So here’s some Christmas aftermath questions:
1. What is the best Christmas present you received this year? Result of Boxing Day Test Match is a valid answer, but will be accepted one time only
2. What is the wackiest, craziest or wickedest Christmas present that you have ever given or received?
3. Do you have any ‘traditional’ presents, given every year? Do you get a tea towel from Aunt Hortense every year? Does it drive you bolo or make you laugh?
4. How old are your Christmas decorations? Tell the truth.
5. Brussels sprouts are for life, not just for Christmas. Discuss.
1). erm, money? I can pay the rent now. And i got a nice coffee press and a lot of coffee and some really nice shirts too.
2) Well, my short term memory sucks, so i can’t remember too far back into the past. Not that wacky i guess, but i gave a bunch of sixpacks this year of mix and match microbrews.
3) Well, not given, but what i give. My brother gets vanilla fudge every year. My mom always gets a calendar along with a big present. The cats get cans of people tuna and catnip mousies.
4) Well, i actually don’t have any of my own.
5) Sorry, apparently i haven’t drunk quite enough wine yet to give a proper answer to that.
Happy New Year to All!
Vanilla fudge and microbrewery sixpacks? I wish I was in your family, Amylee!
The local liquor store has a whole wall of microbrews from around the world, and empty sixpack cartons so you can make up your own sixpacks. I just couldn’t resist.
1 Well, if people can pick the Test Match I hope I can pick my grandson Jimmy!
2 I once gave my father a piece of the Zeppelin that fell on Welham Green, Herts, in 1918. Someone had made it into a cigarette lighter, and although my dad didn’t smoke he thought it was his best present ever. (He lived in Welham Green till my mother died and he moved in with me – but I bought the thing in Shrewsbury.)
3 I always give each family a tree decoration – usually they’re all the same, but this year’s ones were made of wool, which I hadn’t realised when I ordered them, so I had to get a different one for my vegan daughter and her vegan family.
4 Some of mine are from my childhood; some are in sets, eg 12 hanging crystals; some are odds and ends. Plus I’ve now got Naomi’s woollen snow leopard.
5 I adore brassicas of all kinds – this year I had a bit of a fight with my son-in-law over the sprouts.
1. I’ll take ‘Result of Boxing Day Test Match’! So beautifully wrapped up n’all
Otherwise, Richard Mabey’s new book ‘Weeds’ – ‘How Vagabond Plants Gatecrashed Civilisation and Changed the Way We Think About Nature’
2. I once sprayed quite a large real Christmas tree black and decorated it with Robins and blue plastic Barracudas before sneaking it into the flat of a woman I fancied. I got a shag and many years later, dear reader, I married her
3. My children have been convinced for many years that I love Licorice Allsorts. This year I forgot to tell them that my hypertension consultant had pointed out the link between licorice consumption and raised blood pressure … It was the third question she asked after drinking and recreational drugs, ‘Do you eat licorice?’ Not any more I don’t, and I gave up my daily licorice tea and chucked out all my other Yogi teas that use licorice as a sweetener. I will be hawking a job lot of licorice allsorts round gigs in the coming months, you’ll only have to ask.
4. We still have a few blue plastic Barracudas and a scruffy Robin or five which have just seen their 23rd outing.
5. Ahhh, roll on Spring and the first al fresco lunch with Brussel Sprout Salad http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/11/weekday-vegetarian-shaved-brussels-sprouts.php
I got Weeds as well, TY!
I gave it as well!
To the same person who gave it to you?
Nooo! To someone entirely different!
Was it you? I forget.
1. My best Christmas present this year was a 5.5 mm circular knitting needle chosen, paid for and wrapped by my kids – anyone feel the cockles of their heart warming ever so slightly?
[For next year I'd love them to learn to look and see whether or not Mummy already owns four of the beasties...]
2. Don’t really do ‘wacky’, but this year we gave my Dad a ‘DIY Basil kit’ complete with wall-mountable moose’s head for my Mum to snag her cardies on.
3) My Mum has started giving me a tea-towel every year – usually one given away free with a subscription – which is actually proving handy this year as the dishwasher’s broken down…
4) My Christmas decorations are probably about 8 years old – before I had the kids I never bothered, and when the kids were small we spent every Christmas with the grandparents…
I’ve got a big blue papier mâchè angel theBoyWonder made at primary school (and was the first ever birthday present he gave me!) and a giant bauble for the tree made by my daughter, and they’re the only two pieces I’m at all bothered about.
5) Brussel sprouts are for NEVER ever ever!
1. Best pressie – a timely gift of fleece thermal long johns – no more rucked up pajamas in bed!! (my pet hate is waking up with the pajamas above the knees!!!)
2. The fake dog poo went down a storm!
3. I have been receiving “The Daddy Parcel” for the last 6 years, which is usually pants, socks, and other necessary stuff that I should buy myself but never do. I think this is just so the ragged underwear & holey socks can be thrown out.
4. The collection began with the first born, so it’s been added to for about 7 years.
5. Never mind brussel sprouts, why am the only person in Scotland who LIKES BREAD SAUCE??!?!?
1. Best pressie: Not far off Blimpy’s actually: a furry dressing gown. Now I need never get dressed. On second thoughts, maybe there is a cloud to this black-towelling lining…
2. Someone once gave me what looked like a tin of baked beans but was actually a ‘cunning’ safe to fool burglars. I’m afraid it was regifted to this year’s work Secret Santa thing.
3. My mum always gives me socks. Not terribly interesting but pretty useful. And means in 38 years I have never once bought a pair. As far as I can recall anyway.
4. My flatmate is a girl. She does all that stuff. We are meant to be going our separate ways this year (after FAR too long!) so next year either I’ll have to buy my own or – more likely – I won’t bother.
5. For Christmas. I love a sprout but I wouldn’t want to eat them all year round. They would then become a common-or-garden vegetable. And where’s the festive fun in that?
1. A new tie – Duchamp, the same as Jon Snow from Channel 4 News, and my one sartorial affectation (apart from the pink cycling lycra). I have quite a collection, from the days when I seemed to spend most of my time in meetings and so this was always the obvious present for Mrs Abahachi to get me; I’ve gone cold turkey on both the meetings and the tie habit (these babies aren’t cheap), but saw this one in London last month and so was delighted when it turned up for Christmas – having been given up for lost in the post, so Mrs Abahachi hasn’t actually paid for it yet…
2. Nothing springs to mind; I tend to spend ages getting the present just right for the person concerned, and none of those involved are particularly ‘wacky present’ people. I do give quite a lot of home-made stuff: cider, redcurrant & chilli jelly, quince sweets etc.
3. For the last fifteen years, my grandparents (and now just my granny) have given us garden gift tokens, which always come in very useful but tend to lead to unseemly rows in graden centres, as I want to buy useful things like tools, compost, plants etc. and Mrs Abahachi has a fondness for hideous ornaments and expensive garden furniture.
4. Not old enough, as I’d happily stick with what we’ve got until it falls to bits and Mrs Abahachi insists on a complete and expensive renovation of our holdings every couple of years. Are you noticing a pattern here…?
5. Used to hate them, as the only time we ever had them was for school dinners or when we had Christmas dinner with grandparents – and Granny was/is of the view that school sprouts are much too crunchy and insufficiently boiled. Over the last few years, however, partly having bought a steamer and partly through growing my own so getting them very fresh, I’ve come to like them, and will certainly keep eating them until supplies run out.
1. Coals To Newcastle – the Orange Juice CD Box Set. Several hours of aural joy ahead.
2. Not sure that I’ve ever done crazy and wacky when it comes to Christmas gift giving …
3. I always make a compilation CD for my two brothers (one for each of them!) – this year’s was heavily indebted to the Festive Spill!
4. We’ve got a lovely collection which we’ve built on over the years. ToffeeGirl is half German and we have lots of traditional German wooden ornaments. I inherited several from my Grandma – some of which which must be over 40 years old now. Our tree is a thing of joy.
5. Never touched one in my life …
You’ve never had a brussels sprout?!? Whyever not? You might find you love them… Incidentally, some friends of mine ended up spending Christmas Day in Brussels (owing to snow and cancelled trains). Apparently, you couldn’t find a brussels sprout there for love nor money.
Major eating disorder – haven’t eaten meat or green vegetables (or a million other things) for over 45 years!
Ah, fair enough. Well, suffice it to say, they’re good but not good enough to want more than once a year.
Happy New Year all!!! it’s already 1am over here and we are just on our way out to the local shrine…..let’s see if I have time to answer all of these…
1. not too much this year, but got a nice set of chopstick holders and some christmas crackers – which are a sparse commodity over here, the “presents” inside were terrible but the jokes were good!
2. My neighbour once gave us a piece of wood with the message attached which read “Merry Christmas, you plank”. I refuse to add an exclamation mark, it wasn’t funny at the time either.
3. Thankfully not.
4. Just a few years old, they are all traditional Swedish style and completely lacking in the appropriate tackiness which is required for christmas in my book.
5. Not so big over here, so I can avoid them these days, I don’t mind the odd sprout though..
…..ah, all answered with time to spare! Phew!
Happy New Year ‘panther!
Happy New Year, Panther! Did you change the paper in your walls? We’re doing a big new years eve clean.
No new walls this year, but the usual clean up and toothbrush change were all faithfully observed.
Just got back from the shrine; loads of people despite the late hour, a good luck prediction from the yearly fortune and feeling at peace with the world….(the sake may have something to do with it!)
…the shrine thing is about as religious as eating christmas dinner by the way, i.e. not very!
1. I got a ring, it’s silver with very pale green enamel or glass all around it. Unusual.
2. Maybe teddy bears made from skull-patterned material. From David’s sister the first year I met their family.
3. A subscription to the Nation, which I like a lot. It’s the only printed news we get any more. And they have a cryptic crossword that always baffles me.
4.Some are very old – little glass balls we found at the fleamarket. SOme are from our youth (David’s and mine) some are brand new, made by our children. It’s a big mish mash of stuff.
5. It’s so sad to see the forlorn little brussel sprouts, cast out and rejected, wandering the streets after the excitement of Christmas has passed.
‘teddy bears made from skull-patterned material’… you have a deadhead in the family, steen!
[I won't respond to the questions as, for the first time, I managed to disregard Christmas completely this year, apart from one turkey dinner. Quite a relief, to be honest.]
Every family needs at least one Deadhead.
1: This year it’s probably the DVD of Journey Live in Manila, which I haven’t had the chance to watch yet.
2: Last year I gave my niece and nephew the two disks of Mostly Autumn’s “Live 2009″ albums, both of which I managed to get the whole band to sign.
3: Yes – there is one branch of the family who *always* give me a large box of Jelly Babies.
4: They are so old that nobody can remember
5: Yes – People either love or hate sprouts, I’m in the first category.
1] Low-key for presents this year but the cheese board and accompanying cheese and wine paraphernalia, that’ll probably get used once, most appeals to my sense of culinary majesty.
2] Given – this may count as “worst” as well but in terms of ideas for presents that make sense, this certainly counts as “wacky”. My brother and I once got my mum a wall-mounted can opener for Christmas. She already had a can opener. With that, she could walk halfway across the kitchen to get it out of a drawer, place the can down on a solid worktop and open it in exactly the same way she had opened cans for decades. Now we expected her to walk across the kitchen and hold the cans in mid-air in order to open them in a completely new way. It never made it onto the wall.
3] The kids have taken to getting me a pair of Simpsons socks from their school fayre every year. I kept last year’s in a drawer for nine months then quietly binned them when moving flat. This time, I thought I’d give the boys the satisfaction of seeing them on my feet – and they were about the most comfortable socks I’ve warn since Messrs Argyle and Burberry lived next door.
4] Mainly quite new, most from this year – the tree’s knocking on a bit, though.
5] Sprouts are little bouncing bombs of tastebud heaven and anyone who thinks otherwise is in denial but are they as particular to Christmas as cranberry sauce, the making of which comes second to finding Zuzu’s petals in my hand as the signal that Christmas may now commence? I mean, we’re not talking potato/carrot/mushroom/peppier levels of year-round ubiquity but I don’t see why the sprout couldn’t aspire to, say, parnsip status.
You think a lot about things not needing you to give much thought to at this time of year, don’t you?
For example, I might call a group of people “chaps” (e.g. “Hello chaps”) but wouldn’t think to call an individual “chap” (e.g. “See you later then, chap.”) whereas I’d say “Good to see you, mate,” but wouldn’t say, “Hello mates, how are you all?” There’s really not enough time left this year to reach a conclusion to that particular pondering so I’ll just sign off by saying, Happy New Year, mates.
But should ‘ponderance’ be the appropriate noun for ‘ponder’?
1. Best present? Actually, it’s one of Darcey’s that I’ve hijacked: a PaperJamz FlyingV guitar that plays a note perfect rendition of You Really Got Me in a VanHalen HM stylee, and all I have to do is strum. Other than that, it’s one I haven’t got yet, as DsMam & I asked everyone for money, so that we can treat ourselves to a new telly in the sales.
2. Does a home pregnancy kit (used) with the blue stripe showing that we were going to be parents count?
3. Not particularly. Somehow there’s ALWAYS a tin of Roses / Quality Street chocolates under our tree, which I have less and less interest in as the years go by.
4. Nothing predates moving into this house, I don’t think, so 15 years max.
5. Life, which is the sentence I’ll get for the murder of anyone who tries to make me eat the poxy things. I won’t even have them in the house for anyone else to eat, Christmas Day or not!
Happy New Year all. Can I go to bed now, please?
Have’nt read the others yet so here goes . . .
1. A bottle of Covonia.
2. I was once given a gold money clip.
I’m afraid all of the presents I give are from the heart. I would never gift wrap a prank.
3. My sister-in-law buys me a huge pack of cotton socks from Ormskirk market. At least I know not to build my hopes up.
4. Every year for decades I’ve bought a couple of decorations for the tree in various posh shops. We have some beauties (stuffed-felt details from old masters) from The National Gallery shop, and a gorgeous mediaeval beaded star-shaped cushion from Westminster Abbey. Linda won’t let me throw away the cheap plastic ones from when the children were small, so they all go on the tree together, which makes her happy.
Some of the wall decorations are really old and kitsch, and I won’t throw away the dancing Oriental-looking Father Christmas that sits on my wall-clock.
5. I like Brussels sprouts, but they have to be cooked to perfection; tender, yet al dente. Get it right and the leaves remain separate, which is ideal for collecting gravy.
And . . . HAPPY NEW YEAR from Webcore Villas.
Whoops, wrong box! I swear I had only four cans of Becks between 1600 hrs and 0100 hrs. (Truth).
Wasn’t The Wrong Box a Peter Cook / Ralph Richardson film?
MAY1366 – I have often shouted, “Come on, fellas!” But never once have I shouted, “Come on, fella.” Though I have no objection to being addressed as such. There’s something sorta John Wayneish about it . . .
“Git yur butt on that hoss, fella.”
1. Hmm, tricky. It is a toss-up between the Soft Machine album “Bundles” , Richard Olney’s “The French Menu Cookbook” or the Larousse Gastronomique in a nice slip case. I think I’ll go for the Richard Olney book, but it is a tough call.
2. If we mean “wicked” as in “brilliant”, that’s an easy one. In 2006 we bought our Westies as Christmas presents to each other.
3. No.
4. We bought them in 2004. We had only just got together in 2003 and didn’t have a tree or anything. To be honest, I was in a bad way emotionally and didn’t feel very festive that year. Christmas 2003 was a bad time and one I really wouldn’t ever want to repeat.
5. Brussels sprouts are something I only ever eat at Christmas. It is a tradition.
1. I have the Olney on order, but it won’t arrive until March.. so I’d have to go for Mara’s hand-made christmas decorations as this year’s best.
2. Both my brother and father really enjoyed the Haynes Wallace and Gromit edition this year.
3. I mostly get merino/possum clothing/socks sent over from NZ from my parents, always appreciated.
4. Mara’s school does Advent decoration well, so we have a nice set of wax paper cut-outs, ironed-bead forms, and clay figurines.
5. I like sprouts, I’m the only one in my household though, so we don’t eat them very often. I don’t associate them with Christmas though, for me they are just another late autumn veg.
I was having an in depth chat about ironed-bead forms with my German sister in law last night – my new year was truly Rock and Roll.
You might be rock ‘n roll enough for ironed beads.. but are you psych pop enough for window colours?
(well.. I guess you are..)
Happy New Year to you all.
1. Don’t get many presents these days but my step son did give me a hair-dryer which was incredibly useful for de-frosting the inlet pipe to the washing machine on Boxing Day morning.
2. I gave my nephew a pocket-kite once. Otherwise wacky presents have tended to be charity gifts like a virtual donkey which will be given to someone in a far-off country to help them make a living.
3. Another nephew used to give me a chocolate orange every year, I didn’t see him very often so my brother used to store them up and I’d get two or three at once – then none for a couple of years. They don’t really go off (though they are nicer when they’re new)!
4. Mum used to have decorations which my brothers made during the war but sadly these got lost when she passed away and the house was sold. I have some from my childhood and some which my son has made. I also have a “fairy” which my ex made, it is shaped like a little old man with his finger up his nose, and it sits on top of the tree (the real fairy has been relegated to the mantle-piece).
5. Don’t much care for sprouts but TY, send me all your licorice, I am drinking Yogi tea even now and am down to my last tea bag (with little prospect of getting any more till Tuesday. Help!)
OK, here’s mine, for what they’re worth:
1. Best present was a small book called ‘Would You Rather…’ which presents a series of mad dilemmas fom which the reader (and the people to whom s/he is reading) MUST make a choice. Kept our Christmas lunch party in tucks all afternoon. Unbeknown to the giver, this is a game I used to play with mates on car journeys, but the book’s authors obviously took more drugs than we did. The concept may form the basis af a future EOTWQ, so I’ll limit myself to a couple of examples:
Would you rather hear:
Ray Charles sing in Yiddish
or
Jesse Jackson read aloud from Penthouse Forum?
Would you rather:
Be double jointed
or
have near invincibility at Connect Four?
Boxed set of ‘Pink Panther’ movies on DVD a close second.
2. Could be the pickle fork I got from my grandmother when I was 10. Though I have twice now bought gently ironic gifts for Bigbrobach to find that he had bought exactly the same gently ironic gifts for me.
Actually, a member of our Christmas lunch party this year bought his father-in-law a tacky thong – no, not that sort; I mean a flip-flop – that had been specially made to fit onto the ‘foot’ of a wine glass, thereby making a carry-around coaster. This was in revenge for the father-in-law’s gift last year of a mushroom brush, despite the son-in-law’s virulent mushroom allergy.
3. Mother always knits me a pair of socks. She does the same for Bigbrobach, Wifeofbigbrobach, Littlebrobach, and Notwifeoflittlebrobach (a.k.a. Motherofnephews1and2). She also knits something for Nephews1and2 – gloves, hats – and something for Portsmouthauntie and Solihulluncleandauntie. Not surprising she gave up making jumpers! The socks are made to measure and v comfy; friends sometimes ask if Mabach does commissions, but she’s usually too busy….
4. I have a cone of twigs with white fairy lights inside that’s five years old. Every year I buy a holly/mistletoe wreath for the front door. And that’s it. To be fair I’m not usually here.
5. Love ‘em; could eat ‘em raw. They only really appear here in the winter (veg is much more seasonal over here) and I buy them when I see them. Must be cooked al dente, though.
Blimpy, I love bread sauce, too, though I’m not in Scotland. Every year that I find myself staying in Switzerland for Christmas, I get an invitation for lunch with friends. The host’s family usually has a row about the bread sauce; we always end up cleaning a pan of burnt-on same…!