What Did Santa Bring You This Holiday Season?

[Mike Temporale]

Now that Santa has had a chance to make the rounds, let us know if you were on his naughty or nice list. Any new Smartphones out there? What about other gifts - the gadget kind or not?

http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/tree-glitter.gif

[encece]

No gadgets for daddy this year. Unless a George Forman Grill counts! :)
(Which I like!) And I got two coats and a couple of sweater which I needed. And some cologne, and a watch. (Typical dad gifts). But I am hard to buy for gadget-wise. I'm very critical in that I may not use it. Like the 8" DVD player I received last year that I only used once.

But mommy got a 4GB ipod Nano and the little one got a MP3 Flash Player loaded with all of his songs that he likes along with a IZ that he can plug it into.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000AMC3RQ/104-6609100-1060761

He also received a RoboRaptor as well as a ton of games and toys. But unfortunately we did misplace the copy of KingKong for XBox. It has to be around somewhere....we must have hidden it a bit too well.

[encece]

What about you Mike?

[chandler]

A few gadgets under the tree here... a Fossil Wrist PDA (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00077ALQ4/qid=1135613723/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-8121592-1871813?n=507846&s=electronics&v=glance) - why can't they make a Windows Mobile version? Or a Smartphone version! :wink:

For the phones, smart or otherwise, a Moto HF820 Bluetooth speakerphone (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00077ALQ4/qid=1135613723/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-8121592-1871813?n=507846&s=electronics&v=glance).

And for the iPod, a Griffin RoadTrip FM transmitter (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002WTK48/sr=1-1/qid=1135613887/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-8121592-1871813?%5Fencoding=UTF8).

[Kris Kumar]

No gadget gift for me :-( however I did convince myself to buy a 2125. ;-)

My better half got a laptop, so now we will not be fighting over mine and hopefully this means that I will be able to spend more of my spare time on Smartphone Thoughts. :-)

[Jerry Raia]

No gadgets here either. People gave up on trying that with me long ago. Like Kris of course the 2125 was a gift to myself. :)

[Jason Dunn]

(even though I'm on vacation I figure it's ok for me to post in this thread)

- Millenium season three DVD boxed set
- Battlestar Gallactica DVD boxed set
- Tour of Duty season three DVD boxed set
- The Crow on DVD
- The Tick live-action TV show, all seven episodes
- 16 new CDs (trimmed down my wishlist by a lot!)
- a few books
- a few comic books
- couple of shirts
- scented candles (yes, I like soothing scents for my stressful office)

Like many of you, I'm hard to buy for, and no one dares buy me electronics because they never know what I want, or what I want is really expensive.

[Bushrod]

Santa was very nice this year. A Sirius S50 receiver and a PPC6700.

[chandler]

- Battlestar Gallactica DVD boxed set


Didn't figure that counted as gadgets... but one of those was waiting for me too 8)

[Rocco Augusto]

the baby mostly got all the cool presents but i did get a 1gb minisd card since my old one was stolen and a nintendo ds with a couple games. im easy to please :)

[Kris Kumar]

Aw man! I didn't know there was a Santa Tracker....check it out. :)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10482133/
http://www.noradsanta.org/en/default.php

[Mike Temporale]

What about you Mike?

Not much of anything going on for me this year. We pretty much cancelled all the gift givings between adults, except for a secret Santa thing on my Dad's side. With a $30 limit, you don't usually walk away with anything worth-while.

It's all about the kids now. They're too young to buy us anything, but they sure did clean up! The best part was leaving the cookies, carrots and a coke out for the big old elf.

http://www.bluerocket.ca/images/2005-SantaLeavingCookies.jpg

The can of coke was my daughters idea. She wanted to give Santa something, and she thought he would like a coke. Since she's seen him drink that in the movies. No joke, that was her words.

http://www.bluerocket.ca/images/2005-SantaEatCookies.jpg

In the morning, they found the remains, and I can't tell you how shocked they both were! They had so much fun unpacking their stocking, they didn't even notice the tree was loaded with presents when it was empty the night before.


The big gift was this ball castle thing-a-ma-jig. It had no hand or foot pump for inflating. My little compressor only works with the car lighter, and it was WAY to cold and early to go outside and inflate this thing.

http://www.bluerocket.ca/images/2005-ChristmasBallCastle.jpg

Did any of you ever see that video where the guy is inflating the raft and a kid comes running out of the house and jumps on it causing his head to explode? I couldn't get this video out of my head as I lay on ground huffing and puffing trying to inflate this damn thing. All the while, the kids are looking on like hungry sharks waiting to attack. Here's a link (http://www.bluerocket.ca/images/videos/ManInflatesRaftUntilHeadBursts.mpeg) for those that haven't seen the video.

[Mike Temporale]

Oh, and my wife and I exchanged snow tires (with rims) and an extended warranty on the car. Real romantic, eh? We're in talks about getting a new HD Plasma/LCD, but I don't expect to decide on that anytime soon. Unless the boxing day sales are too good to pass up. 8)

[liquidsg]

I gots me my Qtek 8300 (SP5M) and I have to say its really amazing. Took some time to configure my data settings but now that it is all worked out i really love it.

[ll600]

My wife and I bought each other a Weber grill - a beautiful piece of equipment.

But I'm having a lot more fun with my new 2125, which is the first upgrade of my phone in about 3 years (I decided to wait for WM5 before the upgrade, so I've been very patient - but this phone rocks and was worth the wait).

[dazz]

We focus more on our kids as well and between my wife and I are a little more practical. I got a bunch of clothes I needed and a couple gift certs for EB Games to balance it. ;)

The fun part was seeing my kids open their stuff. What a blast! They always freek out so much it is a hoot! The fun part for me was giving my 10 year old son his first computer. Wow, does he feel like a "big kid" now! ;)

Mike, we did the Santa plate as well, which included 4 cookies and to big carrots for the reindeers. My youngest daughter (5) wanted to leave a bucket of water for the reindeer as well, but we were able to convince her it wasn't needed. ;D

Lots of fun, althought, I have to say that I am looking forward to the "cooldown period" this week. ;D

[dazz]

Did any of you ever see that video where the guy is inflating the raft and a kid comes running out of the house and jumps on it causing his head to explode? I couldn't get this video out of my head as I lay on ground huffing and puffing trying to inflate this damn thing. All the while, the kids are looking on like hungry sharks waiting to attack. Here's a link (http://www.bluerocket.ca/images/videos/ManInflatesRaftUntilHeadBursts.mpeg) for those that haven't seen the video.

Mike, link does seem to work. It sounds like a funny vid. Do you have another location to download it from?

[Jon Westfall]

Aw man! I didn't know there was a Santa Tracker....check it out. :)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10482133/
http://www.noradsanta.org/en/default.php

Santa Tracker rocks! I had it playing all Christmas Eve, much to the puzzlement of my fiance and future in-laws. They just didn't "get it" - must be a geek thing.

[Jon Westfall]

The fun part for me was giving my 10 year old son his first computer. Wow, does he feel like a "big kid" now! ;)

Just read this and mused "When I have children to give computers to, they'll be locked down into an active directory domain with group policy & highly customizable firewall". Guess geek kids get the coolest toys, but probably also the most paranoid parents. On a lighter note - I hope he has fun with it!

And Mike, glad to hear your head didn't explode. Your daughter had the right idea about Santa - he does love Coke. And since you're in Canada, you have actual sugar in your coke, making Santa like your Coke (in all liklihood) better than the corn syrup laced stuff we have in the States. On my trip to Toronto last November I was guilty of smuggling 2 12-packs of Coke back with me. They come out for 'special' occassions ;)

[dazz]

Just read this and mused "When I have children to give computers to, they'll be locked down into an active directory domain with group policy & highly customizable firewall". Guess geek kids get the coolest toys, but probably also the most paranoid parents. On a lighter note - I hope he has fun with it!

Don't worry, Jon. I was thinking along the same lines. Luckily, my ISP has a rather comprehensive parental control do-hicky. I have it set so that he has to hit a permission button in order to see the site. That permission shows on my computer and he can then visit the site unless I change the setting. It also locks down e-mail and IM as needed and can create a VERY comprehensive log of all activity.

Don't think I'll be checking the log much if at all. He's a good kid and I trust him. I just don't trust the internet and am going to make sure he doesn't go to sites mistakenly. :)

[Mike Temporale]

Did any of you ever see that video where the guy is inflating the raft and a kid comes running out of the house and jumps on it causing his head to explode? I couldn't get this video out of my head as I lay on ground huffing and puffing trying to inflate this damn thing. All the while, the kids are looking on like hungry sharks waiting to attack. Here's a link (http://www.bluerocket.ca/images/videos/ManInflatesRaftUntilHeadBursts.mpeg) for those that haven't seen the video.

Mike, link does seem to work. It sounds like a funny vid. Do you have another location to download it from?


Opps! Sorry about that. I fixed the link. Thanks!

[Mike Temporale]

Lots of fun, althought, I have to say that I am looking forward to the "cooldown period" this week. ;D

Hah! There's no such thing. The kids have been running back and forth between toys. They can't decide what to play with. So it's five minutes at each toy and then on to the next. :lol:

[cortez]

i got 2 nice toys... a Qtek 9100 to replace my SMT5600 and (mandated, yes mandated) Razr V3c, corporate phone. i'm really diggin' the Qtek, wifi, bluetooth, EDGE...it's perfect for my needs.

[Mike Temporale]

alright.... We just added to our Christmas haul:

http://www.hitachi.ca/siteimages/hcl/en/forhome/plasma_tvs/details/42HDM12-5.jpg

http://www.hitachi.ca/Apps/hitachicanada/content.jsp?page=forhome/plasma_tvs/details/42HDM12.html&path=jsp/hcl/hcl/en/

That means, my wife and I now exchanged snow tires (with rims), extended warranty for the car, and a new 42 inch Plasma TV.

This thing is sweeet! We got a pretty good boxing day price so we decided to go for it. Our old Sony Trinatron is about 10 years old and on it's last legs. So we've been talking and looking at TVs. We expected to hold off for a couple more months, but.... :mrgreen:

[Mike Temporale]

It seems like a lot of you got Smartphones for Christmas this year! That's great news. :D

[dazz]

Hmmmm...

Did I mention I got pants?

They're really nice...

really... :?

:)

[JuhaN]

I got a shiny white 30GB iPod video...

Additionally one GSM operator released unlimited GPRS/EDGE/3G plan for 10 euros/month to use with my smartphone just before holidays... Sweet!! :D

=)juha

[dazz]

Wow! 10 Euros!! VERY jealous.

In Canada we have the honour and opportunity to donate $60CDN per month for unlimited data that is actually capped at 60mb. Another carrier actually charges $100 per month. I don't get it either. :-/

Crazy thing is that the carriers here are now rolling out some very high speed networks but there are less data users than in other countries. I wonder why that might be. ;)