Message in a book (AM)

I give books as presents quite often. And pretty much always to kids. Because kids have so much shit already. And books really are the gift that keep on giving, especially for little kids who like to read books over and over and over. Oh sure, at the time of gift giving/receipt books are the gift that a kid couldn't give a shit about because there are all the shiny gifts they've just received to play with, but trust me books really are keepers.

You know who else like to give books to kids? Really old people like great aunts and great grandmothers. I sure never had any great grandparents. There were a couple of great aunts around, one on my mum's side who, according to family legend*, used to make her husband eat dinner outside and another on my dad's side who, according to family legend*, once gave my dad a ball of silver foil as some kind of cruel joke of a present. So you can bet I never got presents from those crazy old ladies. I'm not complaining, I didn't need presents, I'm just saying that's not how I know what old ladies give there great grand kids/nieces, I know because the books they give end up in op shops. And then they end up at my house. 

For some time now a great favourite if Baby's has been a Walt Disney Peter Pan book and every time I open it I read the inscription.

Great great (!) aunt Cassie bought the book for Leigh inscribed it and then later realised she spelled the name wrong. Shit. Shit. That is always what I thought happened but now as I write this and look at the inscription I realise that isn't what happened at all. Leigh must have corrected it later. Whatever happened I can't help but feel a bit sad. Like G.G. Aunt Cassie was invited to the birthday party of some barely known great niece or nephew and thought she did everything right but she spelled the name wrong and some years later the book ended up in the op shop. It's a pretty boring book and there are a million books I'd rather be reading to Baby so I understand why it ended up in the op shop, but that doesn't make me feel better for Aunt Cassie, it makes me feel worse.

Recently Baby has gotten interested in an abridged version of The Magic Pudding. 

At least Lachlan may have hung on to this copy for a little longer. A lot longer. But look at this inscription. Under the sign off and date does that say "(Nan Giles**, your great grandmother)"? First she is calling him "Lachlan darling" and next she has to explain who she is, as if the sign off isn't enough. 

It's all too much to bare. Or am I just feeling sensitive because I just watched Dr Drew's sex addiction rehab show? Either way, alls I know is that I am never inscribing a book again!

*The legends went something like that, forgive me keepers of the legends if the details are not entirely accurate.
**I actually have no idea if that says Giles, old lady hand writing is hard to decipher, even though this is similar to my own nana's handwriting which I could always read fine. But I did know who she was so that would have helped. 

A daughter "to be proud of" (PM)

MATE! Your parents are adorable! I love that they sent you that Christmas card . But the things I love most about it are:

• That there are two exes under both Mum and Dad just to clarify that each of your parents are sending their kisses. They aren't just sending a general muddle of kisses your way. You get two from each parent. 
  
• The postscript about also wishing you a happy New Year. I would assume most parents want a happy, healthy year every time, but I just really dig how your mum (and dad) want you to know they specifically wish that for you for 2012.
  

My parents are not Christmas card people. Neither am I to be honest. We are not card people generally I guess. I once apologised to my Mum for not giving her a birthday card with her present and she told me she doesn't like cards. It took a real load of all future gift giving.


I like a nice card, don't get me wrong. I love them with home drawn fluoro art or with a nice message, but I don't miss them if they aren't there. Perhaps it is because I always feel there is so much pressure to write something meaningful and witty in them that I don't like giving them and thus don't feel the need to receive them. I kind of feel about card writing the way some people feel about public speaking. Public speaking on the other hand doesn't bother me much. Um...what were we talking about again?

HB LB

Mate, what you're experiencing is a crisis of present giving confidence.You're still a great present giver. Why don't you tell the readers about the time you bought LB a new surfboard? And how, because you are such a great baby mamma, you had the initials LB printed on the surfboard. That was just last Christmas! You've still got it mate. For sure.
My advice to you is to not overthink it. Ribeye and I used to always overthink the presents we got for one another, and it did not yield positive results. This one time, we ended up giving each other the exact same DVD box set for Christmas. It was funny for five minutes but then it was just annoying because we effectively had twenty hours of documentary about the American civil war, which was about nineteen hours too many. Just jokes, I love that documentary. But not two times. I guess it was handy when we broke up though.
Anyway, you'll come up with a shit hot present for LB for sure.
It's Elderbro's birthday just before LBs and I think I am going to buy him a fish for the pond he is making in his back yard. I can write about it here without fear of spoilers because he never reads Miss Soft Crab, he told me so just the other night.

The present question

I used to be a really good present buyer. I am pretty sure I was really good. Like, I knew what people would like and I would buy it for them and give it to them in a timely fashion. You were probably on the receiveing end once or twice, right mate? Not recently though. I was good at it but then something happened. I lost my mojo. Maybe when my friends started turning 30 or something and there was all this pressure. I don't know, but I just lost it.

Meanwhile, LB has gotten really good at buying presents. For me at least. When we started going out he was not that good. He had some good ideas but he would never have birthday presents for me on my birthday. He would tell me what he was thinking of buying me then make me go shopping with him. It was fine. I am not complaining, just saying.

Anyway, now he is really good. For my birthday this year he got me TWO awesome presents. Two kind of expensive things I really wanted. A couple of days ago for no reason other than he found them at an op shop he came home with two great pots for me. This great Le Creuset frypan.



And this pyrex baby to replace a recent, heartbreaking loss.



Lucky me, right? But it is LB's birthday in a few weeks and I do not know what the eff I am going to get him. Why does he have to be such a great gift giver goddamnit? It is very possible that it is because I covet more stuff so he just has to buy me a thing I covet. He just wants a VW Passat and zodiac boat but my coveting covers a broad, more affordable spectrum. So really I am making it easy for him. God, why can't he just want heaps of stuff, like me?!