My Christmas List 2012

Christmas time has rolled around again. Time to start pulling out your hair while trying to figure out exactly what your going to get everyone on your Christmas shopping list. And it's also time to give your loved ones your Christmas list.

To me, that's the biggest chore: telling people what you want. While there may be stuff I'd like to have without paying for it, i.e. a gift, I find it difficult to ask for it. It's just against my nature I guess.

I've been fortunate enough to have decent paying jobs ever since I started college, so I developed a habit over the years of buying stuff I want when I wanted it. It's a pretty simple concept. If I've got cash in my pocket and there's a Playstation 3 game I want, I'm probably going to buy it (assuming my wife lets me). From my point of view, I'm not putting it on the credit card and I'm still saving 15% for retirement, so the money I have left over might as well be spent on 'toys' for myself right now instead of waiting 2-11 months for Christmas to roll around.

Which leads to a major dilemma when November rolls around. I'm blessed to have a very loving and generous family. They insist on getting me stuff, even though I point out I don't need anything. They also get upset when I don't provide them with a list of ideas. So to handle this problem, I've developed a system: I start building my Christmas list on December 26. Over the course of the following year, I'll add items here and there until November when I have a moderately decent list.

Basically my list consists of stuff I'm going to buy at some point, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. So in essence, I can utilize my family in my quest to accumulate material possessions without having to buy it myself.

So after 11 months of list building, what's on my list? I'm glad you asked, because here it is. I've compiled the items that are on my list, as well as a few items that I've already bought in an attempt to help spur some gift ideas for you. Utilize this list in any manner you feel necessary. Also feel free to purchase any of these and send to me for Christmas. I won't turn it down :-)

P.S. These are in no particular order.

Ever since I've graduated from college, I've had the desire to upgrade my flimsy economy 'executive' chair I picked up from Office Depot to something more luxurious. I believe this will fit the bill. I've never seen this particular chair in person, but I can only assume with a price tag like this, it's quality.

I hate that 'Walmart leather' that feels like soft plastic. I'm going out on a limb and hoping that this chair has that plush leather feel and smell that everyone loves. If it does, this chair is as good as gold. Now you may not be fortunate enough to be a University of Tennessee alumni, or have the stomach to tolerate the lack-of-winning ways of UT to be a fan, but I'm sure you can find the college of your choice in this design.

During this year, I'll admit I've become an 'Apple Fanboy'. I've upgraded my love of Apple from having just an iPod to trying to have everything they produce. The quality is unmatched and I love how their whole line of products works with one another.

My current Apple arsenal includes the 27" iMac, the 2nd generation Apple TV, an iPhone, an iPad 2, and three different iPods. But I don't have an iPod touch, mostly because I crave a lot of storage. My go-to iPod was the Classic 160gb iPod which easily stores my whole MP3 collection. However, now that Apple has introduced the iCloud, I'd like to have a device that can automatically add my newly purchased music.

My classic iPod doesn't have Wi-Fi capabilities, so I can't automatically download the music I buy on my iPhone. The iPod Touch can. And now that Apple offers a 64gb version of the Touch, I want it. Between my wife and I, we have about 40 gigs of music. The previous Touches couldn't hold it all, but the 64gb will, and it still has room for our collection to grow.

While I have zero formal education in graphic design, I do enjoy expressing my creative side in a variety of ways. One of those ways is designing t-shirts, among other things.

I created a CafePress account several years ago. If you've never heard of CafePress, I'll quickly describe it to you. You create an account, upload your graphic creations, and CafePress will sell them on a variety of mediums such as shirts, hoodies, boxers, stickers, etc. You make a little bit of money every time something sells. You're not going to get rich doing it, but it's fun if you enjoy such things.

I've never taken my CafePress account seriously, mostly because all my merchandise has been developed using Paint. Yes, Microsoft Paint. As you can imagine, I'm not selling cutting-edge designs. The Hanes T-Shirt Design Software will not make my designs any better, but the big shots over at CafePress use this software to form the correct dimensions to fit on a specified area. I'd probably never make my money back from buying this software, but it would make it easier to upload my ideas.

I grew up in the country surrounded by livestock and thousands of acres of corn, beans, cotton, etc. Back in those days I hated everything about it and couldn't wait to move to a big city and forget about all the work that goes into a successful agriculture operation.

Well now I'm older and live in a big city (if you can consider Knoxville, Tennessee a big city). I've discovered that I miss all that stuff that I thought I hated. That has led me to want to start raising something on my own. I'm sure the city would frown on me if I stuck a couple of bulls out in my backyard, but I bet I could get away with having a few rabbits back there.

This theory has led me to the desire to pick up a few rabbits and try it out. Since I know nothing about rabbits in particular, I figure I need a book. My research has lead me to believe that Storey writes the most comprehensive books about raising animals, so I've added this book to my list.

After graduating college, I've had a lot of free time on my hands that needs to be filled in a productive manner. Aside from my online writing, blog management, and eBay sales, I've taken small furniture building.

As much as I love building stuff, my arsenal of tools is rather small. I've got the essentials, sure. But every time I try to build something that is the least bit complex, I run into the need of a router. A router that I don't have, nor do I have access to. Thus leading me to the rationale of needing a Dewalt router. And it has to be Dewalt, because Dewalt is my name brand of choice when it comes to power tools.

I don't do a lot of wiring, maybe a small job here and there twice a year at most. However, when I do tackle wiring I end up using my set of wire strippers I got for $3 at Walmart. If you know anything about tools you know this: "Good tools aren't cheap, and cheap tools suck".

My cheap wire strippers usually only accomplish ticking me off and I end up using my pocket knife to accomplish the task at hand. While I like my pocket knife, it's not exactly the ideal tool for removing the insulation from wires. Therefore, I need a good set of wire strippers.

We have one electrician that does all our wiring needs at my work. He's an older guy that's being doing this line of work for 50+ years, so I assume he knows a thing or two about good tools. I noticed that all his hand tools were Klein and asked him about it. He said that Klein was his personal favorite brand and that they've never let him down. That planted the seed in my head that I need a pair of Klein wire strippers. A quality tool will last a lifetime, so to me it's worth it to spend $20 on these wire strippers.

I've had a passion for taking pictures ever since my parents gave me a 110 film camera in fourth grade. As you could imagine, I couldn't snap as many pictures as I would have liked since a fourth grader's income is limited to nearly zero dollars a year and getting film developed wasn't exactly cheap.

Fast forward a decade or so, and digital cameras are the norm. I purchased my first digital camera when I was 18 and instantly fell in love. Back then, I spent my weekends at any car show I could drive to. With a high capacity memory card, I could take a 100s of pictures of anything I wanted without spending a bunch of money.

Fast forward a few more years and I graduated from a standard issue digital camera to a DSLR, a Nikon D50 to be exact. While this camera has fit my 'needs', the 2006 technology that was awesome back then is clearly outdated now. The D5100 on the other hand is phenomenal. It's lighter than most DSLRs and is statistically better than the Nikon D90 (which is the camera a lot of professional photographers use as their backup).

DISCLAIMER: I do not expect to receive this as a gift. I actually would probably be furious if someone spent this much money on me. This is on my list because I'm probably going to buy it at some point next year.

One of the items on my bucket list is to obtain my pilot's license. However, I currently don't have the time for such an endeavor, not to mention the lack of desire to spend that kind of money to obtain the license. So what's the next closest thing? Ray Ban Aviator sunglasses of course!!!

I've been wanting a pair of these for several years, but never can bring myself to spend that much money on something I may lose and/or break. However, if some loving family member or friend bought them for me, I would REALLY enjoy them!

P.S. I prefer gold frames with black lenses.

In all honesty, this item may not be on my list for long. I've been watching the sales at Best Buy for months now and I feel like it's just a matter of time before this bad boy goes on super sale and I'm gonna jump all over it.

I've been telling my self since this past Super Bowl that I was going to upgrade the television in my living room to something bigger, I just hadn't decided on what yet. Then I saw the screen of my friend's Samsung LCD. It was like watching TV for the first time in life. The screen was so clear and had so much depth, it was unreal. I knew right then that I had to get a Samsung.

I can't tell you how many times I've been to Best Buy and almost pulled the trigger on one of these TVs. Don't get me wrong, I really want one, but dropping that much cash at once on something I don't really need breaks my heart. However, if I can find one on sale for a couple hundred bucks knocked off, the cheapskate in me will jump all over it.

NOTE: The next time you're in Best Buy, go take a gander at the Samsung TVs. I believe you will be amazed at the clarity of these screens. You may also notice that most of the major retailers such as Best Buy, Target, and Walmart all use Samsung televisions to display new video games. Why? Because these screens really make the graphics pop.

Having a truck is a joy and a curse. On one hand, I can pretty much haul or pull anything I want at any given time. On the other hand, my Nissan Titan becomes the moving truck for all my friends.

It doesn't matter if I'm bringing home the new bedroom suite my wife just picked out, or hauling one of my best friend's mattress from Knoxville to Atlanta, whatever it is back there needs to be tied down securely. I generally keep about 50' of rope in my truck for just such occasions, but that's generally way too much length. A simple solution for this is to have a set of ratchet straps to quickly and easily tie down my cargo. I classify this as a practical gift.

My father-in-law picked up one of these nifty Bose Soundlink wireless speakers over the summer and I immediately fell in love with it as soon as he showed it to me. Since it uses bluetooth and not Airplay, it will work with all of my household's Apple devices as well as still working with all my friends' Android powered devices when they come over to visit.

There's several varieties of these bluetooth speakers on the market, but I've heard this Bose unit for myself and absolutely love it. It's small enough to be portable yet still packs that big speaker punch Bose is known for.

For now, that pretty much wraps up my list as far as this hub goes. It's by no means a complete list, but enough to generate ideas not only for my family, but hopefully for your family as well.

I wish you good luck in your shopping endeavors this holiday season!