Christmas 2007

When it comes to gifts I am very much of the thought that it’s the thought that counts. However, my interpretation of that phrase is different from a good deal of other people’s it would seem.

It means not giving fruits in brandy to a pregnant woman.
It means not buying a variation of last year’s gift for my kids. A year in their lives makes a huge difference.
It means a list of stuff you want is fine.
Equally, if you have expressed wish to get me a gift, I’d love to send you to my amazon wishlist.
I don’t eat cheese, beyond a bit of shredded mozzarella. This is a reasonably well-known fact about me. Yet a few years back, I got three cheeseboards.
I haven’t been camping beyond Reading festival and even then I went home to wash and eat at my mums. So, why the camping wok?
Famously, one year my husband and I once got individually wrapped bags of supermarket crisps. WTF?

For goodness sake, don’t waste your money trying to find a suprise. Just ask. Personally, I love finding presents that I think people will really enjoy and I’m happy to do some checking up on the interests and started as soon as I got a little pocket money. Throughout the year I keep a mental checklist of interests and collections they have. I mean, Christmas happens on the same date every year. It hardly creeps up. How hard can it be?

If my boys learn one thing about Christmas and birthdays, it will be that it is an opportunity to show how much you care about another person and the interest you take in them. What better than a small gift given with consideration and feeling? I love the giving part of Christmas more than the receiving and my biggest disappointment about not being with my bigger family this year is that I won’t see them open their gifts. I hope they like them. I put a lot of thought in