Christmas Eve

Seems like every time we shop for groceries, Em asks for Easy Cheese. And I always say no. But Santa, he'll come through.



I also got her the Bras & Broomsticks trilogy, a set of books she's mentioned almost as often as Easy Cheese.



Mo was easy: I got her a camera. She's always trying to get mine, and since she broke (inadvertently) my last one, I haven't been willing to let her use it. She hasn't taken nearly as many pictures as I would have expected, but I think she's partly getting used to the idea that it's her own camera, I'm not going to take it back.



Santa left us a note thanking us for the Peanut Butter & Pickle Sandwich as well as leaving us with socks, pants, carboy haulers (the dude thinks of everything) and candy.



I got some artwork from my kiddos, including a couple of Mo canvases I'm going to look into framing.



The candy, in the case of the girls, was left in metal lunchbox type things: Pirates of the Caribbean for Thing One and Sesame Street for Thing Two.







Then we went to my Mom's house for dinner and presents. Including, of course, my calendar, which went over well. As did my coup: a flight lesson for my bro. He's mentioned an interest in planes and learning to fly a couple times when I've run on at the mouth about rockets. It was more than I could swing by myself, but Mom and Dad went in with me and he's got a pilot's log and an hour of instruction coming to him. He will taxi, he will take off, he will maneuver the plane. The instructor does the landing part. And no doubt makes a sales pitch for the full course of lessons to become a licensed pilot.





Which is a thing people do, though not cheaply.

I think part of the appeal for me was the idea of giving a present that hadn't been stuck on a wish-list, but was something the recipient would truly enjoy. Part of it was, hey, I have no real interest in being a licensed pilot, and even I would dig the chance to take a taste like that.



I did spend some time coveting the camera my bro got from his father in law. When I bought my Canon last June (because Mo had broken mine, like I was saying, and because I'm an enormous baby who just can't breathe without a camera) the Powershot A570IS was about as good as it got without getting into crazy money. There were models I liked better, but they were in the $500 range.

I saw my brother's camera a few weeks back (in the store, not his actual camera), and did a double take. The SX1000 Powershot is a megapixel larger in the CCD department, but what blows me a way is it has a 10X zoom lense to my 4X. That's incredible for a pocket camera. And it runs about $50 to $75 more than what I paid last June for my camera.



Of course, I know, in six more months, there will be a camera that makes it look like chopped lever, probably for less money.

A good time was had by all. Except maybe Sam, who hid behind the curtain the whole time and hissed and growled when we tried to make him get in the Christmas Spirit. But he's always been as weird as he is hairy.



My only complaint was it was over too fast. I got the glut of holidays last year as we synchronized with my ex's brother, meaning it's her turn this year. I admit I got a bit spoiled, having them Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and so on.

Actually, I have a butt-load of pics to share from Christmas Day, too, but I'm not going to be getting them online tonight.