Yesterday after everyone in the house got up we opened presents. Adult Christmas is kind of a funny thing. At this point, I don’t think anyone is looking with great expectations for getting stuff the way one does as kid. It’s more like the fun of giving other people stuff.
Having said that, I cleaned up.
To be fair I sometimes let Eileen know where am I at in my progress of getting her stuff for Christmas. I do this because I know it will slip her mind and then feel bad if she doesn’t get me stuff if I get her stuff. Tricky, eh?
Anyway about a week ago, I mentioned that I had spent around 60 bucks on her. A few days before Christmas she asked me point blank what books I would like for Christmas. Not a definitive list, mind you. But since my reading is so wide ranging and I am always in the process of procuring the books I’m interesting in, I can be very difficult to buy for.
Having made a few trips to the local bookstore myself I had the experience of looking at the books and realizing the shop was carrying many titles I am interesting in. So I tried to pass some of this info on to her.
The result is I got a bunch of cool books for Christmas from Eileen including the following.
This is my third book of poetry by Mary Oliver. I am finding her work pretty attractive. She is almost a bit too religious or sappy for me sometimes but always seems to step back away from goofy (I find that Louis Glück doesn’t always take that step back). Anyway I have been holding back on purchasing more work by her or checking out another book from the library. Have already used this one for this morning’s morning poetry reading session.
These are two writers that interest me and these are their new books. They are now on the floor next to my reading chair.
This was in the package Sarah left for me in the house when she returned home for England. How ’bout that? Thank you Sarah and Matthew!
I was sitting in the room with three people all of whom received email gifts from me (and in the case of Elizabeth and Jeremy—me and Eileen).
I got Eileen a subscription to the New York Times crossword puzzle app. Unfortunately there is not one for her devise of choice—the Kindle Fire. But she did play with it yesterday and printed out puzzles for her and Jeremy to work.
Elizabeth and Jeremy were scheduled to receive gift certificate emails which they did.
After sating ourselves with opening gifts we went into a fury of trying to pull the sound off of Eileen’s video she had made for her Mom. We were trying to make a CD of Eileen reading of a book she had bought for her Mom. This took up most of the morning. We finally gave up and everyone but Eileen vacated the main floor and she just made a new recording directly on the desktop in the dining room.
After that we zoomed over for Christmas hugs with my Mom (who really wasn’t up for a drive to Whitehall or we would have taken her with us), drove to Whitehall and had a crazy inter-generational Hatch Christmas. It amazes me how much I enjoy these things.
By the time we were home and things were winding down (I did practice and treadmill by God) I felt like I was living in a Christmas movie.
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Literally Unbelievable
Woot
New links from son-in-law Jeremy Daum. The first is funny. It compiles The Onion stories that are taken for real on Facebookistan. The second is a site which provides Internet shopping with flat 5 dollar shipping. Daily deals.
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Walter Kirn: Confessions Of An Ex-Mormon | The New Republic
Ran across this article. Bookmarked to read. Did not realize Kirn had this background. He is a writer I like.
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The Innocent Man, Part One :: Texas Monthly
Also bookmarked this one to read. Looks like good reporting.
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American Indian Adoption Case Comes to Supreme Court – NYTimes.com
This is the story of conflicting legal and moral stuff.
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Old South Church in Boston to Sell Rare Psalmbook, Stirring Dissent – NYTimes.com
I own a replica copy of this book. Hey they have two.
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Alcatraz American Indian Occupation Graffiti Preserved – NYTimes.com
Guilt based historical preservation brought to you by you (if you are a taxpayer). I think it’s cool, actually.
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Real and Virtual Firearms Nurture Marketing Link – NYTimes.com
Take that, N.R.A!
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