The Christmas haul

[Tom]

My wife got me a new Xacto knife set, some sanding sticks, plaster cloth, 2 containers of lightweight hydrocal and a gift certificate to Niagara Hobby (a local hobby store)...

I wish women were that easy to shop for

Mine is. She likes clothes, boots, perfume, Thomas Kinkade art and trains.

So, I got her Perfume (which shopping at Victoria's Secret was MY gift to myself ) and a Thomas Kinkade Bachmann On30 train set she has really wanted for a few years.

I got a Radio Controlled skunk for Christmas. I named him "El Guapo". Alicia and I do Old West Reenactments (<!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.spiritsoftheoldwest.org">www.spiritsoftheoldwest.org</a><!-- w -->) and I had always wanted to take a stuffed animal skunk (life sized realistic looking one) and mount it to an RC Car chassis and connect drive rods from the feet to the hidden wheels underneath to make the feet move to appear to be running, and make the tail flip up to look like it is spraying. I wanted one of these so that between shows and in parades, I can hide out and run the little critter around crowds of kids. I know, I'm sick like that, but it just sounded like fun. I also plan to run the little guy around through crowds in the diesel shop at the museum just to mess with people (and chase the museum shop cat "Hotbox" with it).

I had told my family that I didn't want presents, instead, I wanted them to spend their money on my nieces and nephews, as seeing a 3 year old get all excited opening presents is worth a whole lot more than anything else to me. I still got an Athearn WP Green GP35 from Alicia and a chrome Zippo lighter from my oldest sister with my name engraved on the front. My step daughter always buys me peanut brittle each Christmas and she contributed to the "skunk project" her dad and uncle did for me.

All in all, I had a great Christmas and hope everyone here did too.