posted
I had my Christmas today. Which means my mom's package came in the mail today. I'll be spending the holiday alone, so I figured "Why Wait?" Before I get into the contents of the box, I have to give a little background. First of all, I love my mom, and she tries really hard, but she tends to miss the mark quite a bit. I try to appreciate her gifts anyway and make as much use of them as I can. Once in a while, though, she manages to remember that I like a certain thing and it's like I'm five again. Also, for reference, I own four versions of Trivial Pursuit.
My "loot":
One 500 piece cat puzzle, still in the plastic, from 1977. One nice, but thoroughly unstylish, Christmas sweatshirt that my mom accidently bought two of. A gift card for Kohl's that I knew was coming. A small tin of chocolate-covered popcorn. Can't argue with that. This. One marg--uhh, smoothie maker. And...the Trivial Pursuit DVD Lord of the Rings Trilogy Edition!!! (This makes five.)
I actually danced in my living room and palpitated for a good ten minutes. I am a happy kid.
Anyway, what about the rest of you? I realize I'm a little early for this thread to survive until after Christmas Present, but what about Christmas Past? What's the last gift you got that made you positively giddy?
Posts: 1090 | Registered: Oct 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
This guy is so cool. He sent me 2 video games, and the ORIGINAL STAR WARS. No special effects, no computer graphics, just the real thing! And also an awesome Korean animated film and Hero, fansubbed. I was psyched. I love presents! And my friend sent me a cute caterpillar toy for my bday once!!!
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Last year was a tough Christmas. We didn't really have much money (not like we do this year) and I wasn't really expecting much. When we finished unwrapping all the presents from my family, I was happy but there wasn't really anything I'd consider what we call in my family "the big present." But I was still happy, I figured being able to go to college was my "big present."
But then my dad brought out a last couple of presents for my brother and I. During the year before, we'd gotten our black belts in Tae Kwon Do. When I opened the package, it was my black belt certificate, framed really nicely. And a new belt, embroidered with my name on it in red. It was really the best present ever.
Posts: 4816 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'd have to say that one of the best gifts that I've received for Christmas was my digital camera, which was this year. I've been taking tons and tons of pictures so that way I'll know my camera enough to use it to take good pictures for this Christmas. Also, every gift that I get from Rick is a cherished gift. My orchid tattoo is a very special gift that Rick bought me for my birthday last year.
One of my most memorable gifts was the little tykes kitchenette that I received for Christmas when I was...maybe six?
Also, one of the most painful gifts I've received for Christmas was a porcelain doll from my step-grandmother. The reason for this was because I had collected for years the porcelain dolls that my grandmother bought me. I had felt it was something special that I had between my grandmother and I, as I'd received one from her pretty much every year since I was old enough to appriciate them. Three years after she'd passed away receiving one from Linda was quite a shock. It actually brought me to tears (although I did so outside of the eyes of family, as I knew it wasn't her fault, she didn't know any better and was just trying to be a part of my life).
The gifts that I've worked the hardest on? One year I made gift baskets for all the people that I was giving to that year. Each were personalized for their bathroom colors and motifs, and each were themed in each persons favorite scent. I made small guest soaps and bathsalts, lavender pillow sachets and teas, and also some home-made candles. Last year I made everyone on my list hand-crocheted scarves and hats. Also for my Dad's birthday present last year I made for him a collage of framed pictures of my father and I as I was growing up with a poem that I had written about how much I appriciated him.
Hands down. The runner up? The Pop Up Book of Nightmares.
A little background so you understand the context.
I used to have major phobias. I say used to because I've managed to beat most of them. Phobias included everything from fear of heights, enclosed spaces, crowds (meaning - for me - anything over more than 1 person), dark, spiders, men, black, going someplace new, meeting new people, any new experiences, going anywhere by myself, and really, the list goes on. And on. And on. I was in really rough shape.
One of my best friends, Lynn, knew all this. She also knew my sense of humour. Wacked. So she saw this in the bookstore and immediately thought of me. She shows it to another mutual friend - who didn't know me quite as well - who was horrified that Lynn would consider giving such a gift to me, the queen of phobias. Lynn tried reassuring her, but it didn't work.
Fast forward to the day I get the gift. I open it up, I start howling. At the title. I open the book and read and look at the pages, one by one. I howl a lot more. I cried. I nearly peed my pants. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen. I still love it.
Nightmares. Same basic story. I've been having them for years. I have sleep terrors, too, which basically means I wake up and I would swear there was a murderer/rapist in my room/apartment/house and I gotta get rid of him now, and I can't rest/go back to bed until he's gone. Finally, twenty minutes later, I realize that it was just another episode. So. Same friend. Christmas two years later. And I open it up and see the title. Howling begins again.
posted
The best present I ever got was the year my mom made photo albums for the three of us kids, filled to the brim with photos and other mementos from our childhood. I cried.
I wish I had the money to get some of my film developed this year. Last year I gave a lot of photos as gifts, and they all went over very well.
Posts: 1805 | Registered: Jun 1999
| IP: Logged |
I would love to have a Christmas without a feuding family. Every time my wife and I go home we end up not spending enough time with somebody. So with the baby here, we're bracing for an especially rough Christmas. We leave this afternoon and will be staying at Hill AFB overnight to lighten the load on Tanner.
posted
For Christmas, I got a jeep. I'm now the proud owner (yes my name is on the tittle) of a 1988 black jeep Cherokee. It is fully loaded for mudding (6 inch lift, mud tires, 4 wheel drive, new under carriage, and new shocks) but is lacking some common things (like starting with a key). It is lacking these things, because it was stolen. when the owner got it back, it was stripped of the radio, speakers, the windshield was broken, the steering column had been ripped apart and the drivers door lock had been broken. all of these things made the vehicle dirt cheap (about 3 grand under blue book), so my parents could afford it... Posts: 1094 | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Twelve years ago I got a baby for Christmas. She arrived at 1:50am December 25.
The best part about that, was that the shops were all closed, so no one could bring me any flowers or gifts in the hospital. My grandmother brought me the blooms from her night blooming Cereus plant, in warm seasons they bloom through Dec.
She loved this plant, had looked after it for years, and going outside at night and looking at its blooms was one of her favorite things to do. And she cut off those blooms, and brought them to me so I'd have some flowers in my room.
She's been gone now for over seven years, she never even got to meet my other children, I was pregnant with Emily when she died.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
We celebrated Christmas with my family last weekend. My grandpa made me a really cool wooden kitchen stool, which I love. My sister also had a woman at her work make me, my sister-in-law, and my other sister memory bracelets. They are adorable and feature miniature pictures of all of our children - I can't believe we have enough to fill a bracelet!
posted
It's strange...I rarely remember gifts long after they've been given. But one stands out in my mind and I'm very sad I don't have it anymore. I've missed it over the years since it was given to me, but it's probably just as well it's gone, as the memory of it probably surpasses the reality.
My first MIL was notorious for sending weird, useless, cheap, gaudy gifts. Her box of gifts was always good for an eyeroll or just plain confusion. One year she sent a big box, as usual. It contained cheap shampoo and The Gift I'll Always Remember. It was the late 80's and those fiber optic lamps were popular. Her Gift was not so fancy as those. It was a clear plastic encased flower arrangement with hard plastic tulips that lit up. We were sitting on the floor when we opened it, and howled rolling around on the floor laughing. It was easily one of the most hideous things I've ever seen. So we had to plug it in and see how much worse it got. Those plastic tulips glowed with fervor as we shed tears over it. Then it began to flash to the beat of the music we had going. It was Too Much.
I have never laughed so hard in my life.
We gave it away in a white elephant gift exchange, and I've regretted it every day since.
Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Cry]](graemlins/cry.gif)
