Being Jewish, we don't celebrate Christmas. However, my birthday is just a few days before, and I was the lucky recipient of a slightly used banjo purchased off of Craigslist.

This is actually a great survival tool. When played correctly (which I can't really do yet) it provides hours of family "together time" fun and requires no electrical power. We already have an accoustic guitar for this purpose, but I figure redundancy is a good thing in survival gear, no?

When played incorrectly or out of tune it works as an excellent emergency locator beacon (well, my wife says she can hear it anywhere in the house).

We agreed to give Hanukkah gifts to the kids only this year as a budget-cutting measure. Our recent move burned through a lot of cash, and the first priority is building the bank account back up.

Happy new year to you all.