This year was probably the most ‘profitable’ one since I was myself a little kid waiting for Santa. With the kids working, they actually had money to purchase presents for me and each other instead of ‘borrowing’ the dough from me to do same.
So I got a baby budgie (called him Warren) and a beautiful mortar and pestle and a whizzo double-bladed herb chopper and a new mobile (cell) phone and some smelly-stuff from the Body Shop.
And my wonderful sister and her family, with whom normally we just share simple and often home-made gifts, got me a dead-set, fair-dinkum humungous barbeque with a 9 kg gas bottle etc. :eek: I was so blown-away by her generosity that I promptly burst into tears.
My mum and step-father gave me four drinking glasses…and nothing for the kids. :rolleyes: Meh.
I’ve had a great Christmas all the same.
Sister: a Devil Ducky bath toy and a photo album she put together for me (a WONDERFUL gift, took so much effort)
The Cody: Sugar scrub (Lavender Vanilla), shower gel (Moonlight Garden, or something like that), and a blue/purple Zippo with my name engraved on it
Dad/Step-Mom: 2 boxes of Qtips, cotton pads, a big can of Parmesan cheese, bath and hand towels, a penguin calendar, a penguin puzzle, candy, incense cones, socks, razors, nail file, nail remover. At this poiint, I’m just like, “Well . . . neat.” Then he mentions that there’s something in his truck that’s too big to fit in my car. What is it?
A Frigidaire chest freezer. Fits nicely in my living room. 2.5’ front to back, 3’ tall, 3’ side to side (as best as we can visually estimate) with a slidey rack inside. Really useful, since I freeze a lot of food and rats (for my snakes), and my freezer is constantly overflowing. And I’ll be able to put my ice cream sammiches in the rack so I can reach them from my chair. Ha! I am lazy. And The Cody/Boom the Cat get to play in the box, heh. Cody is still 6 inside. It’s a fort!
I think this is the appropriate thread to mention a most special Christmas gift which I received from my very good friend Blonde.
She had seen an earlier thread of mine asking for recommendations of “differeent” Christmas music, and she suggested the CD Merry Axemas which features among others, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Steve Morse.
That was such a pleasant surprise and I thank her very much for thinking of me. In return, I will think of her everytime I play it from now on.
Thanks. Blonde, my ultra-secret Santa now revealed!
More than anything this Christmas, Moonbeamdancer wanted Pirates Of The Caribbean on DVD.
So on Christmas Eve, there was only one package under the tree that resembled a DVD. She frantically tore it open to reveal… The PowerPuff Girls Movie.
She ripped through the rest of her gifts. Several other much-desired treasures, but no Pirates.
This morning, we gathered for coffee in the living room, and my wife remarks that perhaps there’s something in the stockings.
’Dancer roots unenthusiastically through her big furry sock and finds a package. Too small to be a DVD. She opens it… and finds one of her old man’s lead soldiers, wrapped in toilet paper, and a note: Gee, I wonder what’s in the gray tool box in the shed?
She came back in a few minutes later, chilly, but wickedly satisfied. We sipped coffee and watched the Pirates blooper reel.
And then, my mate from Australia, The Loaded Dog sent me a beautiful calendar of Aborginal art, which I just hung on my wall.
This was part of our G’Dope Secret Santa, and was much appreciated. Thanks El Presidente!
I must now mention the nightime visit at my work by an elf named Jason (actually my son). Sometime during the night, he installed a brand new sound system in my car! Imaging my surprise when I got in to start it this morning and heard the raw guitar sounds of ZZ Top playing!
From the rearview mirror hung a Christmas ornament with a note which read “You should have seen the size of the elf who installed your new sound system!” How he got by hospital security, I have yet to find out.
All in all quite a haul for your pal Quasi this Christmas. Thanks to all my Santas, secret or not for making this a wonderful holiday!
Speaking of evil, one of my sons pulled a bewdy on my youngest around the tree early yesterday morning. He handed little bro’ (aged 15) his present (which was the size and shape of a DVD) and in fact WAS a DVD.
It was Joy to the World featuring the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Orchestra of Temple Square.
The look on little bro’s face was absolutely PRICELESS. I wish I’d had the camera there!!
(Later older bro’ gave little bro his real present which was a very cool and much appreciated new wristwatch).
~lots of candy and chocolate
~three pairs of socks (lamps, cats, and ducks)
~new headphones
~a wallet
~a black zip up sweater
~a zipper pull with a purple lampwork bead and a dragonfly charm
~three long sleeved shirts
~two camisoles
~two belts
~a pair of teal slippers
~seven books
~a polar fleece blanket with my initials embroidered on it
~a jar of “Mars Mud”
~a digital jokebook kind of thing called a Joke Master
~a digital camera with a color printer
~three juice glasses
~a chapstick
~a picture frame that my grandmother painted at one of those “paint your own pottery” places
And very probably some other stuff that I forgot about.
Well, I’m Jewish, so for me it’s Hannukah. I’ve gotten the following so far from my parents (I’m 17; it’s the last Hannukah in this sort of format for me):
Pulp Fiction (Collector’s Edition 2-disc DVD set)
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (DVD)
Triumph of the Straight Dope (yes!)
Brand new Merriam-Webster’s collegiate dictionary with computer format, for my college adventure the next 4 years
Book: “Saying Yes: In Defense of Drug Use” by Jacob Sullum (yes my parents are awesome, no I’m not allowed to do drugs (at least I think I’m not), yes I’ve done a couple drugs anyway)
Book: “Swallowing a Bitter Pill: How Prescription and Over-the-Counter Drug Abuse is Ruining Lives”, forgot who the author is (I have a big academic interest in drug stuff, in case you haven’t noticed)
WiFi card for my laptop (I’m stealing someone’s bandwidth right now)
A B. Kilban cat calendar (one of those with all the funny drawings of cats in various [mostly human] situations)
I’ve gotten the following so far for my friends for Christmas:
FIFA 2004 (PlayStation 2 game) for a friend who’s a big soccer fan, so she can kick her brother off the PS2 and play it (I’ll play it with her too)
A carton of cigarettes for another (underage) female friend who smokes partly to get over the emotional damage from some particularly traumatic events in her recent past
A Winston (the cigarette brand) Rodeo Awards denim jacket for the same friend, that my mom used to wear (my mom got it when her brother worked for the company that makes Winston cigs)
A little box thing of 3 different perfumes (bought one each of these boxes for two different female friends)
The “fetus nitrous oxide starter kit” for another of my female friends, who I introduced to nitrous recently: a box of 24 whippits, a cracker (the thing you use to open up the whippits and fill up balloons with the N2O contained in them), and a fancy balloon.
Tobacco is illegal for people under 18 here, BTW. Nitrous oxide is illegal to inhale in some places.
Books: Jamie’s Kitchen (jamie oliver), Bare Bones (Kathy Reichs), Disordered Minds (minnette walters).
House stuff: Set of 6 pans and pots. Platter for serving dip and chips.
Desperately desired and needed: Contribution towards new tyres for my car.
What the f**k??: Blue faux snakeskin purse.
Random: chocolate.
A marshmallow gun. Kinda hard to describe - it’s a blowgun made from PVC pipe, with handles and stuff. You use miniature marshmallows for ammo. The cat hates it.
Best all-round gift:
For 2 years, I’ve been searching for a set of dinnerware. Cobalt blue with a narrow terra-cotta rim. Haven’t been able to find them anywhere. For Christmas, I received 4 plates from my girlfriend. Here’s the kicker…she made them herself.
From the jillelope, a kick-ass Sony DVD player (I’m never going to watch VHS again);
From Mom: A cool little flashlight for my keychain that’s about the size of a nickel but is somehow bright enough to light an entire room. Also a check for $25;
From Dad: Two turtleneck shirts, two sweaters;
From little sister: A book of “The Wisdom of Mr. Rogers” and an Elvis refrigerator magnet.
My new computer, which has been inoperable since my birthday(it was a present) due to some jerks overclocking it, is getting upgraded from ~500MHZ to 1.7GHZ.
About ~100 dollars worth of gift certificates/cards/money to Chapters, Starbucks and Radioshack.
From a Buick 8 and Wizard and Glass by Stephen King.
A 2GB Hard Drive.
A whole bunch of mechanical pencils. Great because I love to draw.
