“Painted By Numbers”; The Sounds
let me know if the YouTube isn’t available.
I may have ended up sleep deprived and with a slightly smaller tooth… and my desk chair now leans a little to the back and right, but I did survive.
This was the first Christmas in a few years where all of the action took place in my parents home. Recently we’ve been renting a Bed & Breakfast and having Them cook dinner and opening up presents on Their floor. Which has been odd. Originally the idea was for my brother and I to take over Christmas responsibilities, but he lives in a basement in Toronto and between the dishes and the dust there’s really no room for a tree in my apartment.
So that wasn’t happening. Plus the B&B was booked this year. So my step-father divvied up the cooking responsibilities, and he did most of the Christmas shopping and driving around so mom wouldn’t get stressed out… and it ended up being really great. I think people were really grateful to be together in a Home rather than a Business, even if it is owned by mom’s friend. Mom’s mom actually commented on how tasty the food was… and it was.
Christmas Morning Fingers… from my family to yours.
The coolest present I received this year was a book my mom put together of her mom’s recipes… it’s 200 pages with some family memories of their/our favourite dishes (her relishes are fucking insane-good), and some photos of my grandmother growing up. The pages are photocopies of my grandmother’s original written notes. And, because mom registered it with an ISSN number, there are copies in the National Library of Canada.
If my grandmother had human feelings, or could replicate them as she can her other human features, I’m sure she would have cried. Or said thanks.
So… my question for anyone willing to answer (all the cool kids do it) is:
What was the most touching gift you’ve ever given? OR, what was the most touching gift you’ve ever Thought you’ve given but was almost immediately discarded by the bastard you gave it to?
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01
06
...salted lithium. 
I got a vacuum. Nothing touching about that.
I’ve always been given practical stuff-nothing touching or special. Kinda sucks actually.
I gave my ex girlfriend a Mig 29.
On one of our first just-hanging out together afternoons as bf and gf she was playing a flight sim. Being the odd girl that she was she told me that she wanted a Mig 29, I promised to buy her one being the sap that I am.
Skip ahead a five months and the relationship is over. I am walking back from seeing my therapist so am in a new part of town and pass a model shop, I spy an airfix mig. I buy it and leave it at her door with a comment written on it like “It might take time but I always keep my promises”.
I do have a wonderful memory for shit like that though. Dunno why but any time someone gasps over how cool or pretty or wonderful something is I remember it.
I don’t know Thor… I got a vacuum this year — stand-up, bagless, blue — and I thought it was one of the cooler gifts I’ve received in a long time. For some reason I was the “big box guy” this year… vacuum, a humidifier and a painting. I totally Love practical gifts… I’m heading into Ottawa this weekend to pick up an office chair and a dining room table with Christmas gift certificate’s and Holiday Cash gifts.
Dude, I’ve never been a big fan of Russian / Soviet aircraft. They had a couple during the Korean War that kicked ass, but not much since… although they have done some crazy shit with their exhausts, I can’t remember the designation but they have a plane which can not only hover but go backwards. Cool present though…
A lock of my hair…touching, stupid…no idea…
Meh, never been a fan of the whole instrument of war thing. However I do have a strange want to go to a target ranger.
The reason for the second comment was I have finally remembered the most thoughtful thing I have ever been given.
My friends J and R got married a couple of years back and the favours were either some tablet or a star wars figure. The two of them had picked out the only Jawa figure for me, the rest were randomly distributed.
That Jawa is always in my bag. So it has travelled as far as Barcelona and made frequent trips to and from Glasgow and Aberdeen.
the gift that touched me the most was one of stephen’s artworks. he very rarely gave gifts and even more rarely gave away any of his cast pieces.
these were two severed bloodstained ears. I love them. they are the most precious thing I own
G ~ Your Mom’s gift to you is fantastic! I love old family recipes.
My favorite gifts received are from the heart. A few years back my husband gave me the Three Tenors cd. It means a great deal to me because I love the song http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rmVx5SO7cek&feature=related by Jose Carreras and more importantly because my husband had to search for weeks to find it in Houston. (classical music is not so big here)
I recently gave my husband a gift that really touched him. I was able to give him my grandfather’s WWI rifle. I love history and being able to share a part of my family’s past meant a great deal to me.
I bought myself a book by a British artist called Banksy. Look him up. I was with my daughter when I bought it. I said ‘This is what you’re buying me for Christmas and you have to wrap it because I am not wrapping my own presents.’ She said ‘Do I have to?’ That made me laugh. When I got the book home my daughter started to look through it and began asking questions about the artwork. I told her what I knew, which wasn’t very much … that’s Banksy see? My daughter is 12 now, and fast approaching teenagedom. I, like most parents am apprehensive about it, but for the moment she is slowly evolving from a child into a woman, and that’s a gift, every day. One of the apprehensions is a completely selfish one … ‘Which she still like me, the older she gets?’ I know she loves me, but she doesn’t have to, and that may also change. The ‘Will she like me?’ question is one of respect. We still love our parents, even the shit ones. We don’t have to like them. I want my daughter to like me. I want her to think ‘Yeah, my mum’s pretty fucking great.’ So the gift is simply myself and my daughter sharing a liking for the same artist. More so, she liked Banksy and I introduced her to him (theoretically speaking). I felt like I had given something and got it right back. I don’t know if I am explaining this very well … but I felt validated as a Mother. I feel I am not here to only provide the staple comforts of home but to also broaden the world for my child, to show her there’s more. So if she is looking at Banksy’s work and asking questions, wanting to know the why behind the paintings, I feel as though I am teaching her more than the basics.
I have taken the liberty (gel) of posting a link for banksy: http://www.banksy.co.uk/
I am also gonna apologise (gel) for practically writing a post in your comments box.
That’s how you get me sometimes babe, you get me going.
xx
hey I like banksy’s work too. and I was always trying to get my sons to watch arthouse films with me when they were growing up but that was a losing battle.
eventually the oldest (gay) one went to see In the Realm of the Senses after I raved about it. he and his boyfriend said there was waaaay too much heterosexuality in it for their taste 🙂
It snowed for Christmas one year- everything was great about that day…the presents, the food, the company- but if I had to choose what my favorite gift was?
I got something like six different Duncan Yo-Yo’s in a box when I was eight or nine. I liked those things more then the bike I got on the same day.
Really.