I found I didn't get three things I thought I really wanted. Torii Hunter, who may not be the best Centerfielder and who may not be a great hitter but is without a doubt one of the classiest men to play the game now. I think we all would have been proud to see him in Pinstripes. B. J. Ryan, who is a lights out lefty, who I have seen a lot of would have been devastating coming out of the Pen in front of Mo. Finally, I didn't get Tom Gordon who is also a class act. I wish he could have retired a Yankee. He and Ryan would have formed a remarkable duo. Other than that I have a lot to be thankful for.

When you reach the age when you actually should know better you find that you worry more about having given the right things, rather than having received them. It seems odd that with so many awful and ugly things happening in our world this Christmas was one of the best ever. I hope your day was beautiful and that everyone was happy.

My wife got me a Jeter home jersey. It is the only thing I wanted that I didn't want to buy myself.

Alex,

Not only did I get the Sam Cooke book, but I also got Elijah Wald's bio of Robert Johnson, the blues singer not the outfielder. This was great as I just finished Wald's as-told-to autobiography of Dave Van Ronk: The Mayor of MacDougal Street.

I also got Bill Simmon's book, Now I Can Die in Peace, which reminded me how much more pleasurable it is to win a World Series when it isn't something you believe is your birthright. Sort of like how we in Vermont can appreciate a sunny day in May in a way that folks in Florida will never understand.

Huge internal frame hiking backpack.

For us, it wasn't so much what we got as what we gave:

http://www.doubledogmusic.com/buffy_mah_jongg/

Four months of effort finally paid off!

Is it me, or did Simmons rip off (at the very least) a Rangers fan at MSG in 1994? Which reminds me, debris, that us Yankees fans are also fans of other teams that are traditionally bad. So we know too.

Miami Vice Season 2 on DVD. As well as Homicide: Life on the street Season 4.

The "Now I Can Die In Piece" idea was definitely a Rangers fan's banner at MSG in '94. And I'm an Islander fan, so I wouldn't give 'em any credit if I didn't have to.
Oddly enough, this year I got nothing baseball-related, and I didn't really ask for any books as my backlog is way too huge right now. However, Rob Bowman's liners for this beautiful Band box set, "The Band: A Musical History," complete with tons of amazing photos, really is a book. It's like either an amazing CD set with a great book, or a great book that happens to house 5 cds and a DVD.
Miami Vice, Season 2, huh? I have to finish getting through season 1, but I'm all over it...well, that and Rockford Files, Season 1, which finally came out last month.

Oh yeah, debris, how is the Van Ronk book?

My favorite response to an asinine 2005 Holliday Interview question came from Randy Johnson at MLB.com:

http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20051218&content_id=1283782&vkey=news_nyy&fext=.jsp&c_id=nyy

MLB.com: What is your favorite holiday song?
Johnson: "Welcome to the Jungle" by Bing Crosby.

Now that is funny. Just the Unit being a unit I guess.

wsporter, HILARIOUS! Thanks for posting that.

It looks like Rangers fans got a christmas present: Kevin Millwood for 5 years, and $60 million. Yikes, maybe that's a lump of coal, I'm not quite sure.

Matt,

The Van Ronk book is a lot of fun. If you ever saw him, you know he was one funny, witty guy. The book basically ends in 1968.

I first started hanging out on MacDougal St., primarily at the Gaslight, in 1963 at 15. This book gives a real good sense of what the Village was like from the late '50s on.

And a question for you. Having pretty much everything The Band ever recorded, is there anything new with this set?

debris,
I had written something, but I figured this quote from the review on allmusic.com said it better:
"It would seem that all the worthwhile previously unreleased music has been excavated and that the Band's career has been anthologized in ever possible way, but A Musical History proves that's not true. As its title implies, the set is a biography, tracing the group's career from their early days as the Hawks supporting Ronnie Hawkins, through their stint as Levon & the Hawks, through their time as Bob Dylan's backing band in 1966, through their emergence as the Band in 1968, then through their years of stardom in the early '70s, leading up to their departure at The Last Waltz in 1976. No previous compilation has done this — they've either picked up the story with Music from Big Pink or offered up the greatest hits, and they've never weaved Ronnie Hawkins or Bob Dylan tracks into the story line — and this thorough, all-encompassing approach does result in an absorbing narrative that does provide some revelations, most arriving on the spectacular, necessary first disc that traces the evolution of the band before they were the Band. "

Here's the url for that full review:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:0jfoxqrsldhe~T1

Do the Rangers ever learn anything?

Why, the Yankees 'Fall Classic' DVD set of course!

Fantastic stuff...

I got the Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2006 as one of my gifts, and I had really wanted that, so I'm happy. I'm happy with my haul for this year.