On Gifts

Do you ever receive a gift from someone who unexpectedly nails the gift? In my family, everyone wanted Beth to draw their name growing up because she was an excellent Secret Santa and gift-giver. By the way, again this year, about half of the Chapman clan guessed Mary or Beth as their Secret Santa...suggesting perhaps certain Chapmans are both better and more desirable as Secret Santa's. However, it also suggests that perhaps their is a certain type of reputational mystique around certain people - giving them the benefit of all good secret santaing. I wonder if perhaps its like Gonzaga in the Top 25 despite getting hammered by good teams due to past history.

However, there are some that might fear a certain someone giving them a gift. I have found that receiving gifts from my in-laws is particularly awkward. I don't know why. I really like Ed and Louana and generally we get along very well. They don't give bad gifts usually. I just find the process awkward because they don't as they say in Avatar (the movie not the cartoon) "see me".

But I must say that my father-in-law nailed his gift to me this year. There is a price limit and a draw. So you don't know who you have and frankly, its hard to hit a home run because of the limit. But, excellent effort by Ed this year. He got me two things. FIFA Soccer 2009 (I know that it is not the newest version) was a brilliant stroke, and then Bill Bryson's "In a Sunburned Country" - possibly the funniest book that I have ever read and do not own (until now). This was such a truly extraordinary effort - that I thought it deserved mentioning in public and noted forevermore. Ed Neesen well-gifted. Thanks.

I might also add that I now own two copies of Mr. Bryson's work - because my sister Mary - a fair SS in her own right - gave me her gift one day after Xmas. I now have a loanable copy and a sacred scripture copy for my early morning ritualistic perusal. If you don't know this book, it comes highly recommended and you can read it and savor it like a fine cut of meat - slowly and deliberately, savoring each passage - or simply devour it in one wild carnivorous feast of reading. Whatever suits your fancy.