On Christmas presents given

The list of suggested presents for my eldest niece from my brother Philip contained the injunction "No princesses", something I was rather suspicious was a parental injunction rather than Désirée's wishes. As the list didn't contain particularly inviting presents in my opinion, and the present I really wished to give had princess content, though tempered by rebelliousness, viz, Pixar's Brave, I went against instructions and gave it Désirée on DVD along with Disney's Cinderella. (After all, she isn't a princess for most of the film!) :-)  Désirée was quite happy with it, Philip and Dominique less so. In the aftermath, it came out that Désirée's actual wishes had been for "fairy, mermaid and/or princess".

Conversely, the list of presents Edward's parents presented included the wish for tracks for his toy cars which ideally should not require batteries. I found exactly what was wished for in a Hot Wheels set of assorted tracks, curves, jump, loop-de-loop and spring launcher. Edward had been hopping up and down with anticipation of his presents until he opened that one. After that, it was pretty much all people could do to pull him away long enough to open his other presents.

I think I can tick that one off as well received.

Even more fun was that Désirée also got a kick out of playing with the track. Actually, Stephen, Margaret, Philip and myself have all had some fun with it!

Finally, two days ago, I was adding some reflective tape to my Arc'teryx soft shell jacket using my Mother's sewing machine when Dominique came in the room. She commented that she needed some of the tape. As providence would have it, I had bought twice as much reflective tape as I needed and thus was able to put the other portion in her stocking! She was amused and happy.

Giving presents that are obviously enjoyed is lots of fun!