New Year’s Day is the “last hurrah” of the Christmas season. On one hand I’m kind of glad that all the stress and commotion is over, but on the other hand it’s over, now just another page in the history books.
For Christmas we gave Mom a coloring book and some colored pencils (and also a calendar like I get her every year – this time I chose classic Mickey). We gave Jill’s old iPad 3 to Dad, along with a new case for it. Brother John and Jen got gift cards for dinner and a movie, and niece Claire for a Kano computer kit (a Raspberry Pi with a more friendly presentation). We’re really glad she’s having fun with it.
To Jill, I gave a coloring book and some paint pens, a few Minecraft collectibles, some Lego (including the Rey set from Star Wars), and two Amiibo (8-bit Mario and Pink Yarn Yoshi). And then “from Maxwell” (our naughty cat) was a Wii U with Super Mario World 3D. She’s really enjoying it and Mario Kart 8.
She gave me:
- Google Cardboard, that I folded into a headset and put my phone into and it becomes a 3D viewer – neat!
- Three children’s books written in Japanese, for me to learn with
- Star Trek drinking glasses (to replace our boring Ikea drinking glasses)
- Star Trek tee shirts (she couldn’t decide between command red or engineering gold, so she got me both)
- Star Trek car emblems, a cube puzzle, a fox ornament, an Enterprise-C ornament, Emmet for Lego Dimensions, and lots of holiday mint M&Ms
Mom and Dad gave me an issue of Wired magazine and an offer to get me a subscription to any magazine I like (I will have to see what’s out there!). Also a book of “300 Writing Prompts”, which I shall use for my blog; a set of lockpicks with a transparent padlock to practice on (they were very nervous about buying this for me), and a bag of Wilbur Buds. (One of our family members ran the Kendig Chocolate Factory which merged with Wilbur about a hundred years ago.)
John, Jen, and Claire gave us a Millennium Falcon quadcopter (which I am looking forward to chasing the cats with!) and a bag of Wilbur Buds.
I think continuing to list things out would be tacky, so let me just note a few real highlights: Heidi, Alex, Mia, and Eli gave me an “Aunty’s Beach House” MagicBand (from Aulani in Hawaii) and a bag of Wilbur Buds (sense a theme here?); and Heather, Jason, Sam, and Olivia gave me two Kindle books that I’ve had on my Amazon wishlist for a long time.
In the new year I aim to do a lot more reading!