Things We Laughed About

A few things that made us laugh over the holidays. Today we go and brave the Boxing Day sales ... wish us luck.

A television reporter was doing a segment on the most popular electronic gadgets for people based on their ages. She interviewed a child, a teen, an adult, and finally a man just over 75. When he was asked what electronic gadget he most wanted, he blinked a couple of times into the harsh television light and then said, 'memory'. She, unaware of his joke, then rushed around showing him various sticks and attachments that increased a computers capacity. He just smiled at her, I think he thought she was simple.

I had done my Christmas shopping for Joe. I put WORK into shopping. I love it. I think about gifts, look for just the right thing, ponder reactions to my efforts. Then I noticed something on line. It was the Canadian Weather Trivia calender. Joe loves anything to do with weather. When we travel the first thing he does in a hotel room is go to the television and flip to find the weather station. If they don't have it I have to listen to a 'hotels should be mandated to carry the weather station, travelers need to know about the weather, I don't think we should stay in this hotel again ...'speech. So, even though done, I ordered the calender. It was a joke gift. I had him open it first, that was a mistake. Nothing that came after lived up to the calender. I got him something made with rare Welsh gold and it was, 'That's lovely, hey it says here that the coldest day experienced in Saskatchewan was ...' Oh, well.

We watched over our web cam as Ruby opened her big gift from Santa. She had quietly confided in us that she wanted a Barbie and Car. The gift magically appeared overnight and it was sat on one end so was nearly taller than she. She approached the gift as if it still bore magic from Santa's shop. She tore a bit at a piece of paper and then said, 'I can't open this, it's too big.' Her dad said, 'You are the master of unwrappers, go for it.' So she did. When she saw what it was she called out, 'It's Barbie, She's in a car, And it's PINK.' Slam dunk, Santa got that one just right. Apparently the magic dust from Santa's shop stayed with her the entire day.

Somewhere in England, in a Waitrose, I walked Joe right up to the display. There were several different canisters but I wanted the gold one and the silver one. The gold one held green tea, the silver one white tea. They canisters are simply lovely. 'I want these for Christmas.' I have learned to be very specific in my hints with Joe. He is not half the shopper I am. Sometimes his 'inspirations' are frightening. So, later in the trip we were at a Waitrose and I stayed in the car IN CASE HE HAD CHRISTMAS SHOPPING TO DO. I really wanted those canisters. Weeks pass, Christmas day comes. I get this package that's oddly shaped. I open it to find the Waitrose Gold Elephant canister full of green tea. I had managed to forget entirely the asking for the present so it came as a lovely shock. Rah, aging!

A lovely time was had by all here ... and you?