Lisa poined out that I hadn't posted information about the gifts I gave at work this Christmas. (For information on previous Christmases, start here and work your way backwards through the links.) So, without further ado, I present the work gifts of 2006!
Money is extra-tight this year, so I had to find ways of creatively stretching my gift-giving dollar. The centerpiece of the gift was something that I've never seen before this year: a battery-operated tea light! I bought over two dozen of them right before Halloween, and actually used several of them in candleholders to light up my steps for the Trick-or-Treaters. To hold the tea lights I also provided a wide variety of glass votive holders. This gift was given with diabolical intent: candles - open flames of any sort - are forbidden in our facility (except with a special "open flame permit"). I am envisioning a day when our safety officer comes drifting through and finds room after room where mood lighting is provided by a flickering LED "flame", and promptly freaks out.
Also included in the hunter-green gift bags (which I consider part of the gift!) are a chocolate lollipop from Diamond's Candy Shoppe in Nanticoke, a scratch-off lottery ticket, and a tangerine.
When I was growing up my mom would always put an orange in each of our Christmas stockings. I came to look forward to that orange each year. My mom told me that when she was a little girl sometimes an orange was all she and her brothers and sister would get on Christmas morning. I did some digging and found that oranges, tangerines, and other such fruits are traditional Christmas gifts throughout the world - a type of tangerine called a Satsuma actually helped save the world in the Doctor Who episode "The Christmas Invasion" (the first episode of the second season of the new series, and David Tennant's first full episode as the Doctor.)
So there you have it. Nothing fancy, nothing spectacular. No hours of work put into painstakingly handcrafting each gift as in previous years. Something simple, but something I think people enjoyed nevertheless.
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3 comments:
I think it was JFK who said: Those who make candles impossible will make battery-operated tea lights inevitable.
The time for the reveloution has come.
Also, we always got the orange too. I was told that "back in the day" it was a very special treat indeed. I wish someone had explained things to me earlier. I've only come to appreciate the orange in the stocking as an adult. As a present-buying parent, I can really understand about trying to stretch dollars to give something rare and unique. So I've started giving my kids an extra hour of sleep. They say "Hey, there's nothing in the stocking." And I say "Yes there is. It's an extra hour of sleep. Don't worry, you'll come to appreciate it when you're older."
Ok, not really. I give them an orange. And Super Elastic Bubble Plastic.
Anne, sometimes I like your comments as much as I like Harolds blogs...:)
Harold, I did indeed love my small tea light, as you know, my son used it to light up our miniature manger. :)
I also got a tangerine in my stocking each Christmas, I should really start that next year?
I am reliving your blogs as you label them through google reader. I must admit that on the day it bosted over 100 new posts, I marked them all as read. :)
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