Well Christmas is over. We finally had the “official” gift exchange with the boys when they got back from their fathers house at about 10a.

I received Black Label Society – The European Invasion-Doom Troopin – Live DVD from Andy and an iTunes gift card and some damn comfortable slippers from Jake. The perfect gifts. I’m not really the “slipper” type, but I have to day, I’m digging them.

Andy received a digital camera and a Flickr Pro account, along with Call of Duty 3 for the PS2, along with some other miscellaneous items like a pedometer and a mp3 holder for when he goes running.

Jonna received a gift basket containing chocolate, cheese, crackers and the like, along with a bottle of her favorite wine from the boys.

Jake received his first car. He’s had his permit for quite some time, but Jonna drives a rather large Suburban thats pretty hard to learn to drive in, and with my commute I’m rarely in the mood to take him driving in the jeep after I get home from work. We figured that the car would serve a few purposes – give Jake something he could actually drive comfortably, teach him some responsibility by paying for half of it – treating his half as a car loan from us, and give him transport to and from work.

Jonna went through a lot to ensure that the gift was presented in a way to maximize the surprise factor for Jake when he opened it. She created a fake video game case, in which she wrapped the car key. The boys are used to getting video games for Christmas, and Jake is a game freak that knows just about every game on the market. I’m not sure what moment was cooler, watching him try to figure out what this game was that he had never heard of, or when he opened up the case to find the car key – and then tried to figure out what the key meant.

We went to great lengths over the last month or so to absolutely convince him that there was no way a sixteen year old would be getting a car for Christmas (he’s asked a lot), so I think the fact that he actually got one was a genuine surprise.

Overall, Christmas this year was quite successful. Each of us got a few things that were important to us and it wasn’t completely over done. From the car perspective, it was more of a practical decision than anything else – and it went over really well.

The one regret that I have about this years festivities is that Jonna and I decided to not buy for each other this year. I love giving her gifts (though I have a hard time finding things that really mean something), so for me not having that this year was a bit of a disappointment. However, we did do a lot of focusing on the kids and when it comes right down to it, thats really what Christmas is all about – isn’t it?