Dichroic Reflections

the best present

TranceJen asked, "What was the best gift you ever got on Christmas morning?"

I can't really remember being all that excited by my Chanukah gifts, though I'm sure I was at the time. I suppose the best ones were probably the (increasingly larger) bikes my grandparents gave me when I was 4, 8 and 12, and I also remember getting various Barbie stuff. (My least favorite gift from the grandparents was the two sets of underwear - it might've been a birthday rather than Chanukah - with sort of training-bra tops like undershirts that ended mid-rib cage that they gave me when I was 12 or so and had absolutely no need for any sort of bra, training or otherwise.)

The best gift, the one that made me feel most warm and fuzzy, was just a few years ago and again it mght have been a birthday rather than Christmas. It was from my in-laws (as I've said here before, I lucked out in the in-law lottery) and it was the "gift of a relaxing evening". It wasn't so much that I really needed some de-stressing time just then, though I certainly did, as that the accoutrements were so perfectly me. As I recall, they sent me some nice tea, some fancy popcorn (on the cob) and a gift certificate to Amazon. I don't know whether they knew me well enough to do all that or whether they conferred with Rudder, but I think they get equal credit either way, even though they did say I sitll have to do the hard part and supply the evening to relax in. They also gave me last year a drawing (lithograph? I don't know about these things) of "She Who Loves to Read", of a woman wiht bushy brown hair curled in a cushy chair with a book (and two more books beside her), a mug of tea, and a cat. The only way you can tell it's not me (other than that the woman in the drawing has a blank face because that's apparently what this artist does, and I do have eyes, nose and mouth) is that I'd never be sitting straight in the chair; I tend to sling myself crossways.

Still to do: finish wrapping presents, finish knitting my MIL's hat, and do a bit of straightening. Also, maybe I'll make brownies this evening - though Rudder will be injecting turkeys, so that might not be the world's best idea if I don't want brownies redolent of onion and garlic.