Christmas has come and gone. This year I received more presents than usual, mostly because I gave out more presents than usual. When I looked for gifts I bought things that reminded me of the giftee. It was sort of a test to see how well I know each person. In the same vein, I'll go over the presents I received this year and see if they're appropriate. This is not meant a criticism because I do appreciate the thoughts.

First is my coworkers, who got me two gift certicates. One for $100 to Amazon.com and one for $120 to Dark Carnival. Now, a gift certificate is a very safe present. In general you don't have to know a person really well, just their tendencies. The Amazon.com gift is very generic since you can buy a whole slew of things there. The Dark Carnival one is much more specific, though still quite general. I don't fault them for giving me these generic gifts, though it does not show a huge amount of thought.

Moving on, we have Shannon and Kimberly's present, a book of lists, this one about Hollywood. Apparently they both think I'm a big movie buff, which come to think of it I guess I am sort of. I watch a lot of movies at least, though this year I've cut down. But it's a gift that is based on something that they've observed about me, so it's a good gift. Woo gave me a K'Nex BattleMech. This is a erector-set-like toy for building one of two different Clan 'Mechs. He knows I ran a BattleTech campaign and that I like the game, so he got me something that I was unlikely to have. And indeed I don't tend to buy figures or other non-content items. I actually like this gift the most, as it's very me and yet not. A lucky guess on his part or he knows me way too well.

Contrast this with Dave and Julie's gift, a rotisserie cooker. Has nothing to do with me since I'm not any sort of cook. So here we have a different gift giving philosophy: give something that fills in a void. Some gift in an area that the giftee ignores. Of course, the pitfall is that there's a reason the giftee doesn't care for the subject. In this case Dave is really into fancy cooking and he knows I'm not so he gets me something that he thinks will spark my interest. So that I may discover the joy of cooking that he has. I can appreciate the sentiment even though I'll never use it.

Mom got me a box of dried apricots. It's food and it's somewhat healthy so it makes sense. At least she didn't give me tupperware like she gave Chris and Steph. I have the theory that leftovers cry out to be eaten, so there's not much point in having containers that you'll never use. Dad bought me some pants, which I do need. Steph gave me a turtle calendar, but then again I did ask for it. For one I do need a calendar and she always buys me a calendar and this year I told her what kind of calendar I wanted. Next year Britney Spears.

Steph also gave me Roxette's newest CD, Room Service, which came out earlier this year. I totally forgot about it otherwise I'd have bought it myself by now. It's a very specific present that only someone who knows me really well could give me, since it's something that I both like and would buy for myself. So a very approriate Christmas present.

That's it for this year, other than some minor things that don't count. My thoughts on buying gifts change every year. Some years I give people gifts to expand their horizon, other years gifts that I think they need t wouldn't buy themselves, and so on. I'm quite impulsive so it tends to be whatever kind of mood I'm in at the time. The joy is in buying the gifts and then seeing their expression.