Christmas Goodies

Merry Christmas everyone!  After waking up around 7 this morning and having a quick breakfast, my family and I opened our gifts.  I have come to cherish the last few years doing this as I know it will not just be the 4 of us together at home very much longer.  My daughter is a senior in high school this year and has a steady boyfriend for 2 years.  Sooner or later she will move on.  My son is only a freshman, but is already chasing girls.  They do not stay little forever.  

After we ate lunch, the other 3 settled down for a nap while I retreated to the card room to take inventory of my goodies.  I received 3 baseball related presents this year.  Two I picked out myself, the other I did not know about.  

2 gifts I picked out myself when my wife and I went Christmas shopping a few weeks ago.  We stopped at the Busch Stadium gift shop to get my son a Tommy Edman jersey.  We also visited the Cardinals Authentics store across the street.  I spotted a couple of items I did not have in my Ray Lankford collection.

I have seen this decal before, but never pulled the trigger.  Hard to pass it up for $3.  

This is a beautiful glass replica of Lankford's plaque that is in the Cardinals Hall of  Fame Museum.  I plan to put it in my display cabinet next to a few other items of his.  I was not going to purchase it for myself, but my wife picked it out anyway.  It is wonderful to have someone that supports my hobby.

The third item was somewhat of a surprise.  Earlier last week, we found some Topps Holiday Mega boxes at Walmart.  My son and I did pretty good with that rip.  My wife decided I needed another one, so she was lucky to get the last one on the shelf on Wednesday.  The results were better than the first box.

Betts was about on par with the Ohtani ornament from our first box.

I received 1 of the 2 Cardinals I needed for my team set.  Jake Walsh should not be too hard to find.

I received the usual 5 metallic parallels.  Scherzer was the biggest name.

My short prints were better this box with a rare Trout and a Suzuki.  

My son opened half the packs.  It was great to see his expression pulling this Altuve relic.  Needless to say pulling this $5 card made his morning.  

I will give major props to Topps for the coalition on the boxes, as I did not receive a single duplicate from the 2 I opened.  We are 26 cards short of the complete set, with O'Neil Cruz being the biggest name.  We plan on trading the metallics and short prints to finish it.