Big Ass Christmas Haul

To boast about Christmas gifts is decidedly un-Canadian, but I want to extend my thanks to everyone this holiday season for their generous and thoughtful giving by hitting just a few of the highlights.

From my parents, a Roomba robot vacuum cleaner. I love vacuuming, but I also love robots, so to have a robot that will chase the kitties around during the day and clean up hair and crumbs will be really, really cool.

From Sandra and Byron, a donation-in-name-of to an organization that buys goats for the goatless and hungry -- what a neat idea! And a Buddha Board -- a nifty thing that encourages you to just blurt out your visual creativity on a page by painting with water in a medium that shows up for a while, then fades away. We saw these in Charlottetown last year, and I thought they were way, way cool. Thank you.

From Shannon and Chris, an item that could make my effort to quit eating cinammon buns easier or more difficult: body wash/shampoo that smells like cinnamon buns. Specifically, somehow, like Cinnabon cinnamon buns. Seriously, it smells f'ing awesome. They need more serious warnings not to eat this stuff. Also, a big Toblerone bar. My sister knows me well. Toblerone = awesome.

From Barb and Wendall, a super-cool lunch bag made of neoprene. It holds all my lunch loot and can spread out to make a placemat. Also, some cool books including the Borat book and The Onion book.

And from Amanda, a ceramic jar for holding my thoughts or change, or change of thoughts, or thoughts of change, or whatever. And a pair of ceramic mittens that are so sweet!

From me ... well, from "Santa" via me. A Nintendo DS video game machine with Nintendogs, and Brain Age and Brain Age 2. A whole lotta fun.

Thank you to everyone for everything! Sorry we couldn't be with you all in person, but we felt the love from far away!