What I did over my Christmas vacation

A whole lot of nothing. Or at least that was the initial plan. Nothing becomes very time consuming. You can spend a whole day doing nothing and end up very very tired. I guess it's all about the nothing that you choose to do. I read some (expect some book blogs), surfed the web a lot, played with my new Dell laptop and DVD abilities and generally hung out with my family.

Main A/V gift of the season - Slingbox. Very fun little HD Slinging utility that I am just now starting to get going. Plus it's just so darn cute. In combination with the new 5 LNB receiver and box from DirecTV going in today with even more HD the DeVries family hockey cheering channel device will always be available.

Fun gift of the season - Roboraptor. Already found a set of forums with methods to hack them. What fun. One person even has his breathing fire. My wife, understanding her boys, got one for each boy... me and my son.

Best Gift by proxy - My son got a Lego NXT. This is the ultimate Son and Geek-Dad gift. Robotic Legos. With 4 sensor types, 3 servo motors and BlueTooth controllability its the ultimate in building block programming.

Of course there were other fun gifts as well but these were my immediate favorites.