Friday, December 27, 2013

Presents........









Did you give or get a gift that made your Christmas?   I'll tell YOU if you tell US!


Trip?  Food?  Time?  Book?  Clothing? ??

Z

24 comments:

beakerkin said...

Christmas is not my holiday. However, as a father and grandfather
of relatives that do celebrate the holidays it is important to make them as memorable as possible. Above all else, I am a father and head of household.

We purchased a lamb and had a BBQ for hours. My family was together as one and my daughter unwrapped scores of presents.

Oddly, in my effort to make the holiday as perfect as I could for my daughter I accidentally got the best present of all lasting memories. The presents and the festival is nice but it is the family putting everything aside and sharing something together.

Ed Bonderenka said...

My son, Daughter-in-law, grandson and brand new grand daughter came to visit Christmas Eve.
I missed the Christmas Eve service at our small church because my DIL had questions and I got to explain Jesus to her, upon which she said that she trusted on Him alone for the forgiveness of her sin.
Banner Day.

Always On Watch said...

One of my clients (a client that I'll be posting about on Monday) gave me a green sweater jacket with a faux fur collar and a beautiful crushed velvet scarf to go with the jacket. I dazzled our Christmas dinner hosts with the jacket and the scarf.

I'd never buy such extravagances for myself.

The other presents that made this household's Christmas so wonderful: all that Decorate A Vet did for us! This morning, the work crew arrived bright and early to put the finishing touches on the scooter-way and the patio after the spate of prohibitive weather we had right after the area was almost completed.

Now we are enjoying a post-Christmas visitor for a few days.

Jim at Asylum Watch said...

My wife gave me a bottle of perfume and insisted that I ttey it. Shen then made me take a shower to get rid of the disgusting oder.

Joe said...

With the help of my choir, I gave a musical gift to my congregation, but most of all to the Lord, Jesus the Christ.

The choir members outdid themselves. They did a magnificent job!

Ducky's here said...

My youngest niece gave me a really nice wool stocking cap.
She says I'm a hipster.

cube said...

I'm not about the presents any more because I have everything I need. If I want something I go and buy it.

Nowadays the best part is having the family together.

Pris said...

My family all get together Christmas morning to open our gifts. I must say what I enjoy the most, is watching them open their gifts. For me, being together is the best gift of all.

Later Christmas Day, we get together with my sister's family, for dinner.
Very special. We are truly blessed that we all get along so well.

My memories of Mr. Pris are with me, and I miss him so, but he would want us to enjoy and love Christmas and we do.

Pris said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Z said...

beak, I can never quite figure out the father thing, but I'm glad that's happening and I think your 'daughter' is lucky to have you! Wonderful that you felt the best gift was making her happy! The true meaning of Christmas.

Ed...yes! MUCH better than a Christmas Eve service! Let us know how that goes...how wonderful!

AOW; that gift sounds wonderful; I'm so glad for you! And yes, the Decorate A Vet situation was perfect...Enjoy your company!

Jim...could you explain her thinking? Or do you mean '
a bottle of men's cologne' and you both didn't like it? :-)

Joe...did you solo? Or direct the choir? I'll bet it was fabulous and a great gift!

Ducky...I know you'll love wearing that and thinking of yourself as a hipster!:) Very cool at our age, right?!

Cube, so true about family. I think a Christmas with zero gifts might help us concentrate better on the true meaning; but I do think kids ought to get some. NOT as many as they get these days, but some meaningful things. Glad you had a good one. I wish you could taste my mother's rice-stuffed grapeleaves..and her little boeregs (filo with cheese inside, as you know)..you're lucky to be married to an Armenian like ME :-) (HA!)

Pris, it IS more difficult at Christmas when we've lost our husbands, isn't it...I really felt it this year in deep waves of sadness. Thankfully, I was mostly okay, as I know you were, too.
Glad you had such a happy day!

Z said...

BY THE WAY:

KWANZA: Do any of you know any family who celebrates Kwanza? I keep hearing HAPPY KWANZA on television and NONE of the black families I know observe Kwanza...

do you know anybody? And what's the tradition? Or is there a tradition yet that most follow??

Ducky's here said...

@z --- Ducky...I know you'll love wearing that and thinking of yourself as a hipster!:) Very cool at our age, right?!
----
Well, it's either that or admit you're the last weary straggler from the 60's.

Z said...

Ducky, we'll never be 'weary stragglers'...not in our nature!

Baysider said...

Kwanza - nope, don't know anyone nowadays who observes it. I had a friend in the '80's who was all taken with it when it was a brand new thing.

Gifts: the best gift now (you got my Christmas letter) is peace and quiet, and we had 2 days of it without construction. Yea! I still love buying presents, but it's agony on the other half of the household. So it's a big deal to swap one gift. Mine was a cashmere sweater, by request (and a hope for some cooler weather to wear it! I got inspired when I wore another cashmere top several times the last month - now we're back to 80 degrees and shorts). And we celebrated the end of 4 years of braces torture with ... making the first almond roca I've made in 4 years! It's wonderful to have this Christmas treat back on the plate.

Z said...

Baysider, yes, and thanks for your letter. And I can't IMAGINE the noise level you're living with during the ridiculous train line in Santa Monica. Do they even send a letter apologizing or TRY to keep the noise down at night? EVER?

I know what you mean about the weather...I despise warm weather at Christmas, tho I'm L.A. born and raised...at least we had some nice coldish weather last month.

And enjoy the almond rocca...you DO need great teeth for that :-)
My invisalign should be done in about 2 months...boy, has that been effective!

Z said...

OK: So, some of you asked me to please tell about the 'best gift' I alluded to the other day, so here it is:

This was a gift I got my mother.

Mom was born in Istanbul and raised in Cairo....Armenian, but lots of Armenians lived in Turkey even after the massacres my dad's side got stuck in (lots of murders of our relatives)..Mom's were in the big city so they weren't AS affected.
Anyway....when they moved to Cairo for various reasons, she attended an Armenian church there with her grandmother and mother and brother and, happily, someone found a video of it on YouTube and sent it to her and she sent it to us kids.

I sent that video to our friend/commenter "Impertinent" and asked him to screen shot various places I'd marked and he did it! I took three of them, got them on a flash drive, took them to Staples, and they printed the three horizontal shots onto glossy photo paper...about 11" x 18" or so........and I had it framed in a really nice frame.

Mom was DELIGHTED and immediately took down another frame and put that one up.......She didn't know you could get stills off a video and just kept staring at it, showed me where she and her grandmother used to sit (I take after her mother who needed to sit near an open door...and whose name I have, by the way)...

So, that was my VERY favorite gift to give OR get this year.

Oh, and one I got was a black/white photo of one of my new precious great nephews I'm MAD about! SO CUUUUTE~!

Impertinent said...

@Z:

"Very cool at our age, right?!"


About as "cool" as a pony tail.

Z said...

Come on, Imp; everybody doesn't think the same.
pony tails on men are out right now, pretty much, but when they were in, I kind of liked a neatly pulled back one, depending on the rest of the look on the guy.
I kind of like one small earring, too...two, I can't get used to. Women wear two. Men shouldn't, in my humble opinion.

Joe said...

I had three fine soloists in my choir. They sang beautifully and I directed the choir, which did an outstanding job on our cantata.

Rita said...

Those are the best kinds of gifts Z. Several years ago my sister compiled a bunch of old family photos and set them to music. It was long before the easy software of today.

One of the parts I remember most was an old pic of her daughter when she was about two in her high chair with her head tilted to the side. That pic faded into a pic of my grandson, about the same age, sitting in his high chair and his head tilted exactly like hers had been years before.

That was the cryingest Christmas ever.

This year my niece and nephew went through the box of old pics and found some to duplicate. They found clothes that looked a lot like the ones they had when they were toddlers and then posed in the same fashion. They were hilarious.

I'm sure you made your mom very very happy.

Z said...

Joe, SO glad it went so well and that the talent in your choir was able with your help!

Rita, that's a wonderful story!
It wasn't easy before the new software, was it...good for her to do that!
My sister lost her husband about 8 years ago now and for Christmas this year, she made albums for both of her daughters; ; pictures of him, him with them, her with him, etc. Very meaningful.

Yes, Mom was delighted...it felt very good! When you don't know what a screen shot, you're pretty astonished at something, right? :-)

Kid said...

Memories are the most wonderful thing to get or give. I have some fantastic memories of some moments with my Uncles or Aunts and would feel privileged to impart such memories on my Nieces, Nephews, as well as Grand Nieces and Nephews. And these folks work fast - I may have the honor of being a Great Great Uncle.

Z said...

Unknown; write memories down and give it to your loved ones; what a present that would be!!

Jen said...

I learned to crochet, so I made my mother a scarf. :-)