I hope your presents were satisfactory.
I am guilt ridden with the quantity of gifts and overwhelmed by the thoughtfulness of them.
Dan gave me a thermal therapy wax treatment thing for my hands. Since I stopped the celebrex I am really noticing the stiffness. CW gave me a creme brulee set complete with the little blowtorch, which I really wanted and can't wait to try. Ammo gave me an entire season of Law and Order SVU, a series to which I am embarrassingly addicted. I got a tea kettle like the ones in the hotel rooms in Europe that plug in and boil quickly and a chantal tea steeper cup. I got my Blue perfume, and it is SO lovely. And it didn't even make me cough.
And books. I think I told you that our tree looked like it was growing from a field of books. Everyone gave everyone books. And movies-- Dan's sister sent a dozen movies. Last night we watched I Robot.
I started Shirley Jackson's Life Among the Savages last night (I got both that and Raising Demons) These are almost Erma Bombeckish memoirs of raising four children. I am loving it
We were halfway through the gifts when the boys decided it was time for the book stacks. This is the high point of our Christmas with its own specific ritual. Everyone puts his stack in front of him and we open them one by one in turn and ooh and ahh as the new owner reads the blurb. Only what happens after one or two is that we start reading on in our own books and half an hour later someone, usually Dan, says, "whose turn is it?" and then we get through another round. It takes forever. If you recorded our Christmas mornings, there would be these long silent periods when you would think we had all died or fallen asleep.
Anyway, I know I have already told you some of the titles I got, but I will repeat this one because I just love it: The Binding Chair- or A Visit From the Foot Emancipation Society.
Ammo got several about WWII and Hitler, his latest obsession. He was browsing Life in the Hitler Youth or something equally depressing when he suddenly and joyfully clutched the book to his chest and announced, I can't believe how well you know me!
I guess it's an improvement over the year he got nothing but books about horror movies. |
