Good haul this year.
Mrs Stevie gave me a watch I'd been lusting after ever since my old one fell apart. The old one, which still works on account of the bit that disintegrated was the fancy case that turns out is totally ornamental and the works are all in a waterproof cylinder to which the strap is attached, showed the time as small digits in a crowded display, and had an alarm function, a stopwatch and a countdown timer. It ran for years before I had to change the battery.
The new one shows the time in letters large enough to be seen from the International Space Station, and has a stopwatch, five alarms but no countdown timer. Instead it has compass, barometer & temperature and altimiter functions and is the bestest watch since the chronometer I was given for my 15th birthday.
She also gave me Super Mario Cart for our Wii console, and I've been buried in it ever since. I've been addicted to this game for years in one or other of its many incarnations, but this one, with its wireless steering wheel gadget, is the best yet. Everyone knows now if they wander away from the TV during their favourite show, they may not get it back until the Mushroom Cup Challenge is over. Hence, the other members of the family have been hogging the TV set for days.
No matter, I can always play with my Hess truck, which this year is actually two racing cars, one hidden inside the other. Most of the Hess truck collectors I've spoken with confess to a slight disappointment with this year's model, and I'm one of them. The big car is the usual high-quality affair with lights and sound, and a lifting front section that opens to reveal a scalextric-sized second vehicle, a pull-back-and-go version of the larger car. The thing is, it's not a truck. I was still playing with studying last year's offering (a dump truck with front-end bucket loader) in late November, but I expect I'll pack this year's away soon. Hmm.
I also got a copy of the new four-player Super Mario Brothers game, which is spiffy but everything looks so small on our old-fashioned 27" TV I suppose I'll now have to buy a hucking fuge flatscreen in order to play it. Azathoth alone knows where I'll put such a thing though.
I also scored a magnetic poetry kit on the off-chance I suddenly develop an ear for the stuff, some tasty chox (scoffed), a desk calendar and the daftest multitool I've ever seen.
It features a hammer on one end and is so idiotic in concept it deserves its own post, so it'll get one. Mrs Stevie only bought it because I laughed so hard when I saw it hanging on a hardware store wall.
Mrs Stevie got a digital picture frame from me, as demanded with menaces two weeks before Xmas, a book set in Henry VIII's time that she also was most definite about and some fancy Roger & Gallet soap I scored from the only shop in NY that stocks it. I was careful to select one of their many fragrances that would most likely bring her out in an amusing rash, but either she hasn't used any yet or I need to pick another scent.
The Stevieling made out like a bandit. Mrs Stevie gave her a game for her DS handheld that she's been using every free moment to play, a speaker system for her iPod and cosmetics. I gave her some supplies for creative card and letter crafts (stamps, sealing wax and seals and so forth).
Mrs Stevie's big present to the Stevieling surprise was undermined by Bil the Elder giving the Stevieling The Beatles Rock Band game at our traditional Xmas Eve gathering. Mrs Stevie had bought the thing the day it came out, stood on line at 6 a.m. etc etc etc, and had crowed daily for the last three months about how clever she was, only to have the wind taken from her sails with less than 12 hours to go. I laughed and laughed until Mrs Stevie hit me in the head with a Christmas-themed china platter.
Good times.
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