Christmas was very good to me this year. Firstly, it's always good to be able to spend quality time with my wife, which I am not able to do as much as I would like. Also, my dad and brother came here for a visit, which does not happen often enough. I typically see them about once a year. The weekend was spent eating great food -- including some live Maine lobsters that were a gift from my brother-in-law's family, and which we finished off tonight. After an event-filled weekend, my wife and I spent all day Monday hanging out watching videos -- she had gotten me 5 Eddie Izzard dvds for Christmas. If you've never seen Eddie, you are missing one of the great comedians of our time.

We also gave each other some really great gifts. After many many years of banging around on a beat-up cheap acoustic guitar, I finally got a nice one -- a Taylor 415, which is a jumbo bodied acoustic that sounds great. I got to pick it out, and was leaning towards a Taylor 214, but the night we went to pick it up the store was out of stock. As luck would have it, a used 415 had just come in, and was for sale for about half of the retail price, with a case AND a custom-added pickup. It looked brand new, so I got it. It sounds awesome, and is a pleasure to play.

I also got a new flat screen monitor -- a Samsung SyncMaster 204t. 20.1 inches, with a 1600x1200 display. I've been waiting for a good price on a decent flat screen. Most of the cheap ones only offer 1280x1024, which is not very usable for web development with Dreamweaver. This one came at just the right time -- and has a 3 year warranty. The picture is great (I can finally read the type on my screen without squinting) and as an added bonus I can now open my curtains -- no glare whatsoever. Oh, and I reclaimed some of my desk space. Needless to say, I'll never go back to a regular tube monitor.

My wife got a new flat-screen TV for the kitchen/living area. Actually, it's for both of us. ;-) Microcenter had a great deal on the WinBook 32" widescreen for about half the price of an equivalent Sony, with no noticable difference in picture. I typically prefer name brands, but this one was perfect for the space (most were too wide), has a great picture and a great look. Again, we can now watch TV with the curtains and blinds open, whereas with our old TV we had to close everything or we would see nothing but sun and windows on the screen. LCDs are great.