The Annual Christmas Swag Report

Christmas is behind us this year. I commented to my wife last night that the holiday seems to be less about us, and more about Stephen (our son).

I'm fine with that; he's a bit young to truly appreciate the varied meanings of the season. He's also pretty oblivious to the fact that he made out like a bandit ten times to next October, pulling in so many new toys and other items of baby swag that we hardly have room for them all.

All he knows is that there's new cool stuff around to play with. That's all that matters.

That isn't to say that we didn't get anything. Quite to the contrary, we did fairly well. Our modest piles of loot were populated by several geeky goodies, but mine wasn't as full of gaming goodness as I might've hoped. All told, I've got two new volumes to add to my massive (yet stagnant) collection: Races of Eberron (thanks, hon!) and d20 Cyberscape (thanks, mom!).

Cyberscape looks like a good time. If I ever decide to do a cyber-oriented d20 game, it will be high on my list of supplements to use. Races of Eberron is also pretty groovy, regardless of the fact that I'll probably never run an Eberron campaign. The temptation to add some of those cool races (such as warforged) to other settings is fairly strong.

I did mention other geeky things, didn't I? My wife got a copy of Destroy All Humans! for the Xbox, so she can happily apply anal probes to hapless farmers, soldiers, and bovines. Our DVD collection is also somewhat larger. The first season of the new Battlestar Galactica is in our grasp (thanks, Adam!), as is the third Harry Potter flick (again: thanks, Adam!).

My wife bought me a copy of The Wild Geese on DVD, which is possibly one of the best mercenary-oriented war films ever. The packaging claims that it is the 30th anniversary edition of the film, which I find odd, considering that it was released in 1978. Wouldn't that make it less than 30 years old? Hmm?

I've also got several new CDs to add to my collection, including three old Oingo Boingo titles (Nothing to Fear, Dead Man's Party, and Boi-ngo) that I used to have on cassette, as well as GWAR's latest release, Live From Mt. Fuji.

I could easily use up several thousand words of text describing the various items that Stephen has added to his collection of playthings, but I will spare you the details. Besides, such descriptions would be better posted on Freelance Father, and likely will be at some point in the near future.

We've got edible presents on the menu, too. JD and Keri brought us up a homemade cheesecake this evening. I'm thinking that it will be devoured to the last delectable crumb sometime on the morrow.

So that's Christmas, in a nutshell. As much as I enjoy giving and receiving gifts, I'm glad that it's over...at least, for the time being.