Yes, I’m going to take a moment to brag about what I got for Christmas.

My parents still do a pretty big Christmas for me and my siblings, gift-wise, even though we are all definitely old enough to be fending for ourselves. They do things a little differently, though. Ever since I was around 15 or so, they’ve just sort of handed me some cash and told me to go buy my own Christmas. Same with my siblings. It sort of ruins the idea of being surprised with your gifts on Christmas day, but in my family, the surprise comes when we call my parents on Christmas morning and tell them what we got. So… they’re surprised. It works for us.

Anyway, my Christmas haul.

I have no idea why I’ve gone all Home Improvement lately, but I’ve been wanting to do woodworking forever (when I was younger, I wanted to be a carpenter/cabinetmaker when I grew up)(my dad said no, so I went to law school instead)(sometimes I still wish I was a cabinetmaker). So this year, I finally decided to start building my home workshop. I’m starting small, but I’d eventually like to have a real garage and enough tools to build whatever strikes my fancy.

The biggest thing I got was a Dremel Trio. I’d heard good things about it from John, over at Young House Love, so I decided to give it a try. Supposedly, it cuts, routs and sands. So far I’ve tried cutting and putting a decorative edge on wood. I’ve found that straight lines are not my forte, even when I use the rip fence. Somehow I always end up making it jagged and really weird looking. My decorative edge didn’t come out so well either, but I think I’m going to blame that on my not-so-straight edge. I’ll keep trying.

I also got myself a Dremel Stylus, for no reason except that it looked neat. So far I’ve used it to carve my name into the storage box it came in, and played with carving a design into a piece of scrap wood. Power carving, also not my forte. It’s way harder than the online videos make it look, seriously. But again, I suppose practice makes perfect. I also got a bunch of extra bits for this, so I’m going to use all the wood that I ruin using the Trio to practice with the Stylus.

And finally, D got me a Black and Decker jigsaw. I guess he saw the trouble I was having trying to cut straight lines with the Trio and took pity on me. I haven’t tried it yet (D has restricted my power tool use until I get some protective gear… killjoy) but I’m hoping I’m a little better at cutting with this than I am with the Trio.

And that’s mostly it. I also got an assortment of bits for the Trio and Stylus and a teeny little workbench. I think I’m going to try to turn our little storage shed into my workshop. I ordered some protective glasses, so I should be able to start using everything in the next few days. I think I’m also going to get some noise blocking ear muffs, too. Cutting wood is way louder than it sounds on TV, for real. Every time I do something, I get embarrassed at what the neighbors are probably thinking. I know the earmuffs won’t deaden the sound for the neighbors, but if it’s quieter for me, maybe I won’t think about it as much and I’ll be able to enjoy myself a little more.

We’ll see.