Borrowing Linden's format:
I Gave
To my FSTT Secret Cindy Lou Who (Stacia):
Alice in Wonderland (2010) DVD,
Cars Puzzle set,
Disney Princess Puzzle set. The
Cars puzzle was for her 3-year-old son. When she received it, she told me that she and her son LOVE doing puzzles and that she's crushed on Johnny Depp since "21 Jump Street", neither of which I had no idea. I simply thought they'd be a nice gift to send along with the DVD.
To my UD Secret Cindy Lou Who & Partner in Crime (CJ):
The Sound of Music Blu-Ray/DVD Combo. I also sent her a little note on a Disney postcard, and kept the slipcover intact on the Blu-Ray, even though I wanted very much to put it in a paper shredder.
To my sister (Jane Mccoy on UD):
The Departed and
Beauty and the Beast: Diamond Edition on Blu-Ray, several pairs of holiday-themed $1 socks from Target (she really really wanted them, going so far as to say, "Just get me socks for Christmas"). Also, technically not a gift, but I found her black leather glove that she lost last year, so now she can wear both of them again. It was under my bed, which was an odd place for it to be. Neither of us have any idea how it got there.
To my brother (Kram Nebuer on UD): three-tray cookie cooling rack, $10 A.C. Moore gift card, my old DVD of
A Charlie Brown Christmas and a few Disney Channel DVDs I reviewed for UD long ago. Not sure if the DVDs really count, as I gave them to him in early December as I was downsizing of my collection. He often gets DVDs from me whenever I downsize (just the ones he's interested in), so I give him DVDs like once every few months anyway.
To my parents: pitched in with Kram & Jane on a new comforter that includes hand-sewn printed-on-fabric pictures of the family over the years (stuff like Mom & Dad in a strawberry field, each of us as babies, a family portrait from the late 90s, etc.). The plan is to sew on additional pictures every year, as we only sewed five pictures (we couldn't work on it until Jane came home on Christmas Eve) this year. I perused through various family albums and even had to ask Mom for certain pictures that weren't in an album but I knew she had (the aforementioned strawberry field one), without letting her know what it was for. Scanning/cropping/re-sizing the pictures took a few hours, and after each one printed, we had to let it dry for 15 minutes before we could sew it on.
To my Family Secret Cindy Lou Who #1 (Nhat):
Toy Story 3 on DVD and an "It's A Girl!" Baby Minnie pin. Funny story about the pin. It was actually meant for my younger cousin who was born in 2004, but I never got a chance to give it to her. Then, when my niece was born in 2006, I intended to give it to her but again never had a chance. Finally, in 2010, we all learned that Arthur and Nhat were expecting a baby girl (due January 18 ), and so I finally had a chance to give the pin to someone.
To my Family Secret Cindy Lou Who # (Arthur): Volume One of a reprinted vintage
Superman comic book he wanted. I felt bad for not getting him both volumes, but then found out that my sister gave him the other volume, as she also drew him for Secret Santa.
To some family friends (The Martelli's): My brother and their son have been friends since middle school, and as a result, both our families grew to become close acquaintances. I often enjoy talking about classic movies with Mrs. Martelli and her son, and I gave them
A Streetcar Named Desire,
The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, and
Baby Doll as all three were titles I purchased individually before I managed to get the Tennessee Williams box set for cheap (which had those three films and three more). I also gave them
The Red Shoes, as I managed to acquire the Blu-Ray.
For the extended family, my name was in the cards and such that our family gave to them, though I didn't really "contribute" to the gifts we gave them, so I'm not going to bother listing them. I do plan, however, to use some Christmas money to get "Merlin" Season One for my younger cousin since she's in love with the show almost as much as I am. Hopefully it's still at Wal-Mart for $20.
Also, I bought a cake to give to my Teaching in Learning Communities class for our Final Exam party (our professor was awesome, rather than give us midterms and final exams, we had parties). I actually became the first person to buy a cake from my brother (a culinary student), he previously was commissioned to bake cookies, flan, and something else for friends/co-workers.
I Received
From my FSTT Secret Santa (Stacia): Neither of us realized we were each other's Secret Santas until we both received our gifts within like, two days of each other. She had sent me embroidered Mickey ears, since I had often lamented on WEDnesday Show's chat box how I never had Mickey ears of my own. In addition, she sent me
Toy Story 3 and
Disney Princess Silly Bandz. I still don't understand the whole point of them, but they were quite fun to stretch around and marvel at how they kept their shape.
From my UD Secret Santa (PeterPanfan): I was excited when I received my first gift from him, the Blu-Ray for the 2003 romantic comedy
Love Actually. It's one of my favorite romcoms and a Christmas staple in our family since 2005 or so. But then when the SECOND gift arrived, I was on cloud nine. He ordered me an imported CD of soundtrack for
The Band Wagon (1953), my favorite movie musical of all time. I was so excited for it, since it's been out of print in the US for ages and when I had an opportunity to buy it in 2005 (it was at Virgin Megastore when I was doing my college program), I decided not to at that time. Then when I went back a few days later to pick it up, it was already gone. So finally getting the import CD was pure joy, and has probably become my favorite UD Secret Santa gift ever.
From my sister (Jane Mccoy): Since she's in California now, she was able to go to Disneyland and get the Chocolatears Malt Balls that they sell in the parks, which made me very happy. In addition, she knitted me a blue scarf which is very warm and comfy. But the best gift she gave me was the custom-made "Doctor Who" Monopoly. She bought a Monopoly set and completely re-designed it to be themed to "Doctor Who". She designed the game board on PhotoShop, replacing the street names/transportation/utilities/community chest/chance with theming to "Doctor Who". For example, the "Go to Jail" space now has a cool picture of Tenth Doctor and Donna with their hands in the air (from "The Stolen Earth" when the Judoon hold them at gunpoint), and there are stills from various episodes for the streets, including some family favorites like the "Mammy!" jazz hands from "The Unicorn and the Wasp". "Chance" and "Community Chest" are now "Regenerate" and "Exterminate", with custom directions on the back like "You blinked. Pay 30 Credits". And naturally, Gallifrey has replaced the Boardwalk and Park Place. The movers are various things like the sonic screwdriver, the TARDIS, the Vortex Manipulator, etc. But my two favorite parts of the "Doctor Who" Monopoly is that instead of "Go", we have Tenth Doctor's exclamation of "Allons-y!" and one of the "Regenerate" cards says "The Doctor and you go to Elwood City. You have to Pay 10 Credits to D.W. to keep her from drawing all over his TARDIS" The former ("Allons-y!") is one of Tenner's trademark sayings, while the latter (Elwood City, 10 credits, D.W.) is part of an inside joke with the siblings.
From my brother (Kram Neuber): To go along with the "Doctor Who" Monopoly, Kram got me a "Doctor Who" shirt from Teefury, featuring the eleven Doctors all trying to squeeze into the TARDIS. In addition, he gave me a Milk Chocolate Snowman from Jacques Torres in NYC. He had gone there for a field trip in early December and I was rather depressed when he came home without anything for the family. Turns out he bought us all Jacque Torres chocolates for Christmas!
As a reminder of my ongoing Trekkie status, he also got me a Scotty action figure (2009 Simon Pegg Scotty), to go with the Spock and Nero that I have. Finally, as a humorous reminder of my soap opera fandom (it's been rather dormant the past 5 years, but I still dabble in an episode or two whenever I have time), he also gave me
Late, Late at Night: A Memoir by Rick Springfield. Springfield played Dr. Noah Drake on "General Hospital" from 1981 to 1983 and again from 2005 to 2008, but everyone else knows him as the guy who sang "Jessie's Girl".
From my parents: a new alarm clock, because my old reliable one is starting to become unreliable by eating up battery power quickly and resulting in slower turns of the second/minute/hour hands. The new alarm clock is digital
but at least it won't die on me as often as my old one did. I really liked that analog clock too. Also received the customary Christmas ornament (ceramic plate with a spoon), hopefully I won't break it. I have a history in our family of accidentally breaking Christmas ornaments or knocking over the tree, though the latter I haven't done since I was 6 years old. Also got a new polo sweater, which was intended as Mom's gift to Dad, but she put the wrong tags on the presents. We both liked each other's sweaters anyway, so we didn't bother exchanging back. Another gift was shared between me and Kram, it was a four-piece tool set with stuff like a swiss army knife, a flashlight, a keychain clip, etc. We have to figure out who wants what, though I already called dibs on the flashlight. Finally, I got $100 cash.
From my Family Secret Santa #1 (Nhat): after the huge success of giving me $20 worth of Trident gum last year, Nhat insisted that she be my Secret Santa again. So, when the time came for each family member to pick the slips of paper from my hat, I simply gave her my slip of paper. We have to list 3 things on it, then the SS gets one thing. The paper I gave her had this: "1. $20 worth of Trident gum, 2. Rachel McAdams' cell phone number, 3. Sophia Bush wrapped in a bow", thus it left her no choice but the gum. Although, I would have been completely surprised and grateful if she managed to get one of the other two things on that list. This year, rather than a variety of gum that she got me last year, she gave me twelve packs of Trident Bubble Gum and Trident White Peppermint since she knew those two were my favorites. She ordered them from Amazon, as she was amazed one could order gum from Amazon. Plus, it saved her from getting a strange look at the Target cashier like she did last year when she bought my gum there.
From my Family Secret Santa #2 (Aunt Susan & Uncle Alfonso): I received the
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) soundtrack and $10 in cash. They intended on getting me the
Sweeney Todd in Concert (2001) DVD, but couldn't find it (I've only seen it at Barnes & Noble) and since they don't order things online, they opted to give me the movie soundtrack, hoping I didn't have it. I didn't and actually have been meaning to get it for quite some time, but simply never had a chance. I actually prefer the movie singers (Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, etc.) to the performers in the 2001 concert (which, honestly, I wanted simply to add to my NPH collection), so it was a better gift than what I had written on my list (which also included DVDs of "Doctor Who: Underworld" and "The Big Bang Theory: Season One"). I'll likely use the $10 towards the concert DVD anyway, simply because I still want it.
From my cousin's boyfriend (Mark): he didn't draw me for Secret Santa but got me a "Glee" 2010/11 calendar (Quinn is the picture for June, which made me very happy). When I went to my cousin's house for a Halloween party, I dressed up as a Gleek (just jeans, a red "Glee" shirt, and plastic glasses to signify "geek"), which is how he knew I liked "Glee". He's a cool guy, and what's funny is that he and my brother were in the same grade in high school (both graduated in '05) but they didn't know each other at all until my cousin started dating him a couple years ago.
I also received more money and clothes from family, but there's no exciting stories to attach to them. In addition, I went out for lunch with some close friends the week before Christmas, which was our little Christmas gift to each other since we hadn't had a chance to properly hang out this past semester.
albert
Of course I already had about 25 of his records on CD, but this is my first LP of him, and that's something very special! And it's the double-album Blonde on Blonde! And she also got me his latest 'Bootleg series' CD. 
)
