Merry Christmas

And, er, happy Boxing Day, more like it. As usual, I pretty much raked in the good gifts; I have a generous and thoughtful family. Most popular among the younger set was the Legos, two huge sets worth, although the american girl doll clothes and tea party set was also cool. But it's pretty much all about Lego, which Daddy John wisely championed. Santa decided to wait on John's new iMac until Santa could get the education discount by means of John doing the actual purchases, cuz Santa's thrifty like that. What did you guys get? Did a low-key spirit of non consumer excess pervade the festivities? I can't honestly say we scaled back all that much, though we're trying to move old toys out for charity to make room for any new.

The mood in Singapore is definitely pre-crash. I think we're just a few stops behind the US on the dramatic economic slowdown train. We're still at "condos off by 20% but desirable HDB flats or houses in the central area are holding on to their peaks" and we haven't yet made it to "OMG WTF we r doomded", while the States seems to be past that and well on its way to "Warriors...come out to play-ey-yay."

We also got to have Brad Delong and his family over on Christmas, which was fun. It's always nice to meet people whom you feel like you know well even though you've never seen them. Brad has a picture up on his blog so I had a good sense of him. It's stranger when you meet someone whose photo you haven't seen and suddenly realize that while you didn't have a clear image of what they looked like, it definitely wasn't like this.

Comments

[The Modesto Kid]

Merry Christmas!

What did you guys get?

We don't celebrate Christmas, and our Hanukkah gift exchange is primarily about giving gifts to the young'un; but Ellen gave me a book I'm very much looking forward to reading, What Can I Do When Everything's on Fire? by António Lobo Antunes. I gave Ellen a nice teapot and cups.

I haven't met you but when I saw your picture from the Flophouse party, it tripped me out to realize your blog icon was not (quite) how you look.

[Ben Wolfson]

NOTHING

[jim]

Our youngest is now 24, so at this point it's tokens: I got Barry Cunliffe's latest.

[Henry]

Shouldn't you be waiting a few weeks on the new iMac anyway? Apple are supposed to be coming out with a new version in a couple of weeks ...

[Jeff R.]

Legos are good. I loved them when I was a kid, but mine (7 & 10) aren't all that interested in them. When I thought back to I enjoyed the most in my childhood, here's my list: legos, wooden blocks, paper (white and construction), markers, crayons, pencils, tape, string. That works for about ages 3 to 13. The 10 year old got a pottery wheel and now there are several bowls sitting around drying. I got the 7 year old (the bug obsessed one) the last three John Himmelman "A ___'s Life" books we didn't already have (for which I thank J&B for the suggestion). I got "The Complete Peanuts 67 to 70." Did you know Woodstock was first the "hippy bird?"

[Bill Benzon]

What, no poopy pants dolls for the girls? They're supposed to be the greatest thing - though I can imagine that's pure manufacturer's hype.

[Laleh]

My husband and I are buying each other a posh dinner at a posh restaurant (which we can't ordinarily afford). May, our daughter who will soon turn 4 and who is totally psyched about this Christmas (she was too young really to understand any up to now) collected LOADS of small gifts. Pablo, our little 4 month old got nothing.

[PG]

This is my husband's and my first Christmas as a married couple, and we got each other ... um, nothing. We both blanked on what would be a really good gift for the other. (I think it was hard for us to get past our good birthday gifts, where I got an iTouch and he got a front-row seat of Frank Langella in one of his favorite plays ever.)

So we're spending lots of money taking my sister and his brother out while they're in NYC, as well as on a new TV.