The Holiday Loot Thread

Bribe a worker their to follow you around like you're foreign royalty on a visit to a "Most charming American retail store of luxury" as though you were a prince of Eddie Murphy in Coming to America stature.

I got a rock.

I wanted to post a link to "I gotta rock for Christmas" by Acres, but I couldn't find it anywhere online. Sadly, you cannot hear me blaring it through my stereo right now.

You're among friends. You can say you got a Snuggie.

Why, that's five bucks off of another $25 card!

Nope, this one was specifically a "comfy throw" (a Nolanverse Dark Knight one, at that), and not a Snuggie.

On a side note, I tend to make fun of the Christian Bale growly marble-mouth Batman so much that now my son has started saying "Batman" in that kind of voice. It's hilarious.

In fairness to my mother I'm updating this to report there were more presents from her that I'd lost track of until today when I was talking to her on the phone. When she came to visit me in September she gave me a bunch of gifts and on Xmas I only found some of them. Turns out there were four books (two of which I actually like), a calendar, a small duffel bag, and a nice handmade cutting board made in my hometown.

So, in addition to my previous loot, I received $280 in Amazon gift certificates all told.

I used them to make a few purchases, and had a second mini-Christmas this afternoon when the UPS guy showed up with a pile of packages.

I got a glass teapot, a double-walled steel thermos, a Shenandoah map, another hiking book, The Indiana Jones complete collection (on Blu-Ray,) a nightgown, a new watch band, a pair of earrings (which I need to return because they aren't the right color,) and a Fitbit, which won't show up until Monday.

All in all, a pretty good haul. :D

Shirts, ties, a new ski jacket, a keurig coffee machine for my office, a Chicago Manual of Style, a book of poetry, and adorable tiny sheep and pigs and cows for my Agricola set.

Not a Christmas present, but a friend of mine brought back meeple earings for his girlfriend from Essen. He brought me back a bottle of Jager. The man has style.

useless $30 Best Buy gift card + crisp $20 bill = $50 Amazon awesomeness.

Is there any way for me to somehow convert (through a series of tubes, I'm guessing) a 50.00 Best Buy card into credit for a Steam purchase?

There's a sale on now for Skyrim (plus all DLCs) for about 42.00.

I got a watch from my wife and some new computer speakers from my parents. There's more odds and ends, but those are the biggies.

Yes. Best Buy sells Steam Wallet Cards.

My wife gifted me a 3DSXL + a few games for my birthday. I also received a variety of things from her for Christmas, including some wall art, surround sound PC speakers, some tools, and some essential plaid clothing.

Someone else decided to give me a bunch of DVDR/CDRs, filled with hundreds(?) of dollars worth of pirated TV shows and music he whipped up with his new dvd/cd burner. As, uh... nice, of a gesture as that was, I already own all the music (bunch of Metallica, Megadeth, & other 80-90s metal stuff), and the shows he downloaded/ripped/burned/whatever (five seasons of a show called Supernatural, a few seasons of the X-Files) are already on Netflix streaming... so, yea. I was also given a couple seasons of some show called Grimm I've never heard of.

I felt like I was taking part in some FBI sting walking out the door with these things in tow. Kinda the weirdest present I've received in a while.

Whoever it is, they either hate you or have terrible taste in TV.

It seemed obvious to me that they had put some thought into the gifts, given that they're aware of my affinity for classic metal, and that I've always enjoyed supernatural/fantasy/sci-fi shows (like Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Tales from the Darkside, X-Files, Millenium, and the list goes on and on...), but I don't know if they think those shows you mentioned are actually good, or merely stuff that showed up in a "If you liked... then you may also like" type list somewhere.

DON'T DO IT KERZAIN! THERE ARE SO MANY OTHER NOT HORRIBLE SHOWS TO WATCH! YOU'RE SO YOUNG!

Plus, I still need to catch up on/finish off Wormhole X-Treme before starting anything else.

Today we got home from our holiday trip to my mom's and found an Amazon package addressed to one of my kids.

Apparently my father in law thought that what a three year old really needs is a titanium camping spork.

Not wrapped or anything, no note, just a spork in a box. The hell?

These are the things that family lore is built around. It will be a gift revisited decades from now.

I have a January birthday, so I got a combined present:


:D

As someone else with a January birthday, people have learned that to try and give me a combined Christmas/birthday present is the best way to earn a vendetta that can stew for years.

With mine being on the 19th, I think I'm just far enough away to where that has never happened to me.

This is the man who, at my wedding, asked MY MOTHER "So, how about this bunch of dagos my daughter is marrying?".

We have no shortage of family lore with him.

Mine's on the 21st but the combined gift still happens pretty much every year! I actually don't mind it, though. It might sound strange, but I've never really felt comfortable receiving lots of gifts.

Every year an aunt, on Christmas gives me a present and says, "I know it's your birthday soon, I'll be getting you something nice." Then I don't see her again for another year until it's Christmas. And she says the exact same thing again.

Sporks are awesome. I mean, just say the word out load. "Spork." Don't you suddenly feel better because of the absurdness of it? SPORK!!!

Sure, but every time I try to say it it comes out as "Tiny man, do not stab your sister with that."

The combined present thing happens for December birthdays too, although it only really happened to me once. More often what happens is my siblings go "mmmmmmmmeh" to mailing something to me and wind up giving me my birthday stuff when I come out for Christmas instead. In addition to the stuff they give me for Christmas. It does not seem to occur to them that all that stuff takes up space in my bags, guys.

I got a cute Portal hoodie from one of my sisters, a cat calendar (oh god am I one of those people now I guess my brother thinks I am) and iTunes gift cards from my brother, POW! mittens from my other sister (they're totally cute, now I can feel like Campy Batman if I beat someone up), some assorted jewelry and clothing whatnot from my parents, and tickets to see The Lion King out here in SF and one of the MST3K box sets I didn't yet have from Ingmar.

My mom gets me a cat calendar each year. She got me one for christmas one year and I liked it more than some super-expensive piece of fine jewelry that I didn't want/never wear, so now I just get cat stuff all the time. I'm completely okay with it.

Finally, a family member actually read my wishlist. I am now the proud owner of a "geek" t-shirt. I bought myself a Black Mesa hoodie, though, as I knew that no one would ever get me one, even though I said that Alyx Vance was an amazing brainy, sexy, and gutsy NPC. I don't think they even understood what's so awesome about Valve.

Mummy came by earljr; she got me a proectibe talisman gold. I've otjet stuff too but this is the.only thjnf I feel of wrtht mentikn because my parents aren't the soert to show muxh affection. Oh and I was againg sirrprised this year from jusr how belovef my position in the clan is. Like, I am one of thd facoritdd. Favoeit? Favoriye. Favorite. Yes, okay gotit

Thanks Arthur.

My entire extended family doesn't know me well (my fault, I basically refuse to go to family functions because I really can't keep track of that many cousins), but somehow all that has stuck is "he likes cats" instead of "techie", so I have more random cat throw pillows, cat blankets and cat books than I really have any use for.

This year was random $5 presents, and a sodastream thingy. Because apparently my fiance has decided we're a yuppie family, and this is something we needed.

A sodastream thingy is excellent for weaning yourself off other, less healthy drinks and onto water, though. Pure carbonated water is refreshing as heck, and a few drops of lemon juice in the glass makes it a drink in its own right.

Yeah my sodastream has saved me a ton of money and filling up of recycling with plastic bottles. The only things I drink are water and hot tea.

Do they really save money? The price on those refills and the proprietary nature of the cartridge kind puts me off.

Yes, I did the math when I first considered one, and over time, they do save you money. Sure, you could go make your own carbonater with homebrew equipment and shit, but this thing is simple and it works.

Does this assume paying for the syrups too, or just carbonating water?