Sunday, December 28, 2008

time of receiving.

my impression of christmas has changed over the years. i remember back in the day when christmas was all about the presents. food? family? friends? food? none of these things really struck me as out of the ordinary back then. i mean these things were pretty much readily available whenever i wanted (sometimes more than i wanted). but things have changed quite a bit since the days when santa was santa, and didnt suspiciously look a lot like someone's dad in a santa suit. now that im away from many of my family and friends for most of the year, seeing them all together again becomes a bit of a bigger deal. but more importantly, there is SO MUCH FOOD! omg... since ive come back ive had so much to eat im surprised i havent exploded yet (im sure it is only a matter of time). you dont know what youre missing until you need to pay for it yourself.

now, you would expect that since christmas is more about family and shit, the gifts would kind of simmer down a bit. well you are wrong. i mean seriously, who doesnt like unwrapping stuff? sometimes being a little more grown up than before i feel it necessary to open my gifts in a more dignified manner, supposedly creating the possibility of reusing that wrapping paper again (never happens). that does not mean i do not enjoy just ripping that wrapping paper right off like a rabbid 5 year old. what has changed about the gifts though is that they are no longer the transformer ive been eyeing for the past month and three quarters, or some video game that i cant stop dreaming about. apparently i have grown out of those things. people who know me quite well will know that isnt the case. i still dream of video games i may never play and i have never frowned at receiving a transformer in my life. but apparently this is a difficult concept for my family to grasp. whether that's a bad thing or not however is a different discussion altogether. and with that i present to you my christmas loot. other than one rather normal collared shirt, this is my ENTIRE christmas gatherings. such variety! here we go!


this is the first gift i unwrapped this christmas. what is it? it took me a second, but it's a... tape dispenser... yay? at least it's kind of cute. the 8 year olds running around with it seemed to enjoy it (it was a big christmas party. lots of children). although i couldnt help thinking it might have been a bad idea to let them run around with it, having a razor on it's head and everything, but i didnt stop them. maybe i wanted to believe they were somewhat responsible. i mean, their parents see them running around with it too and they didnt stop them... am i heartless? you can tell me. i can take it.


next up is... this thing. i had no idea what it was and needed someone else to explain this complicated device to me. apparently it is some kind of fancy cup cover thingy. it causes a vacuum or something and the cover stays on, supposedly even if you try to lift the whole cup from the green knobby thing on the top. awesome, i suppose. the chance of my ever using this is pretty close to zero. but then again im not much of a coffee person. or a cup person for that matter. i had to sit on santa's lap for this thing...


speaking of cups, i got a mug! not sure what the mug is about, but it has a strange bearded man on it. the only english on the box is the word "cup". sweet. the book on the right is a sketchbook. at first i was like "holy crap, moleskins??" (i received 2 of them) but in actuality it is a chinese knockoff. somehow appropriate really. preferable even. if only it didnt have their website on the bottom of every page... oh well, i cant have the world i suppose.


this gift came in two large plastic bags. at first it looked like a collection of headless figures. to those of you who havent recognized the figures yet, they are from an anime/manga called "bleach". there was a point where i used to follow this series, but that kind of died down a few years ago. but, i do not recall ever mentioning my once-upon-a-time interest in this show even once to my family (other than my brother, but he was just as suprised as i was). was this purchase spontaneous? i highly doubt my parents know what "bleach" is. after the surprise had subsided, i was not sure what emotion to express next, unless speechless is an expression. i really want to know what led to this decision, probably more so than my want for the gifts themselves. i took them out of their bags the next morning and asked my brother to help me assemble them. he broke one of them.


finally, we have this thing. there are no words for this one. other than maybe "welcome to my garden". i didnt know what to expect from this gift, beyond the obviousness of it being wrapped. yet even unwrapped, i dont know what im looking at. the thought process to this gift must have been immense (or so i'd like to believe) because i dont see the connection (to anything). regardless, it is a marvel to society. i would bring it with me to LA but i fear it will shatter.

and thus comes the end of my christmas goodies. "special" is how i would describe my christmas this year. i hope all your christmases were somewhat special too.

the new year starts soon...

2 comments:

Samanthers said...

Oh jeez. I can totally empathize with the gift thing. Jon and I were discussing last night that we believe the "heart" is in the gifts, but they also show a total lack of understanding our adult selves. An example of this? My mother has been buying me plates and dining wares for the last two years worth of holidays. I am one person in a very small apartment. What the hell am I going to do with all these? In the pursuit of buying me more practical adult gifts, she has overloaded me with an impractical amount of dishes, most of which never get used! Additionally, most of them are Burberry plaid, because I own Burberry perfume. My mom often claims it was easier to buy us kids things when we were little, because they were cheaper and it was easier to tell what we liked. I would give anything to swap out this year's dining wares for a Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man action figure, let me tell you. However, Jon and his brothers once received weird "peanuts" for Hannukah. Akin, I believe, to the one featured in this amazing article: http://www.x-entertainment.com/messages/451.html
only there was a little boy with a cape inside. PERPLEXING!! So I suppose I can't really complain.

I had QUITE the special Christmas myself! It is a funny story for sometime. When you make it back here, let's get together for some draw-time!

mr arthur said...

i dont know how i missed the longest comment i have ever received, but yes, i would like to hear your story while drawing random things some time. it has been a while since we talked about things that arent work related :)