so this is Christmas

it's been more like hanukah this year: we opened some presents on Christmas day; tim's birthday is on the 27th, so there were more presents then; last night we had the full family Christmas with becky and brady, and i've heard we even have one or two more gifts that are still in transit.

i remember when i was younger, i wanted toys and decried clothes.  it was fun to be cleaning up the wrapping paper and looking at my pile of presents; between me and my brother we had a couple of good nintendo games, so that we would play one until we got bored and returned to the pile to retrieve another new game.  when we were done with them, there were other toys that we'd temporarily forgotten, and we'd experience a second excitement to remember what new things we had.  in the more recent years beneath the tree would be numerous dvd-shaped gifts.  between myself, my brother, and my dad, there was no need to disguise their shape; we all asked for several movies, and so it was a question of not 'what' but 'which'.  i would admire my new additions to my collection, feeling cinematicly wise [this was especially great that year that tim worked at best buy and my parents got the employee discount].

this year i tried to be mature.  i asked for two dvd [both criterions--i can't express how excited i feel to hold a new criterion movie in my hands] and that was really it for 'toys'.  i set aside some money to go shopping for clothes in the after Christmas sales, and the one or two articles that i do unwrapped are usually things i picked out, tried on, then left alone with mom or dad for a few moments at the store the day before.

so what did i unwrapped this year?  measuring cups, jumper cables, and a paper shredder.

all things i asked for, and i'm excited.