Happy Day After Chrismukkawanzaawalidan!

[cleolinda]

So. Random vehicular vandalism and a raw sore throat that I woke up with this morning aside, we actually had a pretty good Christmas. It teetered on the verge of drama several times, but some skillful maneuvering kept things on track. Of course, we're all exhausted (Sister Girl and I were up wrapping presents until 2:30 am Christmas Eve for reasons I will not get into), and I could lapse back into a cold medicine-induced coma at any moment, but we seem to have emerged unscathed.

So: What was the best Chrismukkawanzaawalidan present you got this year? I got the entire set of Sin City books, because Amazon had an awesome collection exclusive going, and the new Alison Weir, Queen Isabella, which I immediately started reading even though people hadn't even gone home yet (oh, please. The whole family was glued to a marathon of old Bob Hope USO specials on the Military Channel. No one noticed me. Also: yes, there really is a Military Channel). Besides the Zen Nano, which makes me very happy despite holding only 123 songs, the LIARS, I basically got a stack of DVDs (DANGERMOUSE OMG!), a pile of chocolate, a ridiculous (read: totally awesome) number of books, and a stockingful of Burt's Bees. Oh, and gingerbread bubblebath, which is teh yum. So what did you get?

Comments

[istoo.livejournal.com]

I didn't know you liked Dangermouse.
That's a whole lot of good presents. :)

[istoo.livejournal.com]

Just been reading along to your Independence Day. :)

[elyim.livejournal.com]

I got an iPod mini and a lobster keyring ^_^.

What, exactly, is Kwanzaa? I think they did it on Rugrats once, and Jon Stewart said something about a black Jesus, but I think he was joking.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwanzaa

[canonball13.livejournal.com]

My family was glued to the TV for "Christmas with the Duke," so I finished your book. =) Even the movies I didn't see were fantastic.

I got clothes, boots, the GoF soundtrack, lots of lip gloss (including Burt's Bees), Harry Potter Scene It? (in which I had a come-from-behind win), curling iron and hair dryer.

Because Christmas also translates to "What do you need?" as well as "What do you want?"

[cattikins.livejournal.com]

Hee, I definitely got stuff I needed as well as stuff that I wanted. I desperately needed a new house phone, cause...Well, my old one died every hour or so. It was crap, so I got a new one. Woo!

[bodhichitta0.livejournal.com]

Oooh--that is an awesome haul. I'm glad it was merry even with drama. I know how that goes, believe me.

I got the A&E/BBC version of Pride & Prejudice on DVD, an iPod nano (which I opened early *whistles*), many books (including Rachel Manija Brown's which I learned about here :-))a George W. Bush misspeak calendar and some EXTREMELY comfortable pajama pants. Oh and lots of lotion from the kids. Evidently they think I'm scaly.

And I have to say--we had the nicest Christmas Eve. We went to the Jewish/Catholic Swedish smorgasbord in our neighborhood. It rocked.

[italianbakegal.livejournal.com]

LOOOOOOOVE the P&P mini series...LOVE IT!

[karl-moebius.livejournal.com]

zomg, dangermouse?! there's Dangermouse on DVD? oh...my...god... there is a god! *drools on self*

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Two whole seasons in one box! I don't even know if there were more than that!

[catystorm.livejournal.com]

I think the best Christmas gifts I got was "Hermitic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus Part 1" and a leather-bound blank notebook for notes. My friends know me too well. XD

[akathorne.livejournal.com]

You got Dangermouse?! Am so very, very jealous now.

I got a digital camera, which means I'm taking pictures of everything, up to and including the ceiling, rocks in the yard, my dog when she's sleeping, and blinky Christmas lights. I also got a bunch of food (...I don't know), the Elf DVD, some bath stuff, and some BPAL (which was from me to me, but it still totally counts).

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Ooo, what BPAL did you get?

[bluebythebook.livejournal.com]

I got a laptop, a flash drive, Crock Pot, electric hand mixer, spinning spice rack, rubber grippy pot holders, and other smaller misc. things. I also think my boyfriend is giving me the second season of Scrubs on DVD.

[prncssaurora.livejournal.com]

I just have to say.... sweet icon!

Glad you had a good Christmas, Cleo, and sorry you're sick!

I got the new(ish) Jamie Cullum CD, Scrubs season 1 DVDs, Ben Folds w/ West Australian Symphony Orchestra DVD, Chanel Chance perfume, clothes, boots, new comfy PJs, and a ticket to go see Jerry Seinfeld live with the rest of the fam. Also, a new CD player, since I've had mine since I was 12. I am now 21. And it hooks up to my iPod YAY!

[paradise-loved.livejournal.com]

My best gift was probably a tie between some of the new knitting supplies I got and some of that lovely GoF LEGO. *cheers - and goes back to knitting*

[cattikins.livejournal.com]

OMFG DANGERMOUSE. I, um, had a crush on Dangermouse when I was a kid. Does that make me weird?

I got a new computer monitor (not BRAND new, as it was my dad's, but he got one so I got his old one), a new home phone, a tea set, a vegetarian cookbook (LIKE OMG I CAN LEARN HOW TO COOK NOW), an iHome for my iPod, and whiskey. Yeah, I got whiskey for Christmas. I enjoyed that very much.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

OMFG DANGERMOUSE. I, um, had a crush on Dangermouse when I was a kid. Does that make me weird?. I, um, had a crush on Dangermouse when I was a kid.

Well, I can't judge you, because I totally did too.

(Hee. One year my stepfather put a bottle of Absolut in my stocking, back when I was drinking with my college friends a lot more frequently.)

[sea-of-tethys.livejournal.com]

Oh, lucky you! Burt's Bees is teh cool.

We celebrate Hanukkah, so I'm still waiting for most of my presents, but I have been reliably informed that I'm getting Lost series 1 on DVD, which makes me very happy.

[millebasia.livejournal.com]

a ridiculous (read: totally awesome) number of books

*so envious omg*

I've been wanting to read some Alison Weir books for forever--I have like eight of them on my "to read" list--but for some reason have never gotten around to it. Would you recommend any particular one to start with?

Also, Military Channel wtf. We get that too, and my cousin turned it on when he was here on Christmas Eve and it immediately flashed to a close-up on the face of a dead man with blood all over his face. LOVELY. The remote control was taken from his hands very quickly after that. *amused*

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I really like her Elizabeth I. Her Eleanor of Aquitaine is good, but a bit hobbled, particularly in the second half, by the sheer lack of data on Eleanor at that point, and it becomes more of a bio of her sons at that point. Not Weir's fault, but disappointing nonetheless. I love her stuff on Henry VIII (court of, kids of, wives of, etc.), and I think the Tudor stuff tends to be particularly accessible because we're generally more familiar with the players. You might also try her Mary, Queen of Scots book, though--she basically solves, it would seem, the mystery of who actually killed her husband. And not in a crazy nutbar Patricia Cornwell "This random guy was totally Jack the Ripper" way, either. Which reminds me, she also makes a really good case for who really murdered Dudley's wife Amy, if it was in fact murder, in the Elizabeth I bio.

[highlystrung.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you had a good haul Christmas! ^^ //sidenote: DANGERMOUSE!! *does the childhood memories dance*//

I got practically all the Jon Pertwee Doctor Who DVDs, The Complete Chronicles of Narnia (our old set were lost I and I was so sad and the best part was it was gotten before the new movie and my obsession with it ^^) the INTERSTELLA 5555 (Daft Punk & Leiji Matsumoto!) and OMG DALEK!!! (My Dalek vs. my brother's RoboRaptor - Ultimate Smackdown. So good.) It was a good Christmas.

[livinthegoodlfe.livejournal.com]

I got a cellular telephone, my first...ever. Im kinda jealous of you have the Zen Nano, because they are so fricken awesome looking.

[cheapblackpens.livejournal.com]

[by-motorways.livejournal.com]

I got a record player! / radio, but I'm going to use it more to play records.

My uncle lent me a lot of his Smiths singles and now I am completely terrified of them. Because if I damage them then waaaah.

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

Well, my best gift was a Tivo-like thing for my mac called eyeTV, but my most interesting was a Galileo dildo thermometer:
I believe Galileo sat on this, and then came the Enlightenment.

[karaway.livejournal.com]

Alison Weir, waaay cool ! Glad you had a good one

I got the Hogwarts denim jacket, the levitating wand pen, and lots of fuzzy socks. Oh and a huge pile of chocolate (and Bertie Botts Beans), tons of bath stuff, a Lost book with a DVD, a Snow Pro (best car cleaner off thing evah) , a Joss Stone CD, and a pretty necklace and basket full of hot sauce from Mom (she knows me so well)..hey, I made out pretty well now that I add it all up !

[kvschwartz.livejournal.com]

Mom got me some sweatshirts. I know, lame, but I've been wearing them and enjoying having them.

My aunt Ellen and her MA-spouse Claire got me two movie review books (which I don't really need, now that there is rottentomatoes.com, but their giving me a movie review book has become an annual tradition) and Will In the World, a biography of Shakespeare by Harvard professor Stephen Greenblatt, which, if I recall correctly, was nominated for a Pulitzer.

The irony is that I already Amazoned (my coinage?) a copy of Will In the World after Dad and I heard Greenblatt give a lecture here. So now I have two copies.

So I emailed my friend Jeannie Bergmann -- the woman who (for a fee) submits my poems for me, and asked her if she knew anyone who would want a copy. And, ironically, she and her husband had each bought a copy of some book by Neil Gaiman, so she and I are going to have a swap.

I will give her the Amazon copy and keep the one from my aunt.

My other aunt, Margot -- on the other side, my mom's sister -- supposedly sent me a check, but I haven't checked my mail in a few days, so I haven't seen it.

[fox-gloves.livejournal.com]

Dangermouse is teh sex!

My most interesting gift is running around my computer desk with my new ipod in its mouth, wreaking havoc everywhere. I also believe that my family thinks I'm terribly domestic, as I've also received a set of chili bowls and casserole dishes. But I also got House, Lost, and the complete set of Angel, so can't complain.

Glad you had a good Christmas, despite the vandalism and hope that you can at least now sleep in...and maybe do the after-Christmas shopping rush.

[dreamingenigma.livejournal.com]

my best present was my ipod :D

i love alison weir. i've got 3 of her books, but not that one. i'll have to get it next time i make a trip to b&n. let me know how it is!

[palmetto.livejournal.com]

I got tuition to start back at college next semester, a really nice set of pots and pans, a sterling silver cat pendant that my sister made herself, a DVD with two Abbott and Costello movies on it, DSL, knitting needles, Peruvian wool yarn, and a knitting book, and some other small stocking-stuffer type things. It was a very good Christmas.

[lotusbiosm.livejournal.com]

How do you have your songs formatted? If the Nano is like the other Zens, you can set how compressed you want things, and even put it in wma instead of mp3, which I think can be smaller.
I got lovely leather gloves (which I was in desperate need of), clothes, a jewelry box, a scarf, a flash drive, and a singing and dancing turtle, which is my favorite, for shear randomness and silliness. My Dad got a video iPod, and my Mom got an autographed first edition of the new Doris Kearns Goodwin (among other presents for the both of them, but I think those were the favorites).

[princessmandys.livejournal.com]

Oh you lucky!!! I want to read Queen Isabella!! Oh, and Burts Bees=lurve

as for me:
RENT Soundtrack (omfglovemygrandparents!), money (apparently the rest of my relatives REALLY know me well...*eyeroll*), Luggage from my parents! Whoohoo (I didn't have any and I have a plane trip tomorrow!) Goucho pants (teh sexy), clothes (...yay?), and the best thing ever, besides the RENT soundtrack:
A purple hippo flashlight (showing here: http://www.littletikes.com/Toys/Toys-Detail.aspx?Product_ID=1706&Description=Glowin%e2%80%99+Hippo%e2%84%a2+Flashlight)
When you open its mouth to have the light shine, IT GIGGLES!! OMFG it's the coolest damn thing I've gotten all year! ('sides RENT) It actually *Giggles*...euphoria!

So, do you think people are going to start tweaking about saying Happy New Year too? Maybe the different time zones will start an underground war or something *blegheyeroll*

Happy/Merry/Jolly Day after Chrismukkawanzaawalidan

[babybuki.livejournal.com]

I got the five-book volume of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (squeeeee!!) and the unabridged Devil's Dictionary (ooo, shiny). Not so much because Christmas is pretty small in my family. ^_^ Then I spent the whole day alternating between Adams and (ironically enough) you. ^_~ Still have to finish the last two LotRs. Definitely wish I had the DVDs so I could do a read-along.

What's Queen Isabella about, mm? *totally needs to be reading more*

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Biography of Edward II's consort, better known as "the Sophie Marceau character in Braveheart, except that she didn't even marry Edward until after Wallace was dead, and even then she was only 12."