Brace yourself! It’s this year’s Christmas Haul! It’s only about 2pm but already we’ve seen everybody on both sides of the family, so I can now reveal the haul this year.

I’ll start with this baby because I want to make sure you click the link and look at some of the interior photos on Amazon, because it’s simply amazing:

With me so far? So I’ve opened all these presents and everything’s good. There were some clothes thrown in there as well which I’m not going to try to find links/images of. Then I open a present and it contains this:

What the—? Well, Sal knows that I want to buy myself a Blu-ray player in the new year, so she must’ve gotten me that so I’d have something to play on it! I give her a confused look, and she says, “Oops! Guess you’d better open that present behind you then!”

I look around at the pile of presents we’d stacked up for the rest of the family, and right behind me there’s a big box. Tentatively I open it up, and lo and behold:

Holy crap! She bought me a freakin’ Blu-ray player!!! Better yet, Sal knew exactly which one I wanted. I had been looking at the Panasonic because it can be modified such that it’s region free! That means I’ll be able to pay reasonable prices for my Blu-ray discs rather than the $40-$50 per disc that they charge here!

From mum and dad I got a nice white business shirt and some vouchers for dining out at two of the top local restaurants, and from Ben and Amanda we received a book of movie tickets, which we’ll put to good use over the next few months.

And to top off the Blu-ray surprise, Sal’s mum and dad gave me these: