well, in terms of net gains, i got much more than i gave, which was disappointng, because i always prefer to give much more than i receive. this year i gave out a paltry sum of books, one each to most, including family, except for a select few who received very special books, including Tony’s precious little daughter Abigail Willow, to whom i gave a beautiful big book entitled Nelson Mandela’s Favorite African Folk Tales, the coolest book i’ve seen in a long time, and exactly the sort of book my Uncle Kent would have given me when i was a kid, had Nelson Mandela not been imprisoned for decade after decade in a squallid, no doubt disease- and rat- infested prison cell under the captivity of the then-white, thoroughly-evil S. African regime of the time (no apologies to any white South African who might happen upon this entry; it is high time for your kind to leave the whole of Africa at once, especially if you are not an ally of the Original Populace and thus part of the solution that is). in it i had inscribed the following: To Abigail, my favorite kid in the whole world. don’t grow up too fast, and may you dream in bright colors always. love, your “other” uncle jeremy (Tony’s brother is named Jeremy as well). but i missed her, because i guess she’s with her mom, i think out East at her other grandparents’ for the holidays.
what i got: a couple of wacky pens, two pairs of pajamas (i HATE pajamas – why not just wear boxers, which get washed after only a day or two instead?), a cool Eddie Bauer sweatshirt-type thing, some loungin’ pants, a buncha socks, a Beatles calendar featuring all their album covers full size!, a huge book of 4 of Bruno Ernst’s M.C. Escher books, umm let’s see… at any rate also i got this incredibly cool little glass pod containing tiny little shrimp, which is a completely self-contained biosphere! very interesting indeed… you can’t even open it and they produce everything they need, thanks to algae and whatnot in there, and the longest-lasting ones have so far lasted about 10 years! i also got a pullover, and i think that’s just about it. oh, a 3CD set of Santana bootlegs, which my dad also gave me last year as well, heh. and a copy of the Weekly World News. oh, and some Drakkar Noir, which i actually had quite given up wearing, along with any other sort of dumb cologne (but oh well).
my dad and his fiancee (yes, she’s now his fiancee) have been here since yesterday afternoon. it’s been nice, if tiring.
i hope every last one of you got everything you wanted, and then some! let thee be merry unto thyselves!
