Christmas Wishes

Now that it's too late for Vicki to read this list and think she needed to do anything about it (since Christmas is less than 2 hours away), here are some of the items that I'd enjoy receiving tomorrow morning. And that's no reflection on whatever great stuff I actually end up getting, of course! It's just fun to put this in writing before opening the cloth bags and re-used cardboard boxes in the morning. So here we go:

1) The 49-Up DVD collection. Michael Apted's amazing series of documentaries that follows the lives of a group of British children, checking in with them every 7 years as they become adolescents and then adults. The format is brilliant and the execution, in the segments I've actually seen, has been heart-breakingly perfect. If I don't receive this for Christmas, it'll be something I'll buy for myself shortly thereafter.

2) Half Life 2: Episode One for the PC. Somehow I missed this when it came out, but all of the year end gaming reviews gushed about how great a follow-up to HL2 it was. Since I absolutely loved HL2, I'm sure this'll be a treat.

3) Some cool old comics. I know Vicki bought a few in Chicago this year, as usual, and also true to form, I've done my best to forget what she picked up. I'm always accusing her of losing some of them upstairs (really just misplacing them temporarily) since it often seems like long periods of time (years) pass between her buying them and me getting them, but that could also just be my imagination or faulty memory. I'm confident I'll get something good in this category.

4) A new book by someone I like. I always look forward to new 'grown-up' reading material in addition to the comics, and Vicki's got a good track record in this area.

5) A new bike helmet. I actually know this one's coming, as she wanted me to size it before she bought it. But considering the sad state of my current headgear, I'm really looking forward to having something more comfortable on my noggin when I start biking again in the New Year.

6) Something completely unexpected. Most years she finds at least one present that's completely out of left field and that I never would've predicted. As you'd imagine, sometimes it's a winner and sometimes.. not so much. The classic case of the latter was the very expensive foosball table she gave me for Christmas not long after we moved into this house, under the mistaken impression that foosball was the table game that I had such nostalgic feelings about from my childhood (it was actually tabletop hockey, naturally, with the players you slide up and down the ice and the goalies that go side-to-side). The important thing, though, is that she always looks for that special surprise, year after year. How lucky does that make me? (Damn lucky.)