As is the usual case with my family and me, I did not get all my presents until New Years. Which IMHO is overall a better gift giving time anyway. Combine two holidays in one, avoid shopping rush and get shopping discounts. What could be better? At any rate, it was a fairly decent year for presents. I think it was strongest from my best friend and mother, and weakest from my sister (which is to be expected really).
Let us start with my sister who got me an ornament that could display pictures in it and a picture album with recipes from my family in it. The photo ornament was just odd, especially since before this year I never had a tree and she didn’t know I got a full-sized one. Even though I do have one, I would never put it on the tree as it is an ugly ornament and just tacky. Unfortunately I didn’t get a receipt with it either so I couldn’t even bring it back for something useful like a candy bar. I think she had the right idea for the recipes from old relatives, but it was unprofessional in presentation. Not that I expected it to be professional, I just wish it would have been nice.
My Brother continued on with his giving to charity in the name of other people, not horrible though I do think that it is a way for him to hide how much they spend on me. They likely give like $10 and no more. Not a bad gig really, no one will question it since it is charity. He also gave me some hot cocoa which I’m excited to try as it is mint.
My friend’s family got me a $20 gift card to Borders (which was odd because they know that I prefer Barnes & Noble) which I have since spent on [amazonify]0786947993::text::::The Annotated Elminister[/amazonify]. This was another book that I had been eying for sometime but never thought it as a good thing to get. But since I had some extra cash I thought it would be a good buy. They also got me a Micheal Moore book which is a fairly good idea for them because he is up my ally. I definitely have enough to read for the next year now! (I still have things from before to read.)
My mother got me a $100 gift card to World Market which was what I asked for (well not price) because I have a set of dishes that I want to buy from there. I’ve had my eye on a set of square plates that are black that I think would be really nice (would like red bowls to go with it, but I may not get those now). She also got me a little book that goes into detail about my extended family and how they relate to me. It was a really nicely done booklet and is about the quality that I thought my sister’s gift should have been.
My best friend did the best job overall on my gifts. She got me a little booklet for I can has cheezburger which is one of our favorite websites. It was small, but a very fun gift none the less. She also got me [amazonify]B001F62U4M::text::::Personal Trainer – Cooking[/amazonify] for the Nintendo DS which is really a recipe game that helps you learn how to make various types of meals. I wasn’t expecting this gift at all and I thought it was great. I had looked at it and it looked cool, but had decided I wasn’t going to buy it for mysefl cause I thought that I just didn’t have the money for something like that. This really is the best type of present IMHO. She also got me a [amazonify]B000VJRU44::text::::Wii Fit[/amazonify] which I really wanted but hadn’t wanted to stand in line for. I have loved it thus far and have been using it fairly regularly (though I’ve not done it for a few days). And I’ve even started a blog to keep track of my progress in my weight loss goals.
I would remiss if I didn’t mention that my daughter came with gifts. They were regifts really, just things that she had already (and likely didn’t want) that she decided to put my name on and give to me. Still, it was really sweet that she sat down and thought of getting me something for Christmas.