What did santa bring you?

Darren Wright said:

Also got to fire up the smoker and cook a chicken for dinner, so it was a good day.

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Any day with good smoked chicken is a good day !! I usually smoke chicken with apple wood -- yum yum yum

Being home in So. Cal with my wife and children is gift enough.

In the WW department, I am going ahead and buying a near new INCA 12" Tablesaw from Switzerland. Wow.

And 2 days ago, I took delivery of the Micro Fence I bought new on eBay at half price.

Yesterday, I got a good look at the fallout from the economic train wreck walking through one of the wealthier districts of Santa Monica. Many of the newly dispossessed homeless wandering the streets appeared to be upwardly mobile young professionals. Now asking for handouts and warily looking for a safe (but not warm) place to camp outdoors for the night.

Let's hope the New Year gets America back to what it deserves to be. A place of hope and opportunity for all.

Gary Curtis

I feel very lucky due to our unfortunate economic state at the Johnson household.
I got an Incra 1000SE miter guage and a Milwaukie 5" orbital sander.
Lucky indeed.......

I sounds like most everyone had a good day of being with family as it should be. Presents atleast for me are a bonus.

Christmas Day celebration was with wife's family this year (my family will wait until Dad gets his pace maker in a couple weeks). We draw names, so except for her Dad giving each of us some money we will put toward a new dishwasher, and one of my BIL gave me a kitchen sink...no really, a kitchen sink. Said he thought I had everything but. We all had a good laugh. (I'll be able to go exchange it at HD for somethng else. )
But being with family was the best gift. There were 20 of us for lunch, good food made by all the family members, and all the kids, our nieces and nephews, were there too. The youngest one, one week old! Life is good. Jim.

Well, I still have my lovely wife with me, after the cancer scare earlier this year, that is the greatest present I could think of having, and I hope to have her around for a very long time yet.

We also have our two wonderful daughters here this year, they usually jet off to my parents in Canada for Christmas, but they went for the whole summer this year, so going again at Christmas was not in the cards. At 12 and 14, they will be around for a few more years, one can hope, but not that much longer, as both are expressing desires to go to high school and then university in Canada, so we have to enjoy them girls while they are still here with us.

I got one woodworking related thing, from my sister, a book called >> Lee's Priceless Recipes << she found it on my "Wish List" at Lee Valley Tools. I've wanted to buy this little book, just out of interest for sometime, be each time I see the total at the bottom of my shopping cart at Lee Valley, I end up removing a few items to get the total down to a level I can pay that month and this little book always seems to not make the cut, so I'm sure happy my sister got it for me!

My mom and my sister also rounded out my collection of DVDs, I have seasons 1-3 of Corner Gas, but now I have seasons 4 and 4 as well

I just LOVE that show!

Cheers!

Wife gave me a really nice, heavy and warm, camouflage hunting coat and a small antique statuette of a Shriner. The statuette will go in my collection of Shrine and Masonic memorabilia. Son and daughter-in-law gave us some books on Hawaii where they are treating us to a vacation in March. Daughter, in addition to her just being with us which is biggest treat of all, gave me a gift certificate to Grizzly.

Santa brought me a quiet day. The LOML and I did not exchange gifts this year. Unfortunately she hurt her back on Christmas Eve so I had to go to church without her. But Christmas Day.... we canceled all visits, made ourselves a nice meal, and sat and watched movies all day. No stress, no rush, no screaming kids, no muss. We might think about starting a new tradition!.

Stuart Ablett said:

Well, I still have my lovely wife with me, after the cancer scare earlier this year, that is the greatest present I could think of having, and I hope to have her around for a very long time yet.

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Stu,

I hear you! It's now five years since Doorlink's breast cancer, but I still see every day as a gift of grace... doubly so on Christmas!

Number 3 son goes to the University next year, so his presence is a gift as well! And we heard last week that he got in, so that's a great gift too!

But the best one was James padding in to the bedroom, whispering excitedly: "Doc, Mom, wake up! I think Santa came! Come on!"

Oh, and I got a few clamps, but that's nothing by comparison!

Thanks,

Bill

Rennie Heuer said:

we canceled all visits, made ourselves a nice meal, and sat and watched movies all day.

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Boy does that sound like a tradition worth starting.

A lot of stuff that I wanted (thanks to the Lee Valley wish list facility). In all, nine different people picked something from my (very long) list.



I did get some other non-woodworking gifts, but about three quarters of the gifts that I received are related to woodworking and construction.

Bill Simpson said:

Sham-WOW

They're "made in Germany"




When anyone asked me what I wanted I would say ShamWow

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That is too funny..Vince with the squirrelly eyes is creepy.

And now for something a little different

My wife and I changed things up quite a bit this year. We don't have kids unfortunately or much family around anymore. We don't really need anything either. So we made an agreement that is kind of fun. We could spend no more than $25 and it had to be from the Dollar store (or the grocery store or another discount store) and it had to fit in our stockings hung on the mantle. We had a very nice evening Christmas Eve. We went to visit our 90 yr old neighbor and his family for a little while and then went home and sat by the fireplace and opened our stockings-we took turns. It was a hoot! We got each other some candy and nuts and some silly little do-dads. Toasted each other with a glass of spiked egg nog and just sat together and talked.

Christmas day we went down the hill to some long time friends home for a wonderful dinner. Their daughter was home and her boyfriend and his parents, whom we had not met, and another mother/daughter had a very nice meal and talked and laughed and just enjoyed each other. More like family than my own sorry excuse for family.

This was one of the best Christmases for me in a very long time, especially since it wasn't about "things" but more about people and sharing.

Happy New Year !!!

Xmas Gifts and Piracy

I got a gift I have been waiting for 30years to be able to get. The mini series on DVD called Centennial. http://www.nbcuniversalstore.com/detail.php?p=60060

Having grown up in S. Africa and yet been indoctrinated by way of the movies as a youngster into the ways of the US west, when I saw this mini series in the 70's I just loved every minute of it.

This year was the 30th anniversary of the mini series release and Universal finally released the DVD of this. The LOML knew how much this meant to me and gave it to me for Xmas.

Unfortunately unknowingly to her she ended up buying a version that was a pirate version of the VHS tape series. Poor quality but the same price and the newly release set. This did put a damper on it for both of us.
So we learnt another lesson about buying off the web. Beware of fraudulent items. Note this was not at some special price. She actually paid premium.

I also got a wonder WW present from a dear friend. A set of 12'x12' black floor mats that interlock and relieve the stress on your feet. Really great present.

My wife and I gave my eldest son his first cordless drill. I picked up a Ryobi set at HD consisting of Drill, Batt, Vacuum, Flashlight and Mini Skil saw. Real good deal and what I thought was a good starter set for a younster. Time will tell how he looks after it.

Other son got an Xbox 360 much to my disappointment. I hate these things and the effect they are having on the next generation. Making a whole generation into a bunch of couch potatoes. Luckily my son still plays sports all year round.

We had a very quiet Christmas with no visitors from South Africa this year. But we made all the usual morning calls to relatives and friends back there.

Merry Xmas to all the Family Woodworking members and Happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate it.

Now its on to New Year

It's going to be even harder to get out to the shop now. As we were cleaning up after Christmas the LOML said we need to pull out the recliners & vacuum behind them. Right along behind that she said remember I told you about the recliner sale down town we should go & look at a new recliner for you yours is worn out after 17 years. So I now have a new reclined & I am already dreaming of woodworking.

I was watching Wood-turning Workshop kicked back in my new recliner with a mug of tea & my little dachshund sure was hard keeping my eyes open I just barely managed.

hi all,

well this was a good year for shop related gifts , a very good year even

i will let the pictures do the typing for me

the one is all the store bought stuff i got .

the second one is two turned tools from our friend joan . one is a screwdriver , the other is an awl , both turned out of olivewood and a pleasure to use

she also made a bunch of other stuff for gifts and i am sure she will post what she did very soon (hint hint )

i think i must have been a good boy this year because she also got me a factory reconditioned delta Q-3 18" var. speed scrollsaw to replace the one i broke earlier this year
she surprised me with it at the rockler store in maine.

we walked in to pick up some stuff for ned . as i was walking down one of the isles i happened across the Q-3 with a sign on it : sold , merry christmas grizzly . i almost fell over thanks again joan

I already said it.
8 assorted bandsaw blades from a bearded Santa

Toni Ciuraneta said:

I already said it.
8 assorted bandsaw blades from a bearded Santa

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and a new set of eyes so you can see better n glad yur back toni

larry merlau said:

and a new set of eyes so you can see better n glad yur back toni

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You're right Larry!!, they fit me so well, that I forgot about them!
I'm also happy to be back here, lots of posts to catch up though..

• Nova Midi chuck, but it has to be exchanged, as the one I received is 3/4" and I need 1" for my lathe...
• a slab of 4/4 Koa about 15" Long by 5" wide.
• two sets of clamps (one bessey f-clamp, one rockler pipe clamp kit)
• Dado Stack (it arrived wednesday!)

plus some clothes, etc...


plus my son got two 'woodworking for kids' books, one about birdhouses, the other has projects of all sorts, so I"ll be busy with those later this spring/summer.