There are several new toys i am playing with after another glorious xmas. There were the regular (too be expected) gifts, you know the socks and underwear, this years must have holiday DVD (Pirates 3) and all the other gifts that i have come to expect. However, there were some pretty interesting presents as well and gifts that will have me busy for the upcoming weeks doing things that i really don't need to do.

Anyway, below is the top 5:

5 - Tim Burton: A Child's Garden of Nightmares - It is rare that a book can scratch the top 5 on a holiday gift list, but I am a sucker for everything he has done and am pretty excited to read this one. Probably will not go down as the best book i have ever read, but no doubt it will be solid.

4 - Pearl Jam - Immagine in Cornice: Picture in a Frame DVD - Everything they have ever done has been unbelievable, Every DVD has been well shot and film quality is excellent. I have yet to watch this one, but i am confident that it will rock my socks off.

3 - Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii - Everything i have read says that it is the greatest game to ever be released for the platform. That is why it is tough to rank it as number 3 b/c there is a pretty good chance that i get more use out of this gift than any i received, (well probably besides the socks and underwear) but it is only a game and while it will give me plenty of joy, it doesn't have quite the same wow factor that the following gifts have.

2 -XM Radio Xpress plug and play. This was a very strange gift. It was not on my list and i had never mentioned the fact that i was interested in having this toy. Yet, as i was driving home from work tired of the CD's in my car, not wanting to deal with what was on the radio, and pissed cause my AM reception sucks... sometimes a guy just wants to listen to a little bit of sports talk radio, i had a strange feeling in my gut like that might be what i was getting from my girlfriend.

It was strange cause i was dead on and i went from having no interest in satellite radio, to wanting to get it, to owning it all within about 4 hours. I am still in the install phase of this toy, but i am looking forward to it. Probably the coolest aspect of this gift was what my girlfriend told me after i opened it. it went something like this - "You are impossible to shop for because i always know you want electronics, but i also know you have everything already, and what you don't have you are want to pick out for yourself because you are much more educated in that stuff..."

I took that as a compliment...

1 -Canon PowerShot SD1000 Digital Elph - I was in desperate need of a new digital camera. Not only was mine old and didn't have the features i was looking for, it also was much to bulky to carry around and use as often as i should. Not a problem now. The SD1000 should be the perfect put in my pocket and point and click camera for every day use.

I had gotten out of the habit of taking pictures due to lack of ease out of my other bulkier camera, but have already begun using this one and having it readily available whenever i want it. So far that has meant getting a lot of random pictures of the dog or random drunk pictures of friends... Yes i know these are not topics that are all that exciting, but regardless i am happy and feel that part of my creative side has been restored.

All in all a very happy holiday season, but there was a complete lack of DS inspired gifts... Oh well, these should keep me plenty busy for the foreseeable future