What did you get for Christmas?

[loinburger]

A couple weeks ago I was visiting my parents (they're about a forty minute drive away from my apartment). My mom had just come back from the store or whatever, and my dad was putting away the stuff she'd bought.

loindad: Why did you buy butt magnets?
loinmom: Those were a surprise for loinburger! Now he probably doesn't even want them now that you've spoiled the surprise!
loinburger: I will gladly act surprised when I open up the butt magnets

And lo and behold, I got butt magnets for Christmas (two of them consist of men pooping and making jokes about their butts, the rest are magnets of animal butts)

It bears mentioning that my mom's favorite movie scene is the one where Ace Ventura falls out out of a mechanical rhino's vagina in Ace Ventura 2.

My brother and sister-in-law bought some salmon and invited me over to cook it for them (my brother is a hilariously bad cook, while my sister-in-law is a competent cook who likes not having to cook once in awhile). We had agreed not to get each other Christmas presents (we usually do this, but they always violate the agreement by getting me a gift that costs less than ten bucks).

I also got some small folding tables from my parents, which are good for camping.

[Lorizael]

From parents: Shirt, socks, new pair of headphones, coffee table book about the history of science, $10 gift card to Panera. I asked for all of that (basically) except the shirt and the Panera gift card. I didn't get the belt I asked for, which is a shame because the day after I gave my parents my wish list, my belt literally fell apart.

From eldest brother: $25 Amazon.com gift card. I bought a belt.

From eldest brother's girlfriend: Specially commissioned burgundy and gold chain mail dice bag. She didn't know what my favorite color was, so she went with Redskins. I told her I didn't know what my favorite color was either.

From middle brother and his wife: What If? the book (possibly signed by Randall Munroe, because they're friends with him). I haven't gotten this present yet, because my middle brother didn't know what I wanted and probably didn't expect me to get him anything.

From the extended family's Yankee gift exchange: Multi-colored hot chocolate mix. "Just add water and watch your drink turn green!"

To eldest brother: The Physics of Wall Street, which is basically a book about KH.

To middle brother: The Invisible Gorilla, because one of the few things we can talk about without yelling at each other is how ****ed up the human brain is. I was considering getting him What If? but assumed he already had it.

To the extended family's Yankee gift exchange: I don't know, because my mother provided the gift and I never saw what it was. Maybe multi-colored hot chocolate mix?

To my parents: Nothing, because my eldest brother is even more neurotic about gift-giving than I am. I suggested that we get our parents a new DVD player. My brother agreed and said he would pick one up. He didn't. He didn't buy anyone presents and instead got everybody gift cards to Amazon. He didn't tell me he was doing this. So come Christmas Day my parents get presents from each other, my eldest brother, my eldest brother's girlfriend, and my middle brother and his wife, but not me. I look like I a ****wad.

[Elok]

I got What If, but not signed. Not necessary. It's good fun, and I'd totally lend it to my nephew to spark his interest in science if it didn't have one question that references Where Babies Come From. He's eight and a half and almost certainly has detailed (and wrong) ideas about that anyway, but I know his parents would never allow it. Alas.

Went over to my brother's for Christmas, unfortunately forgetting all the presents for my brother's kids (they'll get them tomorrow at church). The nephew got Settlers of Catan, which neither he nor his dad had played before. Passed an enjoyable Xmas afternoon teaching them, but in a disgracefully disorganized fashion. I didn't really remember the rules, and I was afraid of putting them off by digging through the whole manual and dumping the full set on their heads before we even started. So we assembled a more or less random board, and I wound up remembering rules (incorrectly) at the precise moments when it benefited me most to remember them. E.g. "Dang, I don't have any bricks! But wait, I vaguely recall that if you have a road to a harbor, you can trade any two cards for the resource it shows. There's a brick harbor, so I can do that now, in the middle of my nephew's turn! Yay!"

Meanwhile, my dad was laboriously digging through the manual. I got accused of cheating. If you can imagine.

Anyway, on Sunday the nephew gets his kids' edition of Shakespeare, his teenaged half-sister gets a big-ass illustrated history of fashion from the Smithsonian, and his little sister gets some handmade barrettes from Etsy or some such.

[-Jrabbit]

A bottle of Glenlivet single malt (standard 12).

There may have been some other stuff.

[Alexander's Horse]

I got a book of WW1 miltary maps and a T-shirt which reads "born to fish - forced to work".

I also ended up with two presents from me that my idiot second son rejected - a comedy vid by Chris Lillee called "Angry Boys" - yes there was a message in there for somebody - he got the message - wrote "lame" on it in marker pen before he returned it - and a paperback - Cormac McCarthy's City of the Plains.

This morning I picked up an old trolley off the street and a old card table the week before in the lane behind our house. Those were the most useful things I got this Christmas

Angry Boys is good, maybe too close to the bone for Aussie boys...

[Nikolai]

From my sisters: Beatles LP of the album "Let It Be"
From my mum and grandpa: Blazer
From my aunt on mother's side: Wallet.
From my grandma: Jumper and shirt.
From my grandpa and aunts and uncles on father's side: Money to buy a Kindle.
From my father: Coffee termo cup.

[regexcellent]

Couple flannel shirts, neckgaiter, a $150 dollar check good for...uh..getting meat at a ranch about 30 minutes south of Rochester, yeah seriously. My mom picked up on what MRT and TMM noticed which is that I eat like a hobo. Yeah.

My brothers both got me a bunch of cheap video games which was cool. I bought HC a book of space pictures and Kuci a nice bottle of wine.

[ZEE]

There are too many words in this thrade for me to read so I just Put this Poast here for the hell of it.

[KrazyHorse]

a drone

[Hauldren Collider]

I've been too busy eating candy to notice any of my other gifts

[Uncle Sparky]

I received several books and a gift card for a local book store. I spent 3 days at my sister's, playing with her grandkids and eating and drinking.

Boxing day, I drove home, but diverted to have supper at a nephew's house, and picked up my present from him, and drop off presents for his family. We played Settlers of Catan, my gift to the 11 year old, after supper. My nephew team played with his 8 year old son, and was about to win with the right cards, but didn't have an actual settlement to build with. My turn was next. The right throw gave me the brick I needed to build a settlement and win. However, that's when I noticed my foes had successfully blocked my roads - I had no place to build! Next to play was the 11 year old, who built a single track of road, took the Longest Road card from her dad, and won the game!!! A good game.

So I had a lot of fun with family, and didn't have to make or pay for a meal for 3 days!

[Aeson]

From Net: jeans
From Santa: lots of candy
From candy: sick

Net and I got a nice early gift from Santa, a new refrigerator and washing machine.

[N35t0r]

So far, a linen blazer, some shorts and a t-shirt, but I've spent the past couple of days with my in-laws. They also got me an angle grinder for my birthday.

I also bought myself a wireless drill although it's just a coincidence that I did it right now (birthday/xmas), which my wife coopted into her present for me.

[Dr Strangelove]

My son updated my desktop computer to Windows 7, restoring functionality to its blu-ray player, but now it doesn't have e-mail.
My "kids" gave me a single cup coffee brewer, Santa gave me a fancy high tech office chair.

[Nikolai]

Santa gives gifts to adults too in USA?