"Peace on Earth! Give Me Presents!"

The headline quote is from one of my favorite Muppets, the drummer Animal, delivered with great enthusiasm during one of the Muppet holiday specials. And, like Animal, while I'm definitely down with all the "true meaning of Christmas" stuff - family, charity, etc. - I can't deny that even at age 44, a big part of the holiday for me is the swag.

And it didn't look like there was going to be any this year. Like a great many of our neighbors, we've had a rough dozen months financially, and we made the tough decision early on that we would not be exchanging gifts this year. Sure, we set aside a bit of scratch for the neice and nephews, but that was about all we could afford.

Surprisingly, though, my in-laws decided to go the gift card route with us this year and insisted that we spend them on "fun" stuff, so my wife and I were able to choose our own gifts. (And buying online, we were able to get some real bargains.) I was able to get some books that had been on my wish list for a long time - The Eurospy Guide, the Al Williamson Flash Gordon collection in hardcover at half-price, the fourth volume collecting the Justice League/Justice Society crossovers... and a few DVD sets like the Superman movie serials (for $4 new!) and the three seasons of Mission: Impossible I was missing. (Not to mention the Warlord volume and Wolfhound disc reviewed below)

Brandi also got some discs (Lost Season 5 and latest Harry Potter flick on Blu-Ray) and a new digital camera.

Overall, we had a good celebration, spending Christmas eve and morning with my family, and, thankfully, even got to enjoy a bit of the more materialistic side of the holiday. For that, I hereby publicly state, for the record, that I have the coolest in-laws on the planet.

I hope everyone else had a great holiday as well, and got some neat stuff, too. :)