but I do choose most of it myself;

Kindle
Springsteen Darkness box set
Zig Zag concert box set
Old 97,s- The Grand Theatre
Darrell Scott-A Crooked Road
Mose Allison-The Way Of The World
Various Soxs & stuff & a cyclocross bike to replace my knackered one.

I got a 1902 map of the London Electric Railway, which sounds like it ought to be a nice gift, but it's an A4 photocopy in a cheap plastic frame, and a lemon squeezer. Happy days.

I didn't buy the FPO a kindle as I thought she would think I bought it for myself. I'm glad I didn't as she bought one for me!

I have been waiting for ages to play COD Black ops - it took an eternity to load and it is so slow compaired to the previous version. I hope it isn't made so that it is really for quad core processors I have a duo core. I will try again later but so far I'm not impressed. Anyone else had prob's with COD Black op's?

2 more present-going stints still to come, but so far:

Apple TV
Excellent framed diagram of the taxonomy of rap names
"Freedom" by Jonathan Franzen
"Kitchen Diaries" by Nigel Slater
Wellies

I'll keep you updated!

Got some great gifts this year:
CD's
The Silver Seas - Chateau Revenge
Jenny and Johnny - I'm Having Fun Now
The Go Betweens - Best of
Nouvelle Vague - Best of
The Psychedelic Furs - Classic Albums series Box Set

DVD's
Alan Bennett at the Beeb
The Day Today
American Buffalo

Books
Generation A - Douglas Coupland
Austerity Britain - David Kynaston

Plus beer and chocolate and a pair of Homeys!

Very happy

Moog print
Bruce Promise box
40 Years Of Doonesbury tome
Framed 1948 Land-Rover advert
Stowa Fleiger watch (although I ordered it for myself some time ago so hardly a surprise)

A nice red coffee maker plus a rapidly-depleting box of espresso capsules.

And some other stuff.

I'm as happy as the professor of happiness at Happy College, Oxbridge.

I'm delighted with mine! I'll just stick to the media of particular "massive" interest:

DVDs
-Mad Men Series 1-3 (I haven't seen so much as a clip yet but believe I'm in for a treat)
-R.E.M. Live In Austin Texas
-Peep Show Series 6
-Star Trek (the new film, not seen it yet)

CDs
-Graham Nash "Songs For Beginners" special edition
-David Crosby "If Only I Could Remember My Name"
-Stills Young Band "Long May You Run"
-Neil Young "Sugar Mountain" live cd/dvd
-The Duckworth Lewis Method
-The Cure "The Top" special edition
-Mark Chadwick "All The Pieces"

Books
-Live Of Pi (nice hardback illustrated edition)
-Steve Martin "Born Standing Up"
-100 Best Selling Albums Of The 80s
-Decades Of Our Lives: 80s

Also getting a nice Midi keyboard, though Santa's late with delivering it.

On Paper
Kevin Cummins' book of Joy Division Photos,
'Life' by Keef
Electric Eden by Rob Young,
a lovely book about old Railway stations (amazing how grand Euston was before they rebuilt it)

On DVD
Richard Herring's 'Hitler Moustache'
Ricky Gervais new one
'The Trip'

On Compact Disc
HJHs White Album (remastered)

Too cold to venture out but quite happy to stay in, snug and warm with that lot, the GF, an enormous surplus of chocolates, bottle of port and a nice bit of stilton.

Swarowski EL 8.5x42 binoculars
Bottle of scotch

A few more bits but those two easily the best.

tipped into the laptop by the toddler. Not sure if I'm getting a new computer or a new child yet.

Save it to last.
Er Indoors got me from ebay
Don't Bug me Baby-Milton Allen (RCA Victor 45)
I'm Ready-Hank Mizell (King 45)
A new Back tyre for the Triumph Bonneville T120(For the Bike nerds,a 65).Not wrapped.
I bought her Macbook air which will have to be paid for by selling a few Northern Soul 45s.

My Mum sent me all the Cliff films that came free with the Daily Mail and the one that broke my heart,a picture of our family dog from 1979.In those days not many cameras around so photos of him were scarce.After a Strange start to the day (see Patrick's "a Crowther family xmas" thread) this made up for all of it. A tear was shed.
Scanner not working,no photo but have some Milton Allen,(Cliff's version ain't bad)

and I bought myself a copy of 'Lost London', a magnificent visual record of The Smoke.

Ministry of Sound "Electronic 80's Anthems on CD

A new watch

Stephen Fry Chronicles

Rolf Harris "A Life In Art"

Oh and Danny Dyers Funniest Football Bloopers from the boys football team

box set. I have to admit that I faked surprise and delight. Never really fancied it. Anything to look forward to?

I got a Kindle!
And the new David Sedaris.
And a huuuuuuuuge box of lovely bath treats.
And a box of violet and rose creams.
And a book on how to play the ukulele (alas, without an actual ukulele)

I've had a wonderful, wonderful couple of days. I'm very happy.

A new watch
Simon Pegg's autobiography
The new Roald Dahl biography
The all important socks, toiletries and selection box.
Imagine- The John Lennon DVD
A framed photo of two of my nieces- which I was delighted with.

Will be visiting my mother tomorrow, to see if Santa has dropped anything off there.

Material schmossessions.
My top Christmas treat was Mark's sister turning up on the Seasonal episode of Peep Show. (*Adopts Homer Simpson voice* Mmmmmmmmmm Sarah Corrigan).

(The above is subject to change as I haven't heard Wasp Star or watched Toy Story 3 yet).

Another watch (my weakness) Seiko Black Monster
Frasier S1-11 box set (Cheers, IMHO, is far & away the finest piece of TV ever made, but I've never watched Frasier, bizarrely. Am I in for a treat?)
ABC's Lexicon Of Love (Deluxe Edition)
And some wedge towards the new home cinema speakers I spunked my overtime on last week.

but nothing that got me really excited.

4 books ( + one receipt so I can exchange the one I already had )
A bottle of shower cream of a cheap brand
A small bottle of fake champagne for New Years Eve
A homemade snackbowl in ceramic, shaped like a cat
Some embroidery yarn and needles
In total eight boxes of chocolate ( I don't really like chocolate that much, and I was just diagnosed with diabetes a month ago, so I've already given most of them away )
Two new ornaments for my "fabulous Swedish Christmas tree"

Still waiting to exchange gifts with my best friend and her daughter, so I still might get something I really like.
But I'm happy because most of the gifts that I gave were big hits with the recipients, especially the kids' presents. And my brother and his family really seem to appreciate the annual CDs that I burn for them, with all of my favourite songs of the year on them ( this year I gave them four CDs, four themes, I just have a hard time stopping once I've started... )
But when we discussed them I learned that they have never taken out the ( not so ) little booklets with interesting facts and crappy jokes about every track that I always print for every CD I make...they just assumed it was only the tracklist and never bothered to check. Having been up until four this morning making this years' booklets I felt a little faint on hearing that.
But, thankfully, hearing about them made my brother very happy, so I hope he will read them this year.
( Besides, making CDs and booklets for them is my favourite pre-Christmas activity anyway, I probably make them mostly for my own amusement anyway. )

The GLW got us a pair of tickets to see Crowded House here:
http://www.alana.co.nz/
I plan on drinking my own body weight in some of the finest Sauvignon known to mankind.

I also received a BBQ set from my father-in-law, two pairs of boxers from the kids and as has been noted elsewhere, I bought myself a very nice Gibson Hummingbird.

Busy running them in as I type with a little Julie Murphy,unfortunately the joy at the Hovel has been muted this Christmas.The Aged P not feeling too well,so I've had a hefty dose of worry as a gift from the fates.No complaints though,best foot forward.Happy New Year y'all.

having been sent letters threatening job losses (90 days notice) just before the end of December, Christmas was cancelled for adults in our family by and large so not a great deal here. We had a good dinner and swapped christmas cards and a good time none the less.

- A new winter coat, which is just as well since the cuffs on my old one are completely shot away. I also got a hat and a scarf.

- Two different types of a shirt! - A long sleeved shirt and a T-shirt

- 6 pairs of socks (two are apparently good for 1000 miles, which means that if I wore them everyday they would last me about 20 weeks).

- An Admiral Ackbar action figure. There's a scene towards the end of Return of the Jedi when the rebel forces mount a kamikaze attack on the Imperial Super Star Destroyer, sending it veering out of control so that it impales the side of the Death Star II like a ceremonial dagger. Even before the inevitable collision, as the rebels on the bridge of one of the capital ships erupt in spontaneous celebration, Ackbar bows his head in silent regret for the enemy lives that will be lost. He's one of the unsung heroes of the original Star Wars trilogy. I also got an R2D2 figure commemorating the occasion when he was forced to serve drinks to alien douchebags on Jabba the Hutt's sail barge.

- The world's most disturbing mug (see below). Just out of shot, a hare is dining on cheese cubes that have been impaled on the spines of a hedgehog.

- Two Cadbury's selection boxes. Two! (This is the only thing that I ask for at Christmas).

- A Cadbury's Bliss bar - The most unpleasant thing I've had in my mouth in months.

- Some German biscuits.

- A £15 itunes gift card. I've never bought anything on itunes before, so this is new territory.

- Two packets of teapigs awesome tea temples: Darjeeling Earl Grey and Peppermint Leaves.

- A Town Called Panic DVD

- A wooden owl on a wooden swing.

- A Hope and Greenwood organic apple pie chocolate bar.

- Plus, all being well in the new year, I get to go up to Alton's Garden Centre in the spring and get some new house plants.

was my present from the extended family Secret Santa.
Inbetweeners box set, "The Understudy" by David Nicholls and a couple of tops from the GLW (unfortunately one was a XXL and I'm a few sizes smaller than that.
Lots of wine, toiletries and scarves from the pupils parents.

Pavlov's Dog's Echo & Boo CD
Paul Smith gloves
Winter golf gloves
A pen that wires upsiade down
Money - but we spent so much on the kids that I don't feel I can spend any of it on myself

and via an internet music board Secret Santa - a book on the 3 Mile Island near disaster and some jerk sauce. What the **** was he thinking? That's the last time I do Secret Santa!

Luckily I bougt some eldest daughter the Miranda DVD and the GLW the Thick Of It box (plus some earrings and Pandora bits and a digital photo frame), so all is not lost.

And I've had a bad headache for 4 days and I don't even drink. I'm thinking of starting.

pseudo-intellectual piffle dressed up as enigmatic musing" I harrumphed.

"Yes - I saw it and thought of you" smiled The Light.

I gave her my fiercest Paddington stare.

The book in question was Nassim Nicholas Taleb's The Bed of Procrustes

two books about Edward I and Edward III - I'm on a middle ages jag
two books about motorbike journeys - Mike Carter and Lois Pryce - I just bought a motorbike
motorbike gloves (see above)
slightly suspect leather shoulder bag from my Mother
Rory Gallagher story - already watched, brilliant
Ultimate Blackadder
Tubby Santa chocs

Amazingly, no music. So I just ordered Dave Gilmore and the Orb as a pressie from me. My brother fondly imagines he's going to copy it at New Year. He isn't.

- A new Seiko watch (wife'd been bugging my to change my 15year old Tag for ages and finally relented)
- A new Englnad Rugby Shirt (the grey one that they actually win when wearing !)
- Tom Sharpe / The Wilt Inheritance
- Nick Hornby / Juliet Naked
- The Gerald Scarfe "Making Of The Wall" book
- A couple of iTunes vouchers (requested instead of the usual Amazon ones as teh Singapore iTunes store still only does apps).

The Coals to Newcastle box set - which looks and feels great.

Three books: Stuart Murdoch's Diarys; Nileism - all about the Blue Nile; and just to show that I know there is life outside of Scotland, the Bedside Guardian.

Oh, and Madmen Series 3.

'Er did buy me a proper hat - a trilby no less! Probably take me until March to muster up the courage to wear the thing outdoors...
However, the bad news is that it doesn't fit. The good is that it's too small,from which I deduce that she doesn't think I'm a big'ead - or is she perchance suggesting that I have a wee small brain?...

... at the Birmingham NIA in June next year. 2 tickets from the GLW - wonder who I should take with me?

I did very very well.

'History of Britain' DVD Box set
'Crossroads Guitar Festival' DVD
Jamie's 30 Minute Meals (contains some frankly odd concoctions but there are some definite must-trys too)
'In The City' by Paul Du Noyer
'In Europe' by Geert Mak
An immensely cool Fat Face scarf
A brown 'Metropol' Filofax.

Plus - as a bonus present to ourselves - two tickets to see Neil Innes on 5th Feb.

God bless us one and all.

Saw them a couple of weeks before xmas at the annual Rock with laughter gig at Birmingham NEC. Only had a short set but I was very impressed. My wife got me two of their cd's - It sounds as if Down in the tube station, Anarchy in the UK, The Model, Ace of Spades etc played on mandolin and Northumrian pipes/flute would be awful. It is actually really good and I am hooked.
Also Separado the Gruff Rhys dvd about his search for a distant uncle in Patagonia.
Tickets to see Stackridge at the Robin 2 in May.
Couple of shirts, couple of bottles of Scotch.
An a joint family present that I bought for the 3 of us - round trip flight tickets to Berlin to see family in the Summer school holidays.

A free Bruce Springsteen concert: http://www.tauthal.com/Weekly%20Broadcast.html

Now have the 4 albums that were my first big musical loves all now nicely framed in downstairs loo...

Specials: Specials
Bowie: Scary Monsters
Tubeway Army: Replicas
Human League: Dare (Loved Travelogue too but Dare was poptastic)

My brother-in-law bought me Keith Jarrett's Paris/London - Testament 3 CD set.
If you like Jarrett's solo concerts, this is a treat.

Xmas book-wise, I am looking forward to getting into Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, once I have finished Michael Caine's The Elephant to Hollywood.

A CD of Albanian piano music apparently recorded by someone with my actual name, courtesy of my brother (he'd apparently looked up the names of his nearest and dearest in Amazon and had struck gold with me. It moved me to tears, I tell you). Weirdly, I'm enjoying it - the folksiness reminds me a bit of Beirut (the band).

received this for christmas - what a top present

We are a bit long in the tooth for this malarky, and there are an awful lot of us so it can get expensive, however I did get the odd knick-knack, like...

Books
The Fry Chronicles
Breakfast At Tiffany's
Finest Years : Churchill As Warlord 1940-45 by Max Hastings

DVDs
The Complete Black Books
Taken
Not The Nine O'Clock News

Plus a shirt from the mammy. And the odd bottle of wine here and there.

And going back to books, firstly I got Alisdair Gray's gorgeous A Life In Pictures and secondly my sister got me the new Larousse Gastronomique, self-styled World's Greatest Cookery Encyclopaedia, which is this brute of a thing in its own slip case. I have bought it for people before but have never had my own copy.I was even nervous taking the wrapping off. If I ever need to casserole a caribou then this is the book I need.

No CDs though. My lot never know what to get me, no matter what hints I drop, so had to get the Mavis, the Soul Jazz Krautrock compo and the rest myself.

was the simplest. It was a scrapbook made by my 8 year old daughter of all our favourite things - jokes, days out, photos, stuff we've done and some blank pages to fill with things we are going to do. Attached to the book was a Christmas card she'd made with a poem she'd written called "My Pal Daddy". In my opinion, it may be the best poem ever written.

I hugged her tightly and for quite some while. Probably too tightly and too long as I needed to compose myself without giving away to uncontrolled sobbing. "Are you ok Daddy?" she asked. "I am your pal remember". At which point I almost had to leave the room.

Luckily, my 5 year old boy who has little truck with sentiment was on hand before things got a bit too much like The Waltons. "Well, Josh is my best friend. He's got an Optimus Prime Megazord I really like to play with", he said as a matter of fact and slightly accusingly of Santa who had failed to deliver something similar to him.

Love and time are ultimately the only things you can give your children and although the first is a never ending resource, the second is hopelessly finite.

Thank you Merchant City Music Glasgow.

We're all 50-ish now and getting the band back together after 20 odd years.

Pathetic mid life grasping I know, but much less dangeruos than a motorcycle.

For some lovely reason I was given 3 bottles of fine single malt whisky.

Glenmorangie 10 y/o
Glenfiddich 12 y/o
Karuizawa 12 y/o

http://www.whisky-expert24.com/karuizawa-12-years-old-40_6522_3.htm

Cheers everyone. Oh and I have just polished off a bottle of M&S mulled wine. With fruity cheese.

The M&S mulled wine is very good this year, I've had a few bottles myself and added a few extra ingrediants to it. Enjoy your Glenfiddich, my favourite Malt.

Coals to Newcastle - as someone wrote before on this site, it's £50 for a box as I had all the music already. But it was still top of my wants list

Framed 1960s sheet music for 19th Nervous Breakdown

The latest Lloyd Cole and Edwin Collins LPs

a dozen crime novels

and some other odds and sods

No books for the first time in living memory, despite dropping a few hints for a few ("Matterhorn", "Union Atlantic", "Zeitoun").

CDs
"The Suburbs" - Arcade Fire
"Vivarium" - Twin Atlantic
"The Family Jewels" - Marina and the Diamonds
"One Life Stand" - Hot Chip

DVDs
Series Five of "The Shield"
Stewart Lee's "If You Prefer A Milder Comedian, Please Ask For One"

A very nice Fossil Travel Wallet as Mrs P is constantly exasperated with me misplacing travel documents
A scarf and gloves that were apparently from The Dog as she feels sorry for me having to walk her in the recent freezing temperatures. Bless 'er.
A mini version of the classic BigTrak toy, which the Dog and the Cat both hate having been chased round the living room by it.
A large box of Ferrero Rocher, which seems to be mysteriously empty already.
A couple of t-shirts, one with a motorbike on it (which fits) and a replica 1970s Leicester City shirt (which doesn't).
A voucher for one of those Activity Days Out on a wildlife theme, most likely to be converted into either feeding of Red Pandas or shadowing a Reptile zookeeper (both at a wildlife park in Herts).

The present I gave that got the best reaction was the calendar I put together for Mrs P with pictures of The Dog, loosely themed through the months of the year (Jan = Dog In Snow etc).

couldn't remember what I had asked for so I texted her the name 'Charles Bukowski' and got Ham On Rye and Women which is nice.
Also got a large chocolate Lindt Santa, up to my knees (it used to be)

Two guitar stands, one for Jenny my tele and the other for Doris, the Tanglewood acoustic. Also a sleeping bag for Doris.

A nice Zara coat, which is probably half price in the sale today.

The piece de resistance arrives tomorrow, as I say the GLW couldn't be arsed to remember what I really really wanted so she gave me her creidt card and I bought a Tascam digital 4 track recorder so I can make my sub Tom Waits thrashings a reality.

I am now on the hunt for weird second hand instruments.

Mad Men Season 1 & 2
Inception DVD
Rear Window DVD
Airplane & Airplane 2 DVD

Hairy Bikers Mums Know Best Cookbook (cooking something from it for New Years Day)
2 Christopher Brookmyre books

Nice fleece jumper
A nice bottle of Disaronno Amaretto (which I am enjoying very much thank you)

and best of all
A 1 day cooking course voucher (have signed up for their Mediterranean and N. African course in Edinburgh in Feb)

I made a list because people say they never know what to buy me. So I listed the special offers on Amazon that I fancied and got:

DVDs:
Sopranos - complete set
Sherlock Holmes - complete ITV series with Jeremy Brett
Rumpole of the Bailey - complete set

I understand there's a set of Ealing Comedies somewhere in the post as well.

In addition, and not discounted, Kate Rusby's Make the Light which, as you'd expect, is quite lovely.

I got this:

Attention all malt fans: it's an ESSENTIAL purchase.

but you can make your own mind up about this lot:

A chocolate Orange (good start)
Toblerone (getting warmer)
Book about doing a Marathon (i've just started running...a bit)
A 12pk of HB pencils (I'm 40 yrs old FFS)
An outdoor firepit (couldn't get it *outside* due to the snow...)
A Compost Aerator (from the inlaws and they told Mrs P it was an option and she said, no, No, NO, but still it came....)

Utterly, utterly, heart-brakingly shit...

Bought MYSELF a kindle and blackadder DVD online on boxing day to make it up to myself) Have made it very clear that next year, vouchers are the way to go...

had about a dozen assorted rellies in a holiday house. Everybody bought one ten dollar present and then it was lucky dip.

There were complicated rules about if you didn't like yours you could swap it with someone else who came before you. Which worked well apart from a few sibling residue games.

Best of all I only spent ten bucks and my wife didn't spend ages worrying that the kids had all got equal treatment etc.

Also have slightly more money left in the bank than we usually do.

Right, off to the sales then....

I got two tickets to see Jerry Seinfeld at the O2, now I have a battle between my friends n family as my mrs who bought the tickets can't abide him.

Also

Pacific DVD
Dexter S3 DVD
Lee Mack DVD
Bottle of Jamesons
Lots of cheap (disposable) golf balls

No music as I buy all the stuff I want but I did get my brother in law Field Music and Bombay Bicycle Club as I can't resist imposing my tastes on others.

?

I got two tickets to see Jerry Seinfeld at the O2, now I have a battle between my friends n family as my mrs who bought the tickets can't abide him.

Also

Pacific DVD
Dexter S3 DVD
Lee Mack DVD
Bottle of Jamesons
Lots of cheap (disposable) golf balls

No music as I buy all the stuff I want but I did get my brother in law Field Music and Bombay Bicycle Club as I can't resist imposing my tastes on others.

Just watched the Nick Drake documentary which had previously eluded me. Thanks to Something for the Weekend. Who said the Dutch weren't sensitive souls? That has to rank as one of the most atmospheric and perfectly pitched documentaries of a musician ever put out. Made my Christmas.

And a new dressing gown from the Mrs was very acceptable.

I spent a couple of days with my family. My sister bought my mother the Michael Buble LP. My mother is one of those people who gets her own way, so my Dad and I were slightly depressed knowing we'd have to listen to the bloody thing - probably more than once.

However, Papa JoLean was greatly cheered up by me pointing out that he looked like he was breaking wind (another thank you to Mavis Diles for that marvellous thread), and by us then going on line so I could show my hugely amused father the thread in question.

I got a new guitar for Christmas - well, actually a guitar shaped chopping board!! Here's me doing a bit of shredding on Boxing Day morning...