The Loot
Bitter experience has affirmed that he who hesitates is indeed lost, & delay has often sounded the death knell of "The Loot." Thus, I dared wait no longer than today, even though Where's Teddy? & The Cupcake are not visiting 'til the weekend, meaning the gift-giving is not yet concluded.

This was a good Christmas for books, though a little skimpy in every other category. This is not a complaint, merely an observation. I am most grateful for everything I received.

Literature
Len Deighton, Spy Hook
Len Deighton, Spy Line
Len Deighton, Spy Sinker
Ross Douthat, Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics
Steve Kelley, editor, Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year—2013 Edition
Mike Mignola & Richard Corben, Hellboy: House of the Living Dead
Lucinda Rosenfeld, I'm So Happy for You
renewed subscription to National Review

Simon Arron & Mark Hughes, The Complete Book of Formula One
Roger Smith, Formula 1: All the Races: The World Championship Story Race-by-Race, 1950-2011

The last two were joint gifts to my father & me from "Santa," whose handwriting oddly mirrors my father's.

Motion Pictures
Night Train to Munich—Criterion Collection

The great oversight from this category was the film of the year, The Dark Knight Rises, though as mentioned the exchange of gifts is not yet complete.

Television Series
Psych—The Complete Sixth Season

Wardrobe
tartan scarf, reputedly the Wilson tartan
argyle socks, six pair

The scarf, a product of perfidious Scotland, was a gift from my father's sister & her husband, Aunt Meg & Uncle Fred, recent visitors to that benighted country. Between ten & fifteen years ago my sister, The L.A.W., visited Great Britain & brought me from Scotland a Wilson tartan scarf, which I have worn every winter since. What a neat coincidence!

Miscellany
cash, possessed of an old-school charm in this world of gift cards
my mother's signature beef salami
Toblerone, both milk chocolate & dark chocolate
AA batteries
ball-point pens
highlighter markers
assorted sweets

Highlighters? Never in my life have I made more than sporadic use of highlighters, not during either of my academic careers. I receive AA batteries as stocking stuffers every year without fail, regular as clockwork. I possess only one device—the flash attachment for the X-700, my camera—that requires AA batteries. If the apocalypse comes & I survive, & if in that ruin of the world AA batteries become the coin of the realm, then I shall be richer than Croesus.

The Rebel Black Dot Song of Saint Stephen's Day
Sufjan Stevens, "What Child Is This Anyway?" from Songs for Christmas (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary:

"This, this is Christ the King,
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing…"