(Hey, I had to guess too!)

Because the rest of your life is up to you to decide?

Or he wants you to write a letter to somebody, maybe to him?

Nope

for the start of you novel!

Nope! (For that I'd use a computer.)
Anyone else?

Origami?

So funny! No. He wanted me to write down a list of parts and their prices for the computer that I desperately need and want to build. He's paying for them!

So not to exaggerate the gift, I wrote these parts down:

Intel Core i5 3450 4x 3100MHz QuadCore, ASROCK H61M-HVS, 8GB RAM, 120GB Flash SSD, 1TB SATA2 regular harddisk, 750W silent PSU, GeForce GTX 560 1GB, additional case fan, and Win7 64 Bit.

The case and DVD writer will come from the old computer.

While this won't be ultra high end, I think it will be a durable and good system which will last for a few years.

Oh, and the Win7 64bit will be the professional version - because then, not just the CPU and mainboard but also the OS will be capable of VT-D, which I desperately need to run old 32bit programs.

(which, in particular, means my embroidery and texturing programs - they otherwise wouldn't work on a 64 bit OS!)

I must admit, I wouldn't have come up with that directly. However, I will stretch it a bit and say that he wanted you to write to him

That is an awesome gift. I'm very happy for you

I can't even begin to put into words how happy I am!

something like ?

Well at first I was all like and then but at the same time and immediately and after that around the Christmas dinner table.

Sounds about right.

awwwww that is so very cool!!!

very cool to have a dad who would do that!

You have a great dad

That's a good list and a great dad!

He is in fact the most awesome dad in the world. BTW, parts shipped today; so they'll probably arrive the day after tomorrow! - and then give me two or three days to install everything I need