Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!  I imagine many of you are in bed, finished playing Santa for your kids and leaving presents for the older children and the rest of your families.  I just got home from a Christmas Eve session at the local casino, which will be discussed further in a future post.

We did the family thing with my parents and sister earlier.  This included my grandmother (dad's mom), and my niece and nephew.  My brother and his wife live in Houston and weren't able to make it up, although they were in town for Thanksgiving.  We normally do Christmas with the family on Christmas Day, but my parents left earlier tonight to head down to Texas to see my brother, so we squeezed in dinner and opening gifts before they left.  My niece is 5, and my nephew is 13.  She is still at the age where it's uplifting seeing her joy at opening presents, even though she tears through them all without pause.  Once they're all opened, she finds the one she likes the most and pays attention to that, until she tires of it.  Then on to the next one.

We got her a children's monopoly game, called "My Monopoly".  I believe part of the allure is being able to personalize game tokens, streets, chance, and community chest cards.  It's actually pretty interesting.  Personally, I love monopoly.  I was always good at it, and board games in general.  Now that I'm older, and don't have time for board games, let alone anyone to play them with, I do miss them.  My wife also got her a pair of pajamas, and a gift card to a store called Justice.

For my nephew, who is a typical teenager and one of the hardest kids to buy a gift for, ever, we got a coat.  It was something he wanted and needed.  We also got him a gift card for Bass Pro Shops, which we have close by and he really enjoys.  He's an outdoors kid, likes hunting and fishing, as well as working in the garage with my dad, and he will certainly find something to use the gift card on.

I received a few small gifts, including a fitbit flex, a $25 gift card for amazon, and cash.  I had very few ideas to give to my parents and sister, and as such, they were forced to go the gift card and cash route.  I knew that ahead of time and am fine with it...I really don't need much, as I typically buy the items I need and want.

My wife and I decided not to exchange gifts, as we made a couple of weekend trips to Las Vegas and have another one coming up for Super Bowl weekend.  We are considering those trips our gifts to each other. 

In closing, I'd just like to say Merry Christmas again....and for those of you who don't celebrate Christmas, Happy Holidays!!  :-)