What did you get for Christmas this year?

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Discussion Overview

The thread discusses various gifts received during the Christmas holiday, with participants sharing personal anecdotes about surprising, unexpected, or humorous presents. The scope includes both light-hearted exchanges and reflections on the significance of the gifts.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant humorously describes a gift of fuzzy sandals that resemble the Energizer Bunny.
  • Another mentions receiving a teeshirt, while someone else shares a mix of practical gifts like a broom and a snow shovel.
  • A participant expresses joy over receiving conga drums and a book, highlighting a family gathering during the holiday.
  • Several participants mention gifts for their spouses, including a food dehydrator and electric chain-saws, with one noting the practicality of these gifts for gardening.
  • One participant humorously reflects on their cold and the desire for it to disappear, while another shares a light-hearted anecdote about being mistaken for Santa by a child.
  • A participant discusses their enjoyment of a book about particle physics, recommending it to others interested in the subject.
  • Another participant shares their efforts to update their math and science library with new textbooks and expresses sadness over the passing of an author they admired.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally share their experiences without significant disagreement, though there are humorous exchanges and playful banter regarding the gifts and their meanings.

Contextual Notes

Some posts reflect personal preferences and humor, while others touch on the social dynamics of gift-giving and family interactions during the holiday season.

Who May Find This Useful

Readers interested in personal stories about holiday traditions, gift-giving experiences, and light-hearted discussions may find this thread engaging.

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What did you or your significant other get for Xmas this year? Anything surprising, anything unexpected or over-the-top or just totally unexpected? My wife got fuzzy sandals from her sister that make her look like the Energizer Bunny, but she wore them last night. Duke got a tug-toy that looks like a demented face on a football connected to a really well-designed rope loop made of braided nylon. I hold out little hope for the "football" vs the jaws of death, but we'll probably still have fun with the rope after it's gone.
 
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A teeshirt so far.
 
I got my wife a broom, a mop, and some pots and pans. She got me a snow shovel a rake and a screwdriver set. My aunt Clara got me pink bunny rabbit pajamas.
 
A mandolin.
 
I cleaned up this Christmas, I feel quite spoilt! My folks gave me a pair of really nice conga drums (!), and from my siblings, a kitchen knife and sharpener and a book I've been after - The Pragmatic Programmer, not to mention a great feed and a box of leftovers. Had a really good day, my grandparents came down, an uncle with his family that I don't see so often, and we played backyard cricket for a few hours!
 
I got my wife a food dehydrator (she can dry her herbs and my hot peppers), some books and a Phillips-head screw driver set. I don't have my gifts yet because we'll exchange gifts later today with my mother-in-law arrives. I usually receive some hot sauces and raspberry chocolates.

Mandolin and conga drum set (reminds me of Santana) are nice.
 
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Astronuc said:
Mandolin and conga drum set (reminds me of Santana) are nice.

Hmmmmm... :cool:
Astro, that beard just becomes more regal every day. Do you have any owls living in it yet?

As most of you know, we militant Atheists don't celebrate. This year is the most successful one as regards ignoring the holiday. Even so, my cousin (who is also a member of PF) gave me new pants, T-shirts, a great zippered turtleneck sweater, and several pairs of Happy Foot socks. That has always been my favourite brand of socks, and I didn't even know that they were still on the market. I haven't seen any in over 25 years.
She also took me to lunch. We lunch together semi-regularly (she lives in a different city), but the deal is supposed to be that I pay since she does all of the driving and takes care of my business dealings. This time, she insisted upon footing the bill.
Also, a couple of weeks ago the mother of a good friend invited me to dine with them. I had to decline because I can't eat in an uncontrolled environment. It was okay with my cousin because she knows what happens. Luckily, the mother in question, who is much younger than me, by the bye, is a nurse who understood my problem. Go figure this one out: I adore this lad and his family, but they're dyed-in-the-wool Mormons and he's only 16. Anyhow, she knew why I couldn't go to their place, and then brought 3 days' worth of food to my door for me to eat at home. (I never realized before that red grapes are the 3rd best thing in life after sex and chocolate. Hmmmm... come to think of it, I'd eat them between the sex and the chocolate... hmmmm...)
 
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An old small radio from my family and I got a maxwell tshirt for myself :biggrin:
 
I got a bottle of 10 year old Talisker!

rootX said:
and I got a maxwell tshirt for myself :biggrin:

pictures or it didn't happen. :)
 
  • #10
Danger said:
Hmmmmm... :cool:
Astro, that beard just becomes more regal every day. Do you have any owls living in it yet?
No owls yet.

I was on flight recently, and a small child, who was resting on his mother's shoulder, pointed at me, smiled and said 'Santa'. :smile:
 
  • #11
igotarock.jpg


Oops, wrong holiday. :blushing:

Seriously, I got some useful clothing items from my wife.

What I really would have liked is for my cold to magically disappear (hack, wheeze), but that's beyond her or anyone else's power. :frown:
 
  • #12
jtbell said:
What I really would have liked is for my cold to magically disappear (hack, wheeze), but that's beyond her or anyone else's power.
There are modern remedies now. What used to last for one long week can be over in seven short days now.
 
  • #13
Jimmy Snyder said:
My aunt Clara got me pink bunny rabbit pajamas.
You have to wear them when she visits!
 
  • #14
Evo! Do not read this post! No!

My wife got a great present from our organic-gardening neighbor. His knees are as bad as mine, and since he still needs to work on a paper machine (concrete floors) he is scheduled to see a specialist about knee-replacement. He bought his wife a Worx Jaw Saw and he bought one for my wife, too. He figures that our wives might have to do much of the tree-pruning, so they each got electric chain-saws for Christmas. He only bought one 12' extension pole, but we always share stuff and never lock our garages, so that's no problem.

It is snowing here, and my wife is already itching to go out and de-limb something.
 
  • #15
turbo said:
and my wife is already itching to go out and de-limb something.

That is certainly better than staying into do it.

Astro, that was an easy mistake for a child to make. As for the owls, they will arrive in due time. Meanwhile, keep a close guard against barn swallows. They're fast, dextrous, sneaky, and not housebroken.
 
  • #16
Danger said:
That is certainly better than staying into do it.
If she plugs that in, Duke and I will both hide in the bathroom with the door locked.
 
  • #17
Jimmy Snyder said:
My aunt Clara got me pink bunny rabbit pajamas.

Not THE aunt Clara?
 
  • #18
George Jones said:
Not THE aunt Clara?
Yep! The one that still thinks you're a 4-year-old girl.
 
  • #19
I got myself the book The Infinity Puzzle: How the Hunt to Understand the Universe Led to Extraordinary Science, High Politics, and the Large Hadron Collider by Frank Close. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to read about the history and sociology of particle physics and quantum field theory from 1947 to the present. What a Nobel mess it's going to be if a standard Higgs is discovered.
 
  • #21
George Jones said:
The Infinity Puzzle: How the Hunt to Understand the Universe Led to Extraordinary Science, High Politics, and the Large Hadron Collider by Frank Close. I highly recommend this book

Screw the book; it just took me 15 minutes to read the title.

Turbo, you'd best hope that you have a very strong bathroom door or she has a cheap chain on her saw. Someone is going to get fixed, and if Duke isn't intact you should hide.
 
  • #22
The chain looks plenty tough. Maybe Duke and I should just run out into the woods, out of the reach of her extension cords.
 
  • #23
Astronuc said:
I got my wife a food dehydrator (she can dry her herbs and my hot peppers), some books and a Phillips-head screw driver set. I don't have my gifts yet because we'll exchange gifts later today with my mother-in-law arrives. I usually receive some hot sauces and raspberry chocolates.
As I expected - raspberry chocolates, various hot sauces and Vegemite. My son bought me a new pair of New Balance walking shoes, which are my formal dress shoes for work.

Befor Christmas, I bought myself a few textbooks:

G. K. Batchelor, An Introduction to Fluid Dynamics
Morris Kline's Calculus - An Intuitive and Physical Approach
Arfken and Weber - Mathematical Methods for Physicists

I'm updating my math and science library.


And I just ordered Denis Sinor's "The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia (Vol 1)" for my history library. Unfortunately, he passed away last January. :frown:

Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University, Denis Sinor was born in Hungary on April 17, 1916 and educated in Hungary, Switzerland, and France. Between 1939 and 1948, he held various teaching and research assignments in France. During WWII he rendered modest services to the French Resistance; he joined the Free French Forces and was demobilized in November 1945.

From 1948 to 1962 he was on the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Cambridge University, U.K. In 1962 he moved to Indiana University where he created the Department of Uralic and Altaic Studies, now Department of Central Eurasian Studies, of which he was Chairman from 1963 to1981. In 1967 he founded the Asian Studies Research Institute, later named Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies, which he directed until 1981, and which was renamed in 2006 The Denis Sinor Institute for Inner Asian Studies. From 1963 to 1988 he was Director of the Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center, the only one of its kind in the country.

. . . .
http://www.allenfuneralhome.org/obituaries/denis-sinor.aspx
 
  • #24
Hey, Astro...
I've always thought of you as family, and just now realized that I don't know that much about yours. I thought that you had a couple of daughters, and this is the first that I recall hearing of a son.
Anyhow, I'm glad that you're having a nice holiday.
 
  • #25
Astronuc said:
As I expected - raspberry chocolates, various hot sauces and Vegemite. My son bought me a new pair of New Balance walking shoes, which are my formal dress shoes for work.
So glad that you are helping the cause! New Balance produces some parts and some entire shoes overseas, but they are doing their best to keep good-paying jobs in New England.
 
  • #26
I got a lot of Arduino stuff, a really nice gunn oscillator to experiment with (10 GHz), a couple of movies, and some normal stuff. Pretty good so far. I ended up spending a lot more on someone's Christmas gift than I expected, but it's good, she will like it (I have to give it to her next week, as I am not even in the same town).

Happy holidays!
 
  • #27
Big surprise! I got Jackie Evancho CDs from Tsu; actually her Christmas CD and a DVD of her performance I think on PBS's Great Performances.

Tsu got some clothing and a trip.

What was funny was the gift from my sister. I think the moderators play this game daily in the Astrophysics forum.

http://www.puzzlezoo.com/assets/photos/505695f.jpg
 
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  • #28
I asked my parents not to buy me anything this Christmas. But, I got some books with the money I got from a few relatives :) Got Introduction to mechanics Kleppner, Feynman's Tuva or Bust, and Don't you have time to think?, Space by DK, and Carl Sagans Cosmos DVDs! :D

A bit late now but, Merry Christmas and good health to come!
 
  • #29
My mother-in-law got me a fine bottle of single-malt scotch.

My wife built me a computer with a core i7-2600K, a GTX580 graphics card, and an SSD-accelerated hard drive.
 
  • #30
Danger said:
Hmmmmm... :cool:
Astro, that beard just becomes more regal every day. Do you have any owls living in it yet?

As most of you know, we militant Atheists don't celebrate. This year is the most successful one as regards ignoring the holiday. Even so, my cousin (who is also a member of PF) gave me new pants, T-shirts, a great zippered turtleneck sweater, and several pairs of Happy Foot socks. That has always been my favourite brand of socks, and I didn't even know that they were still on the market. I haven't seen any in over 25 years.
She also took me to lunch. We lunch together semi-regularly (she lives in a different city), but the deal is supposed to be that I pay since she does all of the driving and takes care of my business dealings. This time, she insisted upon footing the bill.
Also, a couple of weeks ago the mother of a good friend invited me to dine with them. I had to decline because I can't eat in an uncontrolled environment. It was okay with my cousin because she knows what happens. Luckily, the mother in question, who is much younger than me, by the bye, is a nurse who understood my problem. Go figure this one out: I adore this lad and his family, but they're dyed-in-the-wool Mormons and he's only 16. Anyhow, she knew why I couldn't go to their place, and then brought 3 days' worth of food to my door for me to eat at home. (I never realized before that red grapes are the 3rd best thing in life after sex and chocolate. Hmmmm... come to think of it, I'd eat them between the sex and the chocolate... hmmmm...)
I didn't know you were a militant atheist. Fantastic. Although I'm not a 'militant' but merely an 'ardent' atheist. Anyway, my girlfriend, who doesn't think I eat right, and who doesn't like my bad habits (I like to smoke cigarettes and drink alcoholic beverages) brings me food that she thinks I should be eating -- like Greek yogurt and lots of salad stuff. Which was, of course, my Christmas present from her.

Then there's the usual stuff: shirts, ties, pants, sweaters (none of which I need).

My best (male) friend gave me a computer. Why, I'm not sure. I guess he's just got a bit more money than he needs. It was appreciated. But, really, how many computers does one person need? (I've got, let's see, four (4) now.)

Bottom line, most of the stuff I got for Christmas is not going to get used much. But then the purchasing of it did help the economy.
 

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