Gifts

So today's prompt asked me: What am I most excited to give this year?

Are you kidding me? Why in the heck would I want to talk about that BEFORE Christmas?

So I decided to go with what I have enjoyed giving and what I have enjoyed getting....

My number one all time favourite gift to give is books. I LOVE books! Books are the most amazing incredible thing you can ever imagine. Books Rock.

Miss Caity J's first Christmas... I got her books before she was even born!

It's also fun to give yummy food, and big gifts that are true surprises. I'd love to be able to give Kieran one of those huge mega expensive Star Wars Lego sets. I'd love to be able to give Will a 'Mouncey-Mouncey' (aka Trampoline) and I'd love to be able to give Merenia a horse and a stable hand to look after it! I'm stuffed if I know what I'd like to get Les he's hard to buy for. :-(

I don't really like getting gifts from people that I wouldn't normally buy for it makes you feel pretty stink. I remember getting a gift set of some flash liqueur once from someone in the family and I'm pretty sure we hadn't got anything for them or if we had it was about 1/5th of the price of their gift. I also hate getting stuff that I really would never in a million years want especially from someone that we are close to it just makes you wonder what they were thinking... and also wish that you could have just got the cash. It also bugs me when people get gifts for the kids that their parents might not necessarily choose... drums, guns, war games, anything with a million tiny pieces (esp if it involves glitter), pets, Bratz and/or stuff that the parents themselves couldn't really afford to buy.

My most memorable Christmas gifts as a kid were both of my bikes particularly my 10 speed. Which I got when I was about 13. A fake record player that I got from my Auntie Suzanne it played the same four plastic records (over and over) it was plastic and pink and I loved it!! And my camera which I believe took this photo of me and Tiger (the worlds best ever cat!).

The second part of the prompt asked about wrapping and giving traditions. We wrap our gifts in a fairly standard manner. Although I do remember getting seriously creative one Christmas and sticking lollies and all sorts of cool stuff like plastic bugs and such on the outside of the gifts and going nuts with the ribbon. But now days the sheer volume of pressies with three kids and the cost of Christmas food wise makes getting posh with the wrapping not a happening thing!

As for gift giving; Santa leaves the kids stockings on the end of their beds and they come into our room and open them on the bed together scoffing chocolates as they go and then we all get up, get decent, go to the loo and calmly head for the tree in the lounge where we take turns to open the gifts- we don't have a specific person hand them out or anything. We do try and make sure that the person has finished unwrapping before the next person gets their present... but that can be a little hard at times. Then once it's all done we leave the mess and go get breakfast sorted while the kids enjoy their stuff.

If we had more money I'd like to institute the tradition of buy the kids all new PJ's and giving them to them on Christmas Eve to wear to bed that night. But I'd like to think we wouldn't get them much more than we already give them now.

♥