothing else until it is complete (and since I haven’t started yet, this may take a while). Wish my luck, and Happy Holidays to everyone.