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!
