I still have Rich and his father’s gift sitting in my living room, waiting to be delivered. I bought them food for Christmas. It’s what I bought most people this year, and with age determine is often a winner since it’s hard to determine what kind of “stuff” people really want in their lives, but most are happy with food from my experience.

I got an iPod shuffle from the guy I’ve been dating, along with a Hickory Farms set — which I am also fully stoked about. I’d been debating buying a shuffle even though I have a nano, just cause I could use it when running, and clip it to my shirt. I debated buying one this year, and luckily I didn’t since he got me one. The Hickory Farms sausage set is just cool. Even as a little kid I thought they were “winnahs!”

I bought him the gentle giant r2d2 princess leia animated maquette i wrote about in an earlier post, a volcom polo shirt, and a gift pack of food from wholesale unlimited. We hung out on Christmas Eve until 12:01am, and opened or gifts together. I wasn’t sure if he’d like the star wars gift since Rich said it was both “geeky” and “cool” and I knew this guy used to like Star Wars a lot, but that recently he’d become more into Star Trek… so I was a little worried. I like the way they rendered Princess Leia in this one. I still have an extra one in the box, and I’m scared to open it. There are 8.500 that were produced, which isn’t a terrible rare number, I imagine. The Padme Animated Maquette is going for $300 to $1000 that I’ve seen online. That version came out a few years back, and I thinkthere were less Padme’s produced.

My sister and her boyfriend gave me cash, a gift certificate to Black Angus for $50 (We can use it at Cattle Company here in Hawaii) and some candy.

My mom gave me cash, and I got some food from people, as well as a Consolidated movie theater movie pass, popcorn and drink coupon, which I really appreciated a lot. The price of a movie in Hawaii is about $9 now. I imagine it costs as much or more in other states. It just seems a bit pricey, though I do like the experience of going to the theater to see certain movies.

This year both my mom and my sister got sick. It was kinda weird. My mom actually had to go to the Pali Momi emergency room on Friday cause while they were out, she started feeling really sick, so they ended up there. We don’t quite know what happened, but she has to watch herself over the break. My sister’s stomach started acting up on her yesterday, and so she’s a little worried she might be getting the flu. Also a bummer that my sister had to go in to work today. She’s a medical technologist, and there is some maintenance she needs to run on the machine(s) there so other people can use them. She’s there right now, and left shortly after opening her gifts.

I feel healthy enough, except for the feeling of dread about going to work tomorrow.

Right now I’m charging up the iPod shuffle, and plan to go running today. I am kinda feeling that anxiety again about having to go to work tomorrow. I really need to find myself a new job.

I had a good Christmas this year, and am happy overall, just my job causes me real grief. Hopefully things get better though. Maybe I’ll get a new and better job this year? Who knows?

If you’re reading this, whether or not you celebrate Christmas, hope you had a good year in 2006!

Less than an hour ago, I purchased the Gentle Giant R2D2 and Princess Leia animated maquette from scifigenre.com for $59.95.

Since I saw this on the cover of a magazine in Suncoast Video, mid-2006, I wanted it.

*On a side-note, the guy I’m dating went to Philladelphia a couple of weeks ago, and brought me back this 5-inch kozik labbit which I keep on my desk at work:

This little guy comes with a gas mask, popsicle, leet and hot dog which can be switched out. The original smorkin labbit series featured little Kozik labbits with cigarettes in their mouths, but in light of the recent anti-smoking laws which went into effect on November 16th in Hawaii, perhaps this younger, more innocent-seeming series came at the right time.

Collecting vinyl figures is kinda a new thing for me, but it gets hard cause they can clutter-up a place, so I try not to buy too much. But it is a weakness of mine, and they make me smile.