My Favorite Christmas Gift

For the past few years my husband and I have been buying our own Christmas presents, wrapping them up, then hiding them in our walk-in closet until Christmas Eve. It might sound a bit unromantic but believe me, getting EXACTLY what you want is fantastic! No more getting tacky gifts that you have to pretend to be excited about receiving when you open them up in front of the person that gave them to you.

This year I bought some classic rock CD's for Christmas including The Clash; Combat Rock, Pretenders; The Singles and Led Zepplin's new Mothership 2-disk set. But unfortunately I didn't have a decent stereo system on which to play them on.

Our old 5-disk CD player bit the dust awhile ago so I've been uploading all my CD's to my laptop computer then copying them to my MP-3 player. But the sound from my computer's speakers is less than ideal and my ears start to hurt after wearing my headphones for too long when using my MP-3 player.

Our new HD-DVD player also plays CD's so we haven't had to replace the broken CD player in our living room. I like to listen to music while I'm writing in my office so I started looking for a small, compact, inexpensive CD player for myself.

I purchased a Philips Micro System Hi-Fi Stereo System from Circuit City. At only $76.99 I thought it was a pretty good deal and the system received a 4.7 out of 5 star rating on the Circuit City website. The model number of this unit is MC235B. Everyone at my house was impressed by the audio quality of such a small system. My mom, who is visiting for the holidays, is considering purchasing the Micro System when she gets back home.

This system allows you to play a single CD or listen to AM/FM radio stations. It also has a clock and alarm function which comes in handy as I decided to place the unit in my bedroom instead of my office. Although the systems flat design allows it to be mounted to the wall, I have mine on top of my nightstand next to a basket-full of my favorite CD's.

The system also comes with a remote control which allows you to access all the functions without having to get up and manually operate the unit. You can auto program or manually program up to 40 preset radio stations. Other neat features include the dynamic bass boost which enhances the audio quality and the digital sound control which allows you to select sound playback characteristics of rock, jazz, pop or classic. I highly recommend this system to anyone that is looking for a compact, inexpensive CD player.