What I Got!

I spend too much on lots of little things and flights of fancy, but I’m actually notoriously cheap. Frugal? Fiscally conscious? Basically, if I had a genie lamp and three wishes, one wish would be that every day I wake up and there’s a $20 bill under my pillow. Maybe $50 adjusted for inflation since college when my friend Rick and I came up with this.

With a $20 bill every day, I could buy a newspaper. Buy a coffee. Run to Books-A-Million and buy a book. Or, I could bank a few days and buy myself new work gloves or a pair of headphones. Or bank a week and buy a nice dress shirt or knives for my kitchen. Things I don’t need, but just kinda want.

But Don, you ask? Couldn’t you do this if you won a lump some $10-Million? Amen I say to you, I would rather have a crisp $50 bill under my pillow every morning than $10-Million.

I like “things” and “getting things” and I’m not picky (even though I have an ongoing wishlist). If someone thinks of me, or likes me enough to buy me something, I love it. I appreciate it. I get excited about it. And I will profusely thank you if you get me something. 

I think experts call this my “love language”.

I might make alotta people roll their eyes by reporting what I got, but trust me, these Blog posts tend to be popular and outside of the Blog in the real-world, lots of people talk to me about my crazy wishlist and why and then sometimes recommend alternatives to what I think I should have.

Without further ado, here’s what I got for Christmas!

Flip 7 (Game) – Easy, fun card game that doesn’t take alotta time to learn. It’s half luck-of-the-draw and a little bit strategy.

Tapple – Harder than it looks … you pick a card and category and then every person has to think of an answer in that category that starts with an available letter still in the Tapple circle. You’ve got 7-10 seconds and I challenge you to think of a vegetable for every letter of the alphabet.

Clark’s Brantins – Remember, I wanted dress shoes with sneaker bottoms like the “cool dudes” at work? I had Johnston & Murphy’s on my list, because who wouldn’t want J&M’s, but mostly I wanted my wife and daugthers to pick them out and that would ensure they’re not embarrassed by me and my style (that’s another 2026 Resolution … to stop embarrassing my wife and daughters). My wife went with these Brantins and I dig ’em.  Worn them thrice and they’re comfortable yet, if a quick pick-up game of hoops broke out, I could run point.

$100 Visa Gift Card (from my Dad) – This is one of the “game within the game” things I do every year. It’s generous of my Dad to give us a Visa Gift Card and when I get it, it becomes a mission. How do I maximize  the joy of a FREE $100? The mind races and I’m proud to say I bought 2x Old Navy quarter zips (1 oatmeal, 1 midnight blue) and I’ve been wanting a dramatic desk lamp and I got one I really, really like. THANKS, Dad! Oh, that’s right … because it’s Year of the Pen, I also had enough left over to buy replacement ink for my Cross pen that I’d been neglecting for a couple years. 

Cordless Drill and Heated Mug – This is the other “game within the game” where I participate in two White Elephant gift exchange games and buy the thing I want and then work and scheme the entire time to go home with the gift I brought (and wanted). 

FriXion Pens (.5mm) – Got a 5-pack in my stocking. I’ve got one in my backpack. One at the office. One on my desk at home. Two in the drawer for when these run out. True to what I already knew, they write smooth and don’t bleed thru my journal paper. I pointed out I got .5mm which is quite a departure for me because I’ve always been .7mm and 1.0mm but learned, oh yeah, all that extra ink bleeds thru.

And now for the “big thing” and the whole reason I gave that big preamble above about liking “alotta things” more than I like “pricey things” . . . my wife bought me a Yeti Roadie 32-Can Wheeled Cooler. I’ve always sorta kinda wanted a Yeti but then I think, “it’s a cooler and there’s NO WAY it can be worth that much.”  We’ve been nursing along an old rolling cooler for almost a decade. Years ago, the extension handle stopped retracting and I need Fonzie like magic skills to make it extend the whole way. It served us well. I’ve been hemming and hawing about buying another rolling cooler for, oh, about 2 years and we just went through another tailgate season at MSU without a cooler with wheels. 

Well! No more! I got something I would never buy myself and my early review is … wow. This Yeti might be onto something and might (somewhat) be worth the price. The wheels. The quality. And then when you register your Yeti, there’s parts and accessories and Yeti sorta makes you feel like you’re in some sort of adventure club. My piece of crap cooler gave me 10+ good years … swim meets, vacations, tailgates, and more.  I’ve really upped my game.

And that, my friends, was my “haul” for Christmas 2025. Time to update the Stuff I Want Page and get focused on Father’s Day and my birthday in July.