Merry Christmas... to me!

It's that time of year again, when we begin making plans for the upcoming holidays and begin our shopping. We're going up to Baltimore for Christmas this year, so the actual "gifts" will be scaled back due to us flying. We actually haven't started our shopping for others, but rather we have purchased a few gifts for each other. I know, it seems really selfish, but it's just how it happened!

I can't share with everyone what one of Ian's gifts will be, as he has not received it yet. He will be opening this gift early, which I am quite excited about. I'm terrible about buying presents for people because I want them to open it immediately so they can receive the instant gratification I received when purchasing the gift. Two years ago I ordered Ian a Wii for Christmas and it arrived about a month before Christmas. I couldn't wait to give it to him, so I made him open it the day it arrived. It's something I really need to work on, especially with a baby on the way.

I can share with everyone what Ian's gift was to me. As many of you know, our house was burglarized last May and thankfully the only thing that was stolen was my Macbook. All of my school work from graduate school, pictures from 2007-2009 and my master address book were all saved on that computer. I was devastated, however I was thankful that nothing else was taken and that no one was hurt. I have been wanting a new Macbook every since, however we decided not to file an insurance claim because the value of the computer was approximately the cost of the deductible. We purchased an HP laptop over the summer in hopes of replacing my beloved Macbook, but nonetheless, a non-Mac is not for me. Ian kept asking me, "What to you want for Christmas?" and I would jokingly reply, "A new Macbook." I knew it was selfish of me to request something so expensive, when our money could be better spent on preparing for the baby. Yesterday, Ian told me that he had been thinking and wanted to at least look at Macbooks. We priced the Apple Store and Best Buy, since now Best Buy is an authorized retailer of Macs. We went to look at Best Buy and were told there was an open box Macbook available. We decided to purchase the open box model, because it had never been used and still had the same warranty as an unopened model. Even better, the open box model was $100 less and came with Iworks (think Office by Apple). We brought the computer home and realized the software had not been installed, nor was it in the box, so we're going to go back to Best Buy to see if they can credit Ian for the price of Iworks. I'm hoping they'll be able to do so, which means we saved $179 on a brand new Macbook! Merry Christmas to me!!!

Today will be spent fantasy football stat tracking on the new Macbook and relaxing before the work week begins again tomorrow. I can't wait until the holidays because we'll both be taking time off from work and traveling up north to visit family and friends. It snowed in Baltimore yesterday, so I'm hoping it will be a white Christmas this year. That would be another wonderful gift!

That's about it from sunny Florida!

Love always,

Ian & Kim