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Much smaller haul than yours: 1 diary and 1 voucher for a mini manicure.
I also got to (attempt to) make friends with a couple of Shaver hens; now I want some myself.
I also heard some neat oral history from my stepfather. I blogged about it, will copy-and-paste here:
Lester showed me some of his photos from the 50s - 70s. One was of his son, Malcom, aged maybe 8, standing proudly by a deer one of them had shot.
Me:So, your kids grew up quite comfortable with the circle of life and animals dying and all that? Lester:Oh yeah yeah they saw that all the time they had no problem with that.
A few photos on and Malcolm was sitting in the back of a ute with a blindfolded deer, which I assumed was also dead. The next photo in the album was of the deer swimming across a bay. As the story behind these photos unfolded, I realised the first photo in the sequence was not of a dead deer but a rescued deer. The deer had been found apparently trying to swim a distance of seven or so miles, too far for the deer to have ever made it back to land. The blindfold was to keep the deer calm while he was transported to his new home (a farm).
Me:Hang on, a few photos ago you were proud of killing a deer. Now you're going all out to save this one? Why? What's the difference between the two? Was it because he was so plucky? Lester: {great glee} Yes exactly! And it was fun to do! We figured, if he had the spirit and bravery to try and swim that bay, he was worth saving.
So there you go. If deer hunters decide that you, a deer, have the human quality of bravery (as opposed to, say, the human quality of stupidity) because for some reason unknown to humans you decided to swim across a bay, they will intervene and cart you off to an easy life on a farm somewhere, rather than put a bullet through your brain, like they did with a fellow member of your species last weekend.
- Lots and lots of nice things for the bath, which is good because I have no money to buy nice things for the bath, and because I have so much that I can't possibly save it all for Best... (but slightly bad because I already have rather a lot to use up!)
- Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's Chest on DVD which I hadn't managed to see at the cinema, watched it Monday night and enjoyed thoroughly
- That Touch of Mink DVD - having a bit of a Doris Day kick at the moment, so yay!
- Two boxes of yummy chocolates
- A couple of humour/novelty type books which were slightly disappointing because there are so many books I would have really liked (and I have a huge Amazon wishlist!!) but never mind
- A calendar from my mum which was a bit tricky because I already have a 2007 calendar, but it was good really because DD was upset that I had a calendar and she didn't, so now she has one!
- A really lovely mezuzah (Jewish thingy to affix to doorpost with a scroll containing verses from the Torah) from boyfriend's parents
- Best of all, a joint present from myself and my wonderful SS Sibs: a lovely clean tidy kitchen to cook the dinner in, a fairly tidy living room to open all the presents in (didn't stay tidy for long, as DD got a million billion My Little Pony and Polly Pocket and Barbie toys, but hey, at least they ddn't get lost in a sea of STUFF!) and a lovely cleaned-up, tidied-up kitchen by 10am yesterday morning (would've been finished Monday night but I ran out of hot water twice!)
Pirates of the Caribben Dead Man's Chest & my woes
December 27 2006, 2:48 AM
I missed that movie too.It's currently showing at the $1 movies. I hope to see it but that's up in the air. George is mad at me, without cause I might add, & he disappeared with my 2 year old car ... leaving me stranded here at home!! I filed a police report on him yesterday. That protects my car in case he's using it in the commission of a crime. (My police complaint keeps the government from seizing the car & selling it at auction if he's caught in wrong doing.) I also called his Parole Officer last night, leaving him a voice message of what was going on & the report number of the complaint I filed with the police.
We have two dear friends: C & C. Both of them are shop-a-holics. They love to buy gifts. They shower us with things for any occasion. I do not want anything! We give modest gifts to them, and I refuse to change this. But they bring over cartons of stuff. This year from these two friends here are the gifts we cannot use:
*a humungous complete illustrated Jane Austen: impossible to read, the size of an enormous family bible
*2 packages of china party plates (cut out space for a glass)----thankfully these can be returned, as there was a gift receipt enclosed
*battery-powered pepper mill (I already have a serviceable wooden one)
*oil-and-vinegar cruets: no right-thinking Italian would ever use these for salad making
*an expensive leather travel jewellry roll: I do not need this, and in fact had one exactly like this which I gave away
*a book on orchids: DH has given up on their cultivation
*a huge tin of popcorn: artificially flavoured (I will give to church)
*socks that don't fit
*portfolio of vintage bird drawings from an estate: THEY STINK OF MOLD AND CELLARS AND ROT!
This does NOT include the gifts from C & C which we might actually use:
*gift certificate from liquor store
*box of expensive chocolates
*scarf
*2 flow blue plates for DH's collection
*an owl for DH's collection
I am going to have to say something to the first Mrs. C. This cannot go on: we are embarrased because we give the C family token gifts (value $30) and a CERTIFICATE for a donation to Unicef or some such charity.
The second Mrs. C. is mucho touchy---and we will just have to grin and bear it and pretend to be delighted ...
I do not wish to appear ungrateful---but lordy,lordy-----can you imagine this list from 2 friends????? Representing at least a thousand of dollars of expense???????? Whoa nelly!
We gave second Mrs. C a bottle of expensive scotch; for Mr. C. a box of cheap shortbread. We are seriously embarassed.
Fivecat, a broom & a dust pan for upstairs is a good thing to have.
We had a quiet home, because I did not do the dinner, for the first time in years. Hubby's mom wanted to do the dinner this year, but as soon as we walked in she said to me, "You're doing dinner next year." I believe she found it to be more work than she remembered. Which is fine with me; I like doing Christmas dinner. But I did Thanksgiving this year, which I usually don't, so that's why she took Christmas. Next year, I'll do Christmas dinner again & maybe son can do Thanksgiving. We'll see.
Hubby's parents & brother gave us gift cards to local places that we will use. Hubby's mom also gave me a family heirloom; very nice agate bookends. Hubby gave me Zune (Microsoft's answer to iPod) and I gave him XBox360; both were accessorized. He wanted it to set up our home network to stream video into the living room entertainment system. Not so much for gaming purposes, as he's not really a gamer. Although we spent a couple hours both days playing the demos and the used Tomb Raider I got for myself.
We also carefully chose a bedroom set for granddaughter for her Christmas gift, which won't actually be delivered before she gets home, but we know she's going to love it. She's been falling out of her small uncomfortable youth bed, but never falls out of the double bed she sleeps in at our house. So we think it has to do with the thin mattress being so uncomfortable. She will get to open another fun gift, too.
We're having a second Christmas when they get back home from Mexico in a few days. So the gift giving is not yet complete. I will also be visiting my family in California next month, which will be an extention of Christmas for me.
From son:
clear glass Starbucks mug (useful)
tin of three Starbucks cocoas (useful)
From daughter:
box of Godiva chocolates (story...she wanted to get them for me, but we could never find a free time to go to the mall, since the closest one is thirty minutes to the north or west...I picked up a box myself at Macy's, gave them to husband, he gave them to her and said he bought them for her to give, she wrapped them, I pretended to be surprised)
From both kids:
heated foot massager (PERFECT...been asking for one for two years, kids wanted to get it last year but they went shopping with mom and she would not take them to the store they were at...kids were almost in tears last year because they KNEW that was the ONE thing I wanted, I felt so sorry for them...in the winter here at the desk my feet freeze)
From mom:
Starbucks card (useful)
cheap wooden box with snowman (Goodwill)
Black & Decker handheld scrubber (useful, asked for it, although she got me the $10 stick one and I wanted the $20 palm one, but oh well, I'll use it)
bag of some sort of smelly Avon stuff, ginger something (Goodwill...am allergic to most scented things like that...plus it stinks, ick)
gift card for Wal-Mart (useful)
Still have yet to see what dad and stepmom got me.
I had a good Christmas, though a little tiring (my family stays up too late and talks too much!). For gifts, I got mostly clutter:
- a creamer and sugar set (because my mom was here for brunch a few weeks ago and I didn't have a little pitcher for maple syrup) - nice thought, but the set doesn't match anything I have
- a game that appears to be broken (I'll try it again and hope my sister still has the receipt)
- a telescoping metal walking stick - I already have two wooden ones, and I would never have bought this for myself, plus I don't like the color
- a new fanny pack that's oddly heavy; it does have lots of nice compartments, though, and it's my favorite color, and it's from my niece, so I'll keep it and use it
I'm a real party pooper!
But I'm happy with the gifts I bought: mostly food gifts from World Market - fancy jelly, scone and muffin mixes, hazelnut/chocolate spread, chocolate, and some games for the kids. My mom commented on the way home that I gave her the best gifts from the family: things she would enjoy and use up!
A cake-stand.
A pretty blouse from England (from Number 1 DD)
A Canon printer from DS.
A Christian Dior make-up set from number2 DD (from strawberrynet.com, great site).
Gold earings from my Mum.
A coffee cup coz everyone knows I looove coffee.
I bought DH a drinks dispensor for his bar. And he gots lots of wine and spirits from everyone! (We don't drink much alcohol, but will settle down for a quiet drop on a weekend).
My family needs nothing: just token gifts (boxes of chocs usually.. ..) Plus I make donations to Unicef, WWF, Nature Conservancy----lots of different ones. I get the donation enrollment cards and wrap them up FANCY for the family recipients.
I also gave to family and friends: home made shortbread, or figgy pudding, or fruit cake (yo ho ho....)
I also gave some of my special hand-made flower cards to some extra-special friends.
Other than chocs and token treats (high quality): a few things I bought:
*illuminated manuscript note cards for deacon at church;
*cat-in-the-hat stocking for brother (1/2 price last year);
*great composers postcards for music friend;
*Guerlain perfume box for mom (I kept half for myself, and gave her the rest, plus all the free samples which she loves.)
Also, whenever I buy beauty products or perfume, I save the 'gifts with purchase' and re-gift them unopened and intact (makeup usually) to friend, music teacher, trainer at gym.
I also made up a very nice gift bag with recycled things plus some new treats for mom's cleaning lady's disabled daughter.
Also box of chocs for nail salon; box of chocs plus $$$ for mail lady.
I believe in re-gifting; I believe in token gifts, consumable gifts, hand-made gifts, food gifts, donation-in-honor gifts. I do not believe in CLUTTER GIFTS and joke gifts. Sorry if I sound like a grinch.....
I would rather give ONE great but tiny chocolate bar (Neuhaus, Godiva, Saxon) than a whole box of imitation garbage....
Yeppers! One of those Murphey's Law things...as hubby and I were baking and cleaning up in preparation for 16 guests for Christmas lunch - my body decided to pull a surprise on Christmas Eve.
I wound up ignoring/working through the pain until about 5 PM. I figured if I didn't get it over with and go into the ER then, I would wind up there on Christmas Day.
I thought I had a kidney infesction - but a cat scan showed I had 3 stones. They gave me a shot for pain and some pain pills to take. We were at the ER for about 4 hourse. Luckily the house was pretty clean and just needed a quick vacuuming and the bathroom cleaned - which I did the next morning.
Not so much going on here. Lots of enjoyable self-indulgence
I bought hubby the new Thomas Pynchon book that he would have gotten anyway for himself.
He bought himself the new mix of the Beatles CD.
Son finished up his first semester at college where he had excellent attendance and made all his deadlines despite various amounts of pain and suffering. We went over a wish list of his together Bought 4 video games for him from that. He got 3 games from a friend whose X box and games he had borrowed while friend went across country to work in the National Guard. When all was returned, friend said keep 3 of the games plus he gave son a new game that son wanted. Son had no extra money on him when they met for lunch and so he bought pizza for the friend.
Hubby bought 3 clip on/magnetic calculators and 2 of them don't work.
Hubby wanted to buy me a set of Northern Exposure on DVD but I declined as I don't have the patience to rewatch even though the theme song is my email alert. It keeps me calm whenever I am likely to get hysterical emails.
I will probably get chanuka presents from friend who hasn't been by yet owing to illness and family problems. I don't have too much for her - ornate scarf clip I am shedding, perhaps and 15 Starbucks gift card I received for participating in hoarding survey. She is very big on Christmas - her house is decorated with glass Christmas trees all year long and will leave her decorations up for months until all her friends have come by to see them. But OTOH, I funnel some of my best rejects to her through the year and she makes out like a bandit. She offered back to me the evening purse she took to Antiques Roadshow so that I could sell it, but I declined.
Bought myself a tuque, scarf, gloves in winter white that I wanted, a marshmallow white purse with brown "leather" trim and strap, a not-so-puffy white knee-length puffer coat with hood and white fleece lining. Bought several books. Bought an Orthotote shoulder pad that slips over shoulder straps to relieve muscle strain from trying to keep a shoulder bag on. Everyone will try it out since the guys carry backpacks and gym bags on one shoulder and will order more if anyone else wants one.
he had an A in English but the department instituted a brand new departmental exam that would drastically affect the grade and whether you even pass. All students who wrote anything about teachers automatically got a near failing grade. His teacher was outraged on their behalf because the essays were good. She raised them up by several points. He still was dropped to a B and was bitter. He turned in an extra-credit 20 point assignment at the last minute because he previously thought he didn't need to plus he had a very painful arm from a tendon being popped out of place. Don't know if this assignment helped or it was the teacher's rebelliousness, but when he logged on to see his grades, there was the A in English.
"All students who wrote anything about teachers automatically got a near failing grade."
i don't quite get this part. was it an essay, a review? comments in a student newspaper? and whatever happened to the concept of ... freedom of expression?
I always thought freedom of expression in academe only came with tenure. :D
The college is a community college with a main suburban campus, a small satellite suburban campus and a city campus. While some of the city (urban, ghetto) students do take classes at the main campus most attend the city campus. Many of the required classes are given at night when no buses are running back to the city by the time the class would end - not late!
The city kids are largely products of a failed school district that has had a 70% dropout rate and immense corruption and nepotism. Many teachers have been uncertified and even an asst. superintendent had no qualifications. There is an acting supt. now because the previous supt. will be indicted. There is a grade and test fixing scandal that involved the FBI and people being wired. This has gone of for years. No Child Left Behind does not work as yet because the children are allowed to transfer to schools within the district that are not failing but, for example, all of the junior highs are failing. They could transfer out of the district but other districts don't want to accept them. To give you a small idea of what it is like, my son's English teacher had never heard of The Catcher in the Rye. The teacher in charge of instituting mastery learning in as much of the district as possible condemned the teachers who not only did not want to prepare for their lessons but many of whom literally could barely read themselves. She was transferred from her position and silenced.
So when my son took his college placement tests in English, he sailed through the essay part. He wrote about the education in the public district he had just left. He's an engaging writer and got high scores and placed out of all the remedial writing courses. So in this case writing about teachers worked to his advantage and he intuited it would.
In the departmental exam for the freshman English composition course at the college the students were given a random quote and asked to develop an essay. I don't know what any of the quotes were but some of the students, including my son, did springboard off this and included some evaluation of the teaching in the district they'd come from as it seemed a relevant point they could make.
Some of the teachers in that city district are superb and dedicated, both toward the academics and to their students' character development and personal struggles. It is not only not rewarded but some are actively punished for, as an example, speaking to parents.
our low-key more secular than christmas gift-trading was very relaxed. We (at my request) always try to guess what is in the package/ bag before we open it. It often leads to fits of laughter, but it also gives me a clue as to what they think they might be getting and from the tone of voice while guessing i can tell if thats what they really wished it was...
I received, for the most part, what i had wished for: tickets to a cabaret new year's eve.(i would have preferred another one, but this is quite good too);a bronze lamp in the shape of my favourite furry... made by a well known local artisan in the 1960's; a gorgeous glass one with gold spikes
a clay bell one,a money box one,a bowl one, a candle holder one, a ceramic pair(have i mentioned i have a huge collection?);new satin finish fitted white sheets and 1 black jersey fitted sheet (actually for DH and me);medium box of mixed nuts from "Harry and David";chocolates from a famous place in Salzburg; 2 delicious panetonne; chocolate covered coffee beans; a bottle of amaretto;
i gave to DH 2 CD of well -known local cabaret comedians, orange marmelade spiked w whisky, winter house slippers.. but they were too tight so i get to have them until we can shop for others together.
i gave to to DD:5 fancy pairs of earrings (2 pairs i made for her from local artisan-made beads)
a very fancy silver plated candle holder,
hand made pretty "summer-breeze" aroma candles to put in candle holder, vanilla aroma candles,2 packages of fancy white chocolate,a silver taft blouse; a voucher to help her make her room smell better...it was not taken ( well,i shouldda known huh?)
DD got from DH his (2 year old) laptop/notebook.
DD got from several relatives lotsa mahnee, about 250 € altogether and she got herself fancy underwear with part of that and other clothes.
DH and I gave all other relatives micro-credits for projects in the developing countries.
I think everybody was OK with that...and we feel pleased with how it went.
My Christmas was OK. I received a lot of giftcards to Barnes & Noble and Starbucks that I'm looking forward to using.
I asked my parents for a new rice cooker to replace the one I have that I hate and they got me one that's almost identical to it, so I've decided that thing is either going back or getting donated someplace. I know they tried, but I'm not going to keep it just because it was a gift. I already bought myself a new rice cooker to replace the old one I hate that is getting thrown out today or tomorrow.
