As per my earlier post about the difficulty of buying Christmas presents (HERE) I finally managed to think of things to get for my family and in-laws ~ my father was very pleased with his cashmere scarf, even though I went to about six shops that only sold them in blue, red, garish stripes or ... grey. Sorry, Daddy, I did try to find one in Dad-ish green or brown but, alas, the store buyers decided that no-one should like those colours this year!
My favourite present was a fab rock chick bracelet from my sister:
For the discerning Aerosmith lover! Here's the website if you'd like to have a look for yourself: Twin Rocker Gems.
I also loved my black leather gloves from one of my sisters in law, and my bathroom now smells of strawberries, courtesy of some Body Shop stuff from the other one! In fact, the strawberries are vying for pole smell position with the L'heure Bleue I got from my father ...
... at least, he said "What do you want for Christmas?" and I said "I'm running low on perfume", so he said, "how much is it, I'll put the money in your bank account," and then I ordered it from Amazon, so it's more or less from him, anyway!
Talking of things that smell nice, my husband now has enough shower gel, stuff that you spray on all over, after shave and post shave balm, etc, to last him until about 2017. He's still using some of the stuff he got last Christmas. Still, at least it saves buying anything of that type, like, ever again. I've got shower gel and body lotion and curious preparations called 'body butter' and 'body polish' (???), too, yet no bubble bath. Don't any of these gift packs include nice bubbles to lie in, anymore? Do the makers think we're all too busy to lie in the bath? I've also got lots of those netty type scrunched up things that come with every bath product gift set. What are you supposed to do with them? I always leave them hanging about in the bathroom for a few months until they inch themselves into that place in the airing cupboard from which nothing ever reappears.
Oh, and whatever happened to bath cubes? Remember them? Blocks of solid stuff smelling of lavender that never properly dissolved, so you'd find little lumps of them in the bath when you pulled the plug out. (One of Dad's socks filled with tangerines, nuts and bath cubes. Nostalge, nostalge).
I won't mention all the chocolates. The Thorntons, the Lindt, the Heroes... I'm trying to pretend they're not there (not very successfully, it has to be said).
I wonder if anyone can beat this present for novelty? My sister's chap, who is called John Morgan, got a wonderful present (or set of them) from his brother. John Morgan being a very usual sort of name, his brother, Richard, took it upon himself to find every book and CD he could find by other John Morgans. Here is John with some of his presents - I like 'The Killer's Manual'!
Best of all, his brother discovered a 1970s type gents' outfitter, and obtained a Harris Tweed jacket, 'made especially for John Morgan'. I love this, what a brilliant idea!!
Anyway, I hope you all had a wonderful time with your loved ones. Now, I must go and take a bath. I shall be having approximately four per day from now until April, in an effort to get through all that shower gel. That's if I can fight my way past the boxes of chocolates.....
