Sunday, January 2, 2011

The Greatest Gift?

After years to the contrary, I have finally reached a stage in my life where I have greater anticipation for how others respond to their gifts than in opening the ones I have received.  It's kind of liberating in a way, and it's made it far easier for me to be more appreciative of things like socks and underwear ("Hey, I wear these like, every day!  Now I don't have to buy them myself!"), whereas I once had to (cough) fabricate a certain degree of enthusiasm.

Even when I haven't given the gift in question, I enjoy watching reactions, and although all gifts were joyously and graciously received, there were a few notable stand-outs.

It's been quite some time since Audrey has had a stylish watch, so she quite enjoyed getting this one:


Fenya will be travelling to Wales with Cantilon Chamber Choir this summer, so we figured she ought to have her own camera.  This will also give her time to sort out all the menus and features well ahead of her departure, and her reaction speaks volumes:
I got lots of neat stuff, but one of the coolest was this hardcover Captain Canuck collection.  I had all the issues as a kid; Dad bought me issue #1 from a motel newsstand in Saskatchewan or Manitoba when I was 8, after I had seen an article about it in his Macleans magazine. I also received an exceptional t-shirt, but it has yet to be captured on film.

In terms of sheer gift enjoyment however, nothing can top the giraffe tuque that Fenya picked up for Glory in Banff this summer.


This thing went on her head right after she got it, and we saw Glory's hair very little for the next few days.  She wore it around the house:


She wore it sledding:


She has even worn it to bed:


I'm no stranger to the joys of simple pleasures and you don't need to read much farther in the blog archives to back that up.  That said, I can't think of an object that has brought as much joy to me as this hat has to Glory, and some of these objects have cost hundreds of dollars!  I have a feeling that if I pay really close attention, she might just teach me how it's done, or perhaps she'll just help me to remember it.


Until then, I guess I'll just work on keeping my head covered and being grateful, eh?


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