The presence of presents

[cosmolinguist]

We saw Andrew's parents this afternoon, for lovely afternoon tea up in the sky at the Hilton (I don't usually approve of the Hilton, but the great thing about being in it is that you don't have to look at it) and swapped Christmas presents. And I got a birthday present.

On the train home, I looked down at the bag I was holding, that said "Happy Birthday", and thought how nice it was to have someone giving me presents, rather than presents being something to stress about, wade through crowds for, wrap, or pack.

When we got home I needed to pee, and in the time I spent in the bathroom, Andrew had already opened all his Christmas presents from his family and was hassling me to open mine so he could find out what they were too. Christmas is for children, they say, but I reckon it's just as good for the childishly excited, whatever age they are.

I usually like to wait, finding anticipation more fun than a lot of my presents turn out to be, but it can't be denied that I plan to spend this evenng with a DVD and beer I wouldn't have been able to enjoy if I hadn't been hassled into opening my presents early.

Comments

[eiffel_71]

Happy birthday! *x*

[cosmolinguist]

It's not my birthday until next week, but thanks :)

[sfred]

Yay presents :-)

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Hehe - Andrew really is impatient if he couldn't even wait until you got back to share the opening process with you! Bless him - I hope he got something nice. :-)

[cosmolinguist]

He did seem happy with his books and DVD. :)

And yeah; we open one present at a time in my mom's family, from the youngest person in the room to the oldest, until we run out of presents, my dad's family merely wait until all the presents are handed out from under the tree and then everybody tears in at once, which is rubbish in comparison.

So while I've tried to instill my values in Andrew at family Christmases, by craning my neck and going "what did you get there?" all the time and shouting "look! look what I got!" without moving on until he look sat whatever I'm showing off, the lesson clearly hasn't gotten very far yet. :)

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

We've been doing the one-person-at-a-time thing for a few years, but I must admit your Mom's family trumps us by doing it in age order as well! I suspect that will all largely be thrown by the presence of my little nieceling in the family this year - but she is her own compensation. :-)

[cosmolinguist]

It's an old tradition, probably going back to when my mom and her sisters were little. I can totally see my grandparents instituting this to keep them all from fighting/opening all the presents at the speed of sound :)

[jojomojo.livejournal.com]

I wonder if this is an American (Midwest?) thing. My ex-in-laws did this too, whereas my family when I was a child were everyone-tears-in-at-once too :)

[mrs-leroy-brown.livejournal.com]

We did it too in my Wisconsin family. :D Youngest first! Also on Xmas Eve...

[cosmolinguist]

Yeah, it's always Xmas Eve (or as I like to think of it, Proper Xmas) that we spend with my mom's side of the family.