At the beginning of this week, the Monday Mission asked, "Just for fun, what is the one present you'd like for Christmas, but you know there is no way you will?" My answer was "That's an easy one: A digital camera!"

So imagine my shock when Meredith insisted I open her gift first, and I pulled the wrapping off to find an HP PhotoSmart 435 digital camera! I still need to learn how to use its features, but I took some pictures with it on Christmas eve, Christmas day, and today -- we haven't had time yet to install the software on the computer to see how they look, though. Once we get it hooked up, if I can find the URL of the page Meredith reserved on her website for me, I'll post some. I've been really wanting a digital camera, and honestly didn't dream I'd be given one! It was a joint gift from Meredith and A, to K and me, and they also gave us a charger and a pair of NiMH batteries, because this camera is particularly hard on the ordinary alkaline cells it comes with.

My second most exciting gift was from K: Sony Clié PEG-SJ22 PDA!

When K's Handspring Visor Edge died last fall, we did some research and he eventually bought a Clié SJ-20 -- it was used, but in perfect shape, in its original box complete with everything it originally came with. He was delighted with it. It had a high resolution screen that's really easy to read, 16 Mb of memory, a jog dial, the Palm 4.1 OS, and some other nice features.

He urged me to get a newer PDA too, but I said I was fine with my old, double-hand-me-down Handspring Visor Deluxe. Yes, it was pretty slow, with only 8 Mb of memory and Palm 3.0, but it was working fine and I couldn't see replacing it right now when I really didn't need to. But one day I tried to beam something to K, and the Visor was so slow that the SJ-20 gave up waiting and timed out before the Visor could transmit the file! That's when, he explained, he decided to get me one for Christmas.

My new Clié is exactly the same as K's except -- it has a color screen! It's really nice! Along with it, K gave me a 128 Mb memory stick, a package of screen protectors, and registered copies of two programs: Datebook 5, an improved version of the built-in datebook, and Bejeweled, a game that K found very addicting even on his monochrome screen and says will be terrific in color. Meredith is addicted to it too, so if you don't see me posting as often, I may have become addicted myself! It's not installed yet, though, so I haven't tried it.

As if that wasn't enough, K gave me two other great presents! One was a Magnavox MDV455 DVD player and a DVD of A Mighty Wind. I didn't have a DVD player, and since I watch very little television, didn't particularly feel the need for one. But I'd heard that there was some good material on the A Mighty Wind DVD, and had said a couple of times that "A Mighty Wind might be the 'killer app' that makes me finally buy a DVD player." I wasn't hinting, just making a passing comment, as Extraverts are wont to do. But K knew I wanted A Mighty Wind, and explained that if he was going to give me the DVD, of course had also to get me a player so I could watch it! (Note: K insists that this gift is not a puppy -- our family's name for a present that you give someone else in the household not because they want it, but because you do! It's based on the stereotypical little boy who gives his mother a puppy for her birthday because he wants one.)

The other was a new book, Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson by Jennifer Hecht. We heard Hecht on the Diane Rehm Show a couple of months ago, and the book sounded fascinating. As a self-described "agnostic of everything" and classical skeptic, I really appreciate a book that, as the book jacket says, "celebrates doubt as an engine of creativity and as an alternative to the political and intellectual dangers of certainty. Just as belief has its own history featuring people whose unique expressions of faith have forever changed the world, doubt has a vibrant story and tradition with its own saints, martyrs, and sages." I'm very eager to read it.

K also put some very nice candy in my stocking, including a pound of chocolates from Wockenfuss, a small regional candy company that makes wonderful chocolate, and a half-pound bag of Baci hazelnut chocolates, as well as some bagged candy (Hershey's new dark chocolate kisses, Dove chocolates, etc.) just to make sure I had enough chocolate!

My brother and s-i-l also sent an unusual gift this year instead of their usual JC Penney gift certificates -- an AlphaShield Internet Privacy Protection device. The company claims to "provide 100% Unhackable security which we are willing to back up by an unlimited and unconditional guarantee."

Oh, wow -- if you lose money or intellectual property because your private information was hacked, they'll cover the loss? Um, no, not quite. The unlimited and unconditional guarantee says, "If you can prove that you were hacked while using a properly installed AlphaShield, when AlphaGAP Technology was enabled, we will accept the return of the product and provide a full refund (with proof of purchase) or replace the product at your option."

It was very sweet of him (my technophobic s-i-l obviously had nothing to do with this choice) and I really do appreciate the thought! But he and I had an e-mail conversation about this issue a couple of months ago, and I sent him the URL of the excellent Shields Up! site where you can test your firewall's protection level. He proudly replied that his computer passed all the tests perfectly -- but he apparently didn't pay attention to my response that my computer had also passed all the tests perfectly with my free ZoneAlarm firewall.

When we thanked them for the gift on the phone, my brother explained that he uses this product because he has all of his financial information, everything he knows about all his contacts, and a lot more on his computer, and "a software firewall can be hacked but this thing can't" -- and he wanted us to have the same 100% protection. What he doesn't seem to realize is why would anyone pick his computer to hack into?! First, hackers can't even see a computer protected by a firewall, as evidenced by the Shields Up! tests -- and they can't hack into it if they don't know it's there. But more to the point, what makes him think he -- or I -- would have anything of interest to a hacker? Neither of us has the kind of money that could attract anybody's interest, and although he may think he's famous, he is well known in only the extremely limited circle of other "Catholic theologians," as he styles himself.

I'll go ahead and install this thing, since I have it, although I'm not sure it will add any additional protection to what I already have (and in fact may interfere with push technology, since it seems to work on the basis of refusing access to anything the browser hasn't specifically requested). It's at least a more thoughtful, if less useful, gift to us than a pair of $25 gift cards.

On Christmas E and A brought some potpourri and "room fragrance" from Yankee Candle Company (are they trying to tell us something?), and a box of nonpareils from Wockenfuss. (Actually, the smelly stuff was supposed to be for me and the candy for K, but he knows I'm underwhelmed by things like that and promised to share.) J&D gave us a box of nine chocolate Christmas ornaments from Superior Confections.

I'm worried that Meredith and K spent too much, but I'm truly thrilled with my wonderful gifts!