Gift exchange since I've known Megan though has been more significant as we get probably even more excited about the gifts we give each other than the gifts we receive. But alas, we’ve done a weak job recording all of those gifts, so the thought and excitement is slightly lost. This is my attempt at remembering those creative things we’ve done/bought for each other at Christmas.
Christmas 2006: Megan and I had been dating for a few months. Towards the end of the semester, I was getting pretty worn out. One particularly weary evening, Megan planned me a big long creative scavenger hunt. I was super grumpy, but she insisted. With each clue, I got closer and closer to the final goal:
New DDR Pads! To replace the badly worn out and broken ones from before my mission! And even better, she had had all of my friends from around the institute pitch in to the “buy Matthias new DDR pads” fund and there was enough donations to buy two pads, ice cream, soda, and a nice card that everyone signed! So she not only planned a really practical and thoughtful gift, but she helped remind me of all of my good friends in a time when I was really down because of school. And the gift came with an instant DDR party!
Later on Christmas day, she also gave me a crocheted Griffindor scarf and a number 10 can of nacho cheese. Mmmm….
For Megan, she had shown me a song book at her parents’ house that she and her sister had enjoyed singing from most Christmases called “The Merry Christmas Songbook” and she told me that had been one of her favorite holiday traditions. Being rather forward, I ordered her an updated version of the song book gave it to her so that we could continue to make singing around the piano one of our traditions. I thought buying her the song book was a pretty good investment. Note that last Saturday night, we spent about an hour+ sitting around our new piano singing from the book.
Christmas 2007: This was our first married Christmas together. I told that one of my favorite things about Christmas was opening up one present on Christmas Eve, and that that one present was ALWAYS pajamas! I also told her that I thought it was fun when McKay and I had matching pajamas. So we searched a well picked over PJ department at Target and finally found our moose pajamas (which I’m wearing right now incidentally) .
This picture also shows our first Christmas tree that we had alot of fun picking out together and decorating with popcorn that we strung up ourselves. Megan crocheted us stockings that we really enjoyed stuffing for each other. So much fun in fact, that neither of us could sleep Christmas Eve and we woke up to see our presents that we’d gotten for each other around 3am.
Previously, Megan has commented that a glass bowl we had received a flower arrangement in would work great as a fish bowl. So I took the comment to heart and bought all kinds of fish supplies, a little filter, a plant, a rock, and everything else that fish could have fun with in a fish bowl. I then went to a Wal-Mart that had 25 cent gold fish and bought a hand full and kept them at our friends’ house, Britt and Desiree. Apparently though, the fish we going kamikaze and were leaping out of the casserole dish that I was keeping them in at Britt’s house and they had really scared/grossed out/scarred for life Desiree. Whatever fish didn’t go kamikaze out of the bowl didn’t survive to Christmas Eve and went the way of all the sewer. Christmas Eve, Megan went into work for a few hours and I seized the opportunity to ride back to Wal-Mart on my motorcycle to buy a few more 25 cent fish and keep them in the cupboard until Megan fell asleep so I could set them out. Sadly though, by that time, there were only two left alive. And by Christmas morning (well, 3am) they were looking pretty sad. Megan didn’t get too attached to these and they were dead by the next day. BUT, later in the week, we went to Pets R Us and found…
Julius!
He was a really fun fish and made Megan really happy, until he died a few months later. We also bought a snail Megan named Edmund who stayed alive about half a year longer than Julius. Megan has been so crushed over the loss of her fish and snail that we’ve never been able to replace them. She has only just now been able to fill the fish bowl with new occupants for the first time since Julius and Edmund. Well, the new occupants are cotton ball snowmen. But I think she’s finally getting through the grieving process.
For my present, Megan had contacted one of my friends from high school, Bob Wollenzien whose dad had used to own the local gas station in my home town of Logandale, NV. Now, a gas station may sound insignificant, but Wally’s Gas and Food was THE hang out and social center of the town. For years, I had my Wally’s mug that I carried around and drank from to keep hydrated. But that mug so old was cracked and dirty and nasty, and Megan had often questioned if it was sanitary. So she contacted Bob to see if by chance he had some old mugs she could buy from him. In response he sent her a 52 ouncer, 34 ouncer, and hot cocoa mug with Wally's FOR FREE! What dedicated research and love she put into that gift! It made me so happy! And the mugs continue to keep us hydrated! When Kathleen visited us over the summer, we each had our own mug to fill with water and drink from. Whenever we go for a car ride, we fill a mug to take with us. Whenever Megan sits down to breast feed Oliver, I make sure she has a spit up rag and a full mug of water.
Christmas 2008: Moving on to last year Christmas, our second Christmas together. This year was our Senior year of school amidst many difficult classes and senior design. We were ecstatic for the break from school to just relax and be with each other. Megan opted to only work 20-30 hours a week at her job so that we could spend even more time together during the break.
We again picked out a little tree together a strung it with popcorn and laid out Megan’s crocheted stockings beneath it. As far as presents, we bought ourselves the Wii. We actually bought it in October I think, but we wrapped up the box to have under the tree. Ya know, cause it was really from Santa, be he couldn’t wait.
For Megan, I picked her out a jewelry box that plays music when you open it. The tune is a mystical little tune that reminds us a little of the Harry Potter theme music. I also got her some fancy looking jewelry to put in it too. To encourage her craftiness, I also got her a cool paper cutter. It’s one of those big guillotine style ones and is awesome! A few days ago, Megan was using the paper cutter while I was holding Oliver and each time the guillotine went down, he startled a little, then cracked the biggest smile and burst into fits of laughter. This continued for about ten minutes of paper slicing and laughing. It was great.
Megan got for me a jacket for Tucson winter (or New Hampshire early autumn) to wear with my motorcycle. It’s black and Dickie’s and I love it! I feel really cool when I wear it on my motorcycle, because I am really cool. She also got me a glass syrup jar (so we can microwave our syrup for pancakes as hot syrup is so much better), a blue tooth dongle for my laptop, and a set of egg cups (ya know, for soft boiled eggs) made out of springs. The egg cups were especially puzzling while I was trying to feel them in their wrapping paper. When I felt them, they were hard, but when I squeezed them, they compressed, and when I dropped them, they bounced!
In the future, I know that we’ll have many more fun added traditions and clever, thoughtful gifts for each other and for and from Oliver. I hope to be able to journal those things down also so that we can remember and be grateful for the fun we have together.
