Even though it's Christmas, I'm posting this beacuse I don't have to be anywhere until 2. Plus, I spent the last several days thinking of these.
Ten most memorable (but not necessarily best) gifts I’ve received over the years:
10 MP3 Player – I have one for my music, but I wanted one to download audiobooks from my library. I had to pick it out myself, but at lest I knew I was getting the right one. I opened it Christmas Eve and will be downloading Christmas Day.
9 Tea maker - I don’t drink coffee, so my godchild got me a tea maker – looks just like a coffeemaker, but with special inserts for tea bags and loose tea. One of the best things I’ve ever received!
8 Snoopy pendant – it was from Lenox, way too expensive, but absolutely adorable. I love Snoopy, ever since I was 2 and my maternal grandfather won a bigger-than-I-was stuffed Snoopy I dragged around with me by his poor neck. Same grandparents bought me this a couple years ago and I wear it every Christmas Eve.
7 Christmas Tree – yes, one year I got a Christmas tree for Christmas. Ok, early present. Pre-lighted (don’t do real), 6-footer. We loaded it into the car (you may begin laughing now). My mom of the bad hip, bad knee, bad foot and I lifted this boxed tree into the back of my Ford Escape. Done – then I went home. And had to carry the boxed tree up the initial flight of stairs to my condo…alone. I couldn’t do it; the thing was just too darn heavy! And there were steps. Tried pushing it, and watched it slide back down 12 of the 14 steps. I had to wait for my best friend’s husband to help, otherwise it might still be on the stairs, waiting.
6 Seesaw – I don’t know how old I was, but my paternal grandfather built one for me. Okay, okay, and my brother. I have no idea how my parents managed to fit it into the house, I never asked. But on Christmas morning when I came downstairs, there it was, and it was beautiful – I still have a very vivid memory of it in the living room. My cousin got one, too, but lucky for me I did have a brother; she was an only child. It’s really hard seesawing alone.
5 Draino – yes, you read correctly. When I moved into my current place, the tub didn’t have one of those honeycombed drains, so my very long hair ran straight down, clogging it every other week. One year, I got a 3-pack of Draino, neatly wrapped.
4 PJs, slippers, and a stuffed animal – every year my maternal grandparents gave them to me. Every year. I suspect this year will be no exception. The pjs I can deal with, they’re usually warm and big, and now my grandmother lets me pick them out. The slippers are great; my feet are always cold. The stuffed animal was cool when I was a kid, even as a teen. Now…I have nowhere to put them. Some are jammed into a box in my parents’ attic. Some are jammed into corners in various closets in my own house. I don’t know what to do with them!
3 Santa shops at Bamberger’s – You didn't know that? Well, he does. (Or did, since Macy’s bought them out and changed the name – probably still shops at Macy’s.) I was maybe 6. Clothes are staples when it comes to Christmas, and there I was, couldn’t even spell the word (had to look it up now bur or ber?), but I recognized that green box. “Hey,” I said in a story that’s still repeated today, “Santa went to Bamberger’s!”
2 Mustard Yellow Sweater - This was a strong contender for #1. It was my senior year in high school, the week before Christmas my grandmother had died, and this was what she got me; a hideous yellow sweater. I don’t know why she thought I’d look good in it, or why she hadn’t asked my mom (my mom claims to have told her neutral colors). I hated it. But I wore it twice because she had just died and I loved her dearly, questionable taste in Christmas presents aside.
1 A Roaster - Now I don’t cook. I can bake because of my addiction to chocolate, I can microwave, I can reheat, I can make noodles. My cooking/baking maternal grandmother insisted I needed a roaster. The thing is huge! I mean fit for a 30 pound turkey huge. I have no idea what to do with it except keep it in the box (where it’s happily resided for 4 years) and hope I never have to make Thanksgiving dinner.
What was your most memorable (but not necessarily best) gift? And don't forget to comment for our January 7th basket drawing!
4 comments:
A dog!!! I went to get it with my mom at Christmas eve. And when my brother and sister were sleeping, we brought him inside the house. You should have seen their faces the next morning. That dog is still one of my best friends.
Memorable Christmas gifts? Well, when I was a law student, living in an apartment on my own, my grandmother gave me a slowcooker (a.k.a crockpot). I had never been one to to do much cooking. I always thought it was too hard and too time consuming. Grandma was probably trying to make sure that I had something decent to eat and also get me to spend at least a little bit of time in the kitchen. It came with a little cookbook. For whatever reason, the first recipe I tried was pot roast. I remember being amazed that I could put in the ingredients, turn it on, go away for 6 to 8 hours and come back to a nice hot meal. Many years later I still often rely on a crockpot to make dinner when I'm off at work! It was a gift that was both useful and educational, and went a long way to increasing my "kitchen confidence". Happy Holidays!
A dog and a crock pot--wow, two great gifts. My most memorable gift was a stuffed turtle. When I was little (like 5) I was a huge fan of stuffed animals. When I sat this huge turtle I was so excited. I used to sit on the shell part and push it through the house (we had a tile floor so it slid pretty easily). I still have my turtle, but it's pretty ripped up. The DH wants me to get rid of it, but I can't. It's my turtle !
Second most memorable gift--the dh. I met him at a Christmas party. Can't rightly forget him when we sleep in the same bed :)
My most memnorable gift was last year my mom had a quilt made for me and my sisters. It was a quilts with photos. My husband past away 2 years ago so seeing him in the pics with all of us and the kids made it special.
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