okay…
so you wanted it…asked for it…left reminders and hints all over…
and you STILL didn’t get it.
or worse…
got something you didn’t ask for and, despite the good intentions, it’s a rather natty something that you’d rather have gotten nothing.
Give it up folks…
your worst disappointments of the Season!
Mine:
Well-meaning friends who believe my love of flute includes “The Most Relaxing Flute Record Ever” with whispering willows and babbling brooks. Maybe for someone else. But definitely NOT me.
They mean well…but back to Amazon it goes!
I really didn’t get a dissappointing gift this year.
My husband bought me a really enormous orchid (although this is a variety that grows best in temperatures below 65! ) And the plant is huge, the blooms are yellow (my favorite color, which he knows) and I am going to make that thing live!!!. But typically, the really important things that I want, I just get for myself with my Christmas $$.
However, last year I got a particularly “special” “vase”, with some kind of green clay lizard (with a garish red mouth) crawling up the side. My sons confided that they walked up and down the mall twice before settling on that special gift. So although I thought it was especially hideous, I have never owned up to it, and have it displayed in plain sight on my fireplace hearth (where I have a nice long vine artfully growing over part of it …)
I bought myself the first season of the Muppet Show for my birthday at the end of November - very fun!
Nothing terribly disappointing (and yes, I’m very thankful to have people to give me gifts). I did get an Enya CD from my sister in law - the funny thing about that is she thought Enya was a brand new artist because she had never heard of her before.
Probably more candy than I really needed (one piece is probably more than I really needed), a bottle of very good malt Scotch, and - best of all - several good CDs, and an Elderly Music gift certificate that will go towards more.
But even better than the gifts was spending time with our family and friends. Our older daughter was back from college, several friend’s kids (honorary “nieces” and “nephews”) were in town, and I had a chance to touch bases with a cousin I haven’t seen in over 20 years.
And I had lots of time to play the flute - especially today when we had a 5 hour power outage and I didn’t have the computer as a distraction.
Brought myself a secondhand like new iPod mini in October, an amazing way to carry music around. Decided to buy iPod mini’s for my three daughters. Found one as new on the Swedish website: www.blocket.se then nothing until a couple of days before Xmas, managed to buy another one, then on the last day before Xmas getting stressed, decided to give my own iPod mini as a present, had to have 3 you see - and then in a moment of madness in the Apple store on Xmas Eve I brought a new iPod video. What a machine it can contain and play music, play music videos, films, show photos. I’ve already converted a Björk DVD, easily done by the way, so that it plays on the iPod. Little flute content I know, but I have a lot of Irish trad from my own CD’s on the iPod now.
I created a master list of all the CDs I was interested in and forwarded it to all of my family members. The list included Harry Bradley, WFO I, Harriet Earis - in a nutshell, lots of obscure but great CD’s you can’t find in the chain stores. I left explicit instructions about how they could be ordered online, with plenty of notice.
My family members, clearly not taking the hint, got nice gifts that just weren’t as exciting.
All in all though, I was very lucky - the big gift was a plane ticket to Maine to see my brother and his family, which more than made up for the minor disappointments in parcels. I can always buy CD’s myself, and the birthday is another opportunity to drop hints I love Maine, but unfortunately didn’t have a chance to crash any sessions.
Then again, I was sorely miffed that the C ‘n’ F flute board didnt pitch in to get me that fully keyed Wilkes
WOW - I might sound a bit cheesy or whatever but, for me, the fun isn’t in what you GET.
It’s nice to have my children home, together for a time at the holidays. Out come some guitars and my whistles and flutes and various other things and we sing Christmas songs and have a great time. My grandson is two and it’s just amazing how much fun a person can have with a wooden train - oh and I was able to share with him too!!
If it’s all about getting for you, you’ve really missed the fun.
My holiday was made complete with the arrival home of 2 of my 4 sons, who are both away at college.
Of course, family (and friends) coming together and enjoying each others’ company is the best part of this, or any, holiday. I don’t think anybody would dispute what you say. However, in keeping with the spirit of the thread… I don’t see anything wrong with some light-spirited discussion of gifts received, given, or otherwise…
I reiterate an earlier post on a different thread: so SERIOUS!
my goodness folks.
The intent was to have a little fun and light-heartedness.
It quickly turned into a squishy, lovey-dovey, love-thy-neighbor gush.
Doesn’t anyone kid around anymore? Or know how? Or are we just all way too over-sensitized?
Let’s just call it Festivus now…and screw Christmas! Too political!
And Lambchop…go make friends. The truly gifted is the one who has friends.
David - i thought the thread was great, i wish i had somethng to add to it -
carla and the kids got me shampoo ( i shave my head Buddah style ).
i was so hurt - still recovering, but i’m sure Santa’s memory is as long as his beard
i hate how the “holy” people always come out of the woodwork.
I was going to deny that, but I do (my daughter does, anyway) have an electric dog. And a flashlight shaped like a crouching cat that loudly meows when you turn it on.
But let me assure you that we don’t have a robotic maid.
I might add that robot dogs are beginning to be popular with the old folks who can’t have real dogs in the assisted living centers where they live. In a discussion at the Christmas dinner table about robot dogs, the Japanese student laughed and said that they were very popular in Japan. She said the cost there was $1,600. Heck, you could buy a nice flute and a few stuffed animals for that amount.
So although I thought it was especially hideous, I have never owned up to it, and have it displayed in plain sight on my fireplace hearth (where I have a nice long vine artfully growing over part of it …)
