Cole woke us up bright and early (read: it was still dark) on Christmas morning so he could see if Santa came. I think there was some doubt he'd make then good list. He must have made it, because there were plenty of treats under the tree for him.

Ever since Microsoft became too big for a decent holiday party, a group of us have always done dinner and drinks in Seattle. This time was a little more reserved -- it's hard to do serious bar hopping during the holidays. Still, we managed to rent a limo and have a great dinner at Tulio's.  Mike got some really great pictures given the light.  Check it out on Flickr.

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Danna was able to snag me an XBox 360 for Christmas. So I guess I should be saying that Danna rocks -- which she does. Overall, I'm very impressed with the level of polish of the 360. I'm not going to try to give anyone a big fat review of the 360; that's been done. Instead, here's a small list of things I find surprising about the 360:

Hardware

Yes, the graphics and processor are hot (literaly). What I think is most impressive about the hardware is the almost Mac-like attention to detail.