Merry Chrismas all! Happy Yule, God Jul, Lekker Jol, however you want to say it! 
I hope you all had a wonderful time and thought I'd share some photos of some humourously and seriously appropriate presents that I got this year.
First there was a packet of appropriately named chocolate treats that I got for myself, so not an amazingly appropriate accident from someone who doesnt play lotro :P
My mom has an antique/collectibles shop and came by a spanking new first edition (1979) of "A Tolkien Bestiary" by David Day.
Probably the most amazing Tolkien related book a fan could wish for after reading all the books, since it reads like an encyclopedia and is awesome for brushing up on lore The map is 2nd to none ive seen. This is a pretty large book (double A4 hardcover).
It has some wonderful background on every beast, race, area, settlement and just about everything you could want to know.
There is also some really great art (below is Tirion, the great coastal city of the Elves in the West). It has detailed colour works as well as lots of B&W sketchy stuff in between.
I totally recommend hunting this one down if you don't have it already!! I'm so happy 
Aside from Tolkien related presents, I got an Opinel (French carbon steel folding knife) and an oversized Lego Star Wars Darth Vader key ring with LED torch feet from Los Another great book on sattelite imagery of the world from my Dad, lots of ginger containing treats from Los' mom as well as a stone mortar and pestle for levelling my alchemy 
So what did everyone else get spoiled with?
this is what the bairns bought me for xmas
http://www.cyborggaming.com/fr/prod/mmo.htm
ahhh, bless'em.....it almost makes the £403,618 they've both cost me over the years seem worth it.
http://www.slideshare.net/AHamill/the-cost-of-bringing-up-a-child-in-the-uk
Heh, I already got both that book, and the cyborg mouse.
(although different editions).
This Christmas I got a R2D2 USB hub, and this cool game: http://shop.lego.com/en-FI/Creationary-3844
And some boring clothes...
Ooh bonka, i have creationary as well. It is really fun. Although it is easier for a 8 year old than for a grown up. When i start to make something i just think too logical :p.
On the other hand i got nothing. Except that i bought myself a new pc, since santa seemed to have got lost. I blame the american government with their radar tracking, must have totally confused the reindeer. Also the fact that i ate reindeer on christmas has totally nothing to do with it.
What does reindeer taste like?
Some seriously cool stuff there! That, erm, mouse ... well, didn't know such things existed!
Pretty frugal Xmas for us, money spent on my kids and nowt more really. Though last minute my Mum insisted I buy myself this www.heliguy.com/Electric-RC-Helicopters/Heliguy-Atom/Heliguy-Atom-FP/ which I'd been hankering after for a while, but decided I'd leave till next year when, hopefully, I get back in to the land of the wage slave!
I have had a similar helicopter, but you need a good sized room to fly in. The air flow gets messed up near the walls, so keep away them from those. Other than that, it is a great little machine.
Oh, what happened to my helicopter, I hear you ask? It flew it outdoors, on fire, for awhile.
This thing works great in my lounge, which isn't particularly big. It's very stable, well trimmed, and easy to fly with two modes - one for indoors, one for outside on very still days.
So far only a few crashes of varying degrees and no damage whatsoever. For such a tiny thing (it's 210mm long from the tip of the prop to the tail) it's suprisingly resilient. Loving it! I used to have a much larger heli which was, in comparison, a total bugger to fly!
If anyone's up for this sort of thing I'd highly recommend Heliguy - excellent service and superb machines. There are many similar 'copters to mine out there, but none as good (I think). And if you put mine side by side to one of the infra-red jobs there's simply no comparison.
I'm well chuffed!
Ms Santa apparently was a good Santa this year and found this in her stocking :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7UlE-o8DQQ
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