December 19, 2012
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The best gift
It’s Christmas in less than a week and I haven’t even done any shopping. We usually have a secret Santa but no one is organizing it this year. So I guess I have to do some shopping. My default gift will be the good ol’ red pouch. The toughest person to buy any gifts will be my dad. The best gift I can give him will be my time. The rest of my family and extended family will have to do with whatever I come up with.
Looking back at past Christmas (when I was younger and less cynical), the best gifts were simple ones that I got from my parents. I knew they worked hard for the money. It was always tight. If I got clothes, it wasn’t the fancy name brands. But it was new and it did the job. I remember the Christmas meals. We didn’t have turkey. It was usually a roast duck or lamb. Sometimes my mom would debone a duck, stuff it with sticky rice, mushrooms, Chinese sausage and other things. It was always so complicated and she would spend hours in the kitchen preparing it. We would take our time enjoying dinner. We used the special dishes and cutlery along with the wine glasses. There would be a couple of long distance phone calls from relatives.
When mom had more time, she would make some dumplings and steam them. The windows would be covered with the humidity and it would quickly freeze up. I always thought the windows that never sealed tight created the most wonderful ice patterns.
I haven’t created any special Christmas memories these past few years. I need to change things around.
Comments (12)
True, we need to create new memories and not live on the old ones alone.
I also have not accomplished any Christmas shopping. And, buying for my dad is also a challenge…I’ll have to get creative.
Be careful with those Christmas memories: don’t make them because you’ve had too much egg nog–those almost always end disastrously. Merry Christmas just the same!
Creating new memories is important. Time for all of us to start if we have not started already!
I don’t remember celebrating Christmas at all in the last 5 years… I think I was working Christmas day pretty much all these years.
Hopefully I get to spend it with the gf this year
You still have time. Go for it. Make this a memorable Christmas!
Christmas is one of my most favorite times of the year. It’s really big here in my country. Anyway, you’re not alone with the Christmas shopping woes. I myself haven’t started and I’ll just start this weekend.
the stuffed duck sounds yummy. reminds me of my late grandma n how she used to make it every chinese new year. and if u ask me, i think steamed dumplings beat any turkey during the cold of december. good luck on the shopping. if i were you, i’d just get them all gift certificates. then again, im never into buying gifts anyway.
I grew up with a family that DIY’d gifts. We still do it. I mean… we did get cd’s, dvd’s, clothes, stuff we wanted, but most of the things were ‘made from the heart’.
In this age of online shopping and massive advertising, it’s really hard to find a special and thoughtful gift any more. The way I see it, giving someone an electronic good like an iPhone adapter is about as impersonal, though practical, as giving money (no offense). Funny how as technology becomes more advanced, the more unique gifts are increasingly the more technologically primitive — i.e., “artisan” creations or things you make/do yourself.
That stuffed duck is awesome and a labor of love, I have always wanted to figure out how to make it but never had the chance. Nothing beats dumplings either (but you kind of have to have an assembly line).
Spend time with your Dad and make the memories. I know I have a lot of regrets for not being able to do that over the past few years. Merry Christmas my friend.
i haven’t gone shopping yet either! luckily i have a minor reprieve, i don’t actually go back to visit the parents until a couple days after christmas. that means i still have a few more days to shop hahaha.
mm… stuffed duck. i’m so excited that my mom has agreed to teach me how to do it (or at least she is willing to dig out the recipe and give it a try with me)!