Maybe you won’t know till the 25th but I know already that I’m getting:
a nightgown, a Futuro wrist guard, olives stuffed with blue cheese, coffee, a tumbler, monogrammed notecards, Olive Garden gift cards, chocolate brandy beans.
There are a few more that I actually don’t know about. …
I’m getting mostly DVDs.
So far, I’ve gotten: a portable DVD player and accessories, a 5" Henckels Santoku kitchen knife, an emergency charger/light/radio thingy (earthquake gear), and a stack of lottery scratchers. I’m pretty sure my mother is giving us a gift card from Bed, Bath and Beyond, which we will put towards a new saute pan. Not a bad haul so far. 
An exquisite bottle of Gold Medal-winning olive oil from California Olive Ranch, a dinner of wild Copper River salmon grilled on the barbie with herbs cut fresh from the garden, home-made Spanish rice made with the same olive oil. (Man, I have to get a baguette! That’s some good oil.) And home-made guacamole. Plus lodging for my L.A. trip, and schleppage around town. 
‘Something I think you’ll like’, which will arrive Tuesday (probably).
Two pictures (one pornographic, one not), something which I deduce from the packaging to be either chocolate or tea, and “something that I know you’ll find useful”, which is still in the post.
When they say that, say "WOW!!! A whole set of new DeWalt power tools!
I couldn’t make it back to Long Island for the first time this year, and I can tell my mom tried to make up for it by sending me lots of stuff: so much clothing I havent even finished unpacking yet; season 3 of the Simpson’s; Seasons 1+2 of Family Guy; and a pair of Sennheiser HD 590 open Aire headphones (I asked for a good pair of headphones, but these alone were twice our usual Santa budget growing up). I felt terrible when I called to thank her.
Fidy bucks from nanny and poppy, (which is a lot, considering they have 26 grandkids).
Haven’t gotten presents from my sisters yet, but since I haven’t even had the time to go shopping for them yet, it’s okay.
My daughter made me sugar cookies! OH not just sugar cookies but the best damned sugar cookies in the universe!
The only other thing I’m receiving is the joy of seeing my kids’ faces in the morning. That’s the best gift I could get.
No really. I’m serious.
I don’t know what Stonebow got for me, yet, but we have exchanged gifts with the rest of our families. My one big surprise was a Ben Pearson Recurve bow from my father. It’s beautiful! I’ve also gotten wine, a new handbag, some lovely cameo jewelry, assorted candles/bath gels/lotions, and new purple fuzzy pajamas!
I got a new 'puter - a HP Media Center. And a Kodak Easy Share camera.
I received this.
I also got some cookies, a shirt, a tie and a flashlight.
A copy of Watchmen from my brother, hurray! A couple of pairs of earings, new headphones, a gorgeous book of National Geographic photos and US$50, to add to my overseas stash.
I’ve had friends come back from travelling in the past wek as well - one from Thailand & Vietnam, the other from Chile/Peru, and they bought me things too! Lots of earings and silver jewlery plus duty free vodka!
I’m not exactly receiving them, as I’ve had them for over a month now, but they were this year’s gifts. They’re all DVDs, and can be divided into two camps:
The Opera Camp:
Die Fledermaus, the Strauss operetta, performed at Glyndebourne. I like Fledermaus, it’s immensely fun. I confess that I’ve not actually watched it yet, but I have seen it on Discovery HD (same performance), so I know I’ll like it when I do. Two-disc set.
The Fairy Queen, Purcell’s semi-opera, performed by The English National Opera (actually, that’s the only performance available on video, so no real need to say that). The plot might be so vague and confused that it’s virtually non-existent, but The Fairy Queen contains some of my absolute favorite music by Purcell. It’s a very modern performance, with minimal scenery, outlandish costumes, creative props (I doubt old Henry thought to include a magic washing machine back in 1692), and a tremendous amount of cross-dressing. I love it. Thomas Randle doesn’t sing Oberon very well (he’s not wretchedly awful, but he’s definitely the weakest), but the others are fantastic.
…and on the other side of the field,
The Silent Camp:
“The Garbo Silents”, a collection of three Greta Garbo films: The Temptress (1926), Flesh and the Devil (1926), and The Mysterious Lady (1928), plus the fragment of The Divine Woman (1928) that still survives. All of them are well accompanied, and each has a most interesting and entertaining commentary track. Also, The Temptress and Flesh and the Devil both have their alternate slightly-happier endings as extras. My only complaint is how few films are included. Garbo made more silents than she did talkies, this isn’t an adequate sampling. I’d have liked to see A Woman of Affairs included, for one.
“D.W. Griffith Masterworks”, a substantial box set of Griffith films, of course including Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916), and also Broken Blossoms (1919), Orphans of the Storm (1921), and a great number of shorts. Lots of extras, but none all that exceptional. I’m disappointed in the accompaniment, it’s little better than what you might find out of a $1 DVD bin.
Different From the Others (1919), the first gay-rights film and probably the first movie to have an openly gay sympathetic character, full stop. It’s my first viewing of the film (everything else I’ve mentioned so far I was already familiar with), and it’s amazingly up-front. Compared to other gay-themed silents I’ve seen, it doesn’t at all opt to take a subtle approach or wuss out at the end. It impressed me enough to make a website about it, after finding a dearth of information on it already on the Web (I’m hesitant to give a link–it’s not a business at all, but it might still come off smelling spam-ish–but do ask me for the URL if you care). The accompaniment is just a piano, but it’s fitting and not distracting (and not just a loop of electronically played public domain classical pieces, I’m-looking-at-you-Griffith-Masterworks). No extras to speak of.
Now, I suggest imagining the two camps standing on opposite ends of the field and preparing for battle. One attacks with song, the other returns with a volley of pantomime. Who will be victorious?
Added with the stuff I got myself this year, it’s been a good haul, I’d say.
We’ve had Christmas here!
I got an English style electric kettle, very new and hard to find in Japan, and my lovely hub decided I must have one. It is very nice.
As a family we got Robert Sabuda’s dinosaur popup book so I reckon I could say I got that, too.
Two calendars and a new back door from my parents!
(So not a lot to unwrap but a significantly warmer and more secure Christmas than the last one.)
My wife gave me a D-link DSM-320 wireless media thingy.
Pretty good score for someone who doesn’t do Christmas.
My family has a longstanding habit of taking lists of my requests and then ignoring them. No one knows why this happens. I know what I asked for: one book (The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles) and several CDs (Elephant by the White Stripes, Songs in the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder, Doolittle by the Pixies, and Charles Mingus’s Pithecanthropus Erectus or Mingus Ah Um or The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady). I may get some of those things since I was so specific, but I wouldn’t be stunned if I didn’t. I also know that we’ve ordered a bunch of Richard Pryor stuff.
Lots of cool stuff, but the favorite is quilting fabric from hubby’s youngest son – the now 25-year-old who was the most lazy, spoiled, self-centered kid I’d ever met when he was a teenager.
I guess a corollary (sp?) gift is that he turned out so well.
Just received a few surprises as well: perfumed body lotion and shower gel, and some cash. And a gift basket of goodies from the neighbors.
Bro’s family arrives soon, bearing more gifts.
I was definitely spoiled this year:
A really nice outfit–a fringed blue cardigan, a sleeveless white T-shirt, and a pretty stone necklace I’m wearing right now, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb by U2, two posters, A Short History of Myth by Karen Armstrong, The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood, The Other Boleyn Girl and The Constant Princess by Philippa Boyen, Access All Areas by Ninjalicious, The Search for Nefertiti by Joann Fletcher, two gift cards for Indigo (a bookstore), one for The Gap, and $100 from my grandmother…
…and from the lovely and sweet Anaamika, a figurine, a bit of scent from the Body Shop (my favourite kind!) and some chocolate from New York. She’s fabulous!
Christmas is so very the best. 
I did have one surprise today. My mother and I went antiquing a couple weeks ago, and I had picked up and commented on a random assortment of about 30 stereopticon cards. I have a stereopticon and always look for interesting new cards, but $27 was too much for me. I spent my money on an enormous poster of Valentino that I just had to have instead.
She apparently went back and got them the next day. I usually despise surprises, but that was nice.