Favourite Gifts
Ah, Christmas. The best part about Christmas is buying gifts for people, unless you’re Rob Ford, then its giving cash. I savour the challenge. The second best part of Christmas is opening gifts. I love seeing what other people have picked out for me. You can really tell how well someone knows you or what they think of you by the gifts they get you. In honour of this, I’ve compiled off the top of my head my 3 favourite Christmas gifts that I have received throughout the years.
In declining order of relative importance . . .
3. My Beetle
Note the trad tartan old man pyjamas, the headband, and the cast. Classic me look.
I love Volkswagen Beetles, like, a lot. I find their unique and curvaceous shape appealing, their pop culture iconography intoxicating, and their reincarnation inspiring. But, alas, this obsession arose when I was in the third grade with a broken leg, no less. The only version of a beetle I could hope to manage was a miniature one. And since I had a broken leg, the car would have to move of its own volition. Santa (cough, my parents) came through for me. It was gorgeous, all silver and roundness and SO CUTE. I couldn’t handle it. All I wanted to do for the rest of the morning was hug this obnoxiously large remote controlled car, though of course I took a break to actually get out of pjs and open other gifts. Though, my cousin and I, who had also received a remote controlled car, did spend a good deal of boxing day testing the limits and taking turns with our cars, and attempting to build ramps and play dolls with them (priorities).
2. My MacMini
It wasn’t quite this small, but you get it.
My dad is a hardcore early adopter. This means that I was the only 3rd grader I knew with my own computer (which, keep in mind, was in 2000, guys). The downside to this is that every now and then I would come home to a completely different machine. He would take just a piece here or there, like a CD drive or the network card or sound card, but then one faithful day in grade 10, I came home and found that my hard drive was gone. MY HARD DRIVE, GUYS. That magical place where teenage me stored all my secretive and uber personal documents. Can you imagine a) losing all of that data or b) YOUR PARENTS FINDING IT?! That night, I began researching options to avoid this in the future. That is when I stumbled across the beauty of Macintosh, of Apple computers. Of course I was already familiar with the tech brand that brought us multicoloured desktop all-in-ones, but they had faded from my consciousness as hormones took over. My predicament brought them front and center, once again. Now, I was aware that this was a considerable investment, thus, I prepared a presentation wherein I would be contributing 50% of my meager paycheque every month until my birthday in April, and then we could order the base model for my birthday. They agreed this was a good plan, although my dad was kind of hurt, my mother was wholly on my side.
Fast forward to Christmas morning. I go to my tiny tree and bring my presents from my parents to their room where I open them while they stay in bed (it’s a compromise). Lo and behold, I open a small heavy box, and tears well in my eyes and my voice cracks and there’s a tiny white cube of a computer on my lap. It was one of the most thoughtful moments my parents ever had, and most generous, because my dad is not one to skimp on tech, and even upgraded it from the model I’d requested. I’ve been a dedicated Mac user ever since, take form that what you will.
1. Salem
Such a stylish cat. He was way ahead of the HBC comeback of stripes.
When I was a small child, like many 90s children, I was super into Sailor Moon. Aside from the appeal of the mainly female, kickass cast, I was in love with the cats. Luna and Artemis were my life. But there was another 90s show with cats that caught the attention of my magic happy self, and that was Sabrina. Who didn’t love Sabrina, seriously. And more importantly, who didn’t love her sarcastic feline familiar, Salem?! My mom knew both of my desire for a cat, and of someone looking to get rid of some kittens around Christmas time, and it was fate. I picked out the tiniest, blackest kitten and named it Luna. Then, a week or so later when we brought it to the vet’s to be fixed, we found out Luna was actually Salem (though, as my mother will undoubtedly point out, she knew it was a male from the start). Salem adjusted right away to our house. When you’re the runt of a litter in a house full of cats, like FULL, to a house of one small child and two adults, it’s quite the change. For Salem, in the best possible way. He was a very happy kitty, always purring under the tree every Christmas, always aware of his status as a Christmas kitten. He was my first kitty and will always be in my heart.
Now, you’ll notice a theme here that these gifts were a) all things I’d requested or expressed specific interest in and b) all things were from my parents. This is not to say that I have not received special Christmas gifts from other folks. Oh ho, no; I’ve been incredibly lucky with people understanding my gifting needs and my personal preferences. I don’t know, maybe it’s because I’m an open book, err, encyclopedia. So, this is basically me being thankful for everything I have, especially my computers, my kitties, and the parents that make it all possible, even though I don’t always show it. Thanks, guys, I love you.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
katherinepedia 