Christmas took a lot out of me this year, and even though I tend to hate the holiday season the holidays themselves rarely end up being a colossal disappointment.  I’m pretty convinced that the reason for my holiday disgust has everything to do with the insane consumerism of the last three months of the year (Remember when it was only two?  One?  Yeah, this year there were Christmas decorations out next to the Halloween pumpkins. Not cool… and hey!  You missed an entire holiday in there!). 

For various reasons this year I was unable to pour myself in to the delight of my wrapping extravaganza and decorate holiday gifts with wire ribbon, candy, and ornaments.  This actually disappoints me.  I love wrapping.  I loathe shopping, but I love, love, love the wrapping and giving parts!  And just when I thought that was something to be momentarily sad about, I was given three very special gifts this year that mean a lot to me.  There are three kinds of gift givers–those that just go throw down a card or cash and grab whatever they see without much thought about the gift or recipient, and those that take great care in knowing the person they want to give a gift to, who they are, what they like, and what is meaningful to them, and then there are those individuals who fall somewhere in between.  I was lucky enough to have people in my life this season who took great pains (or at least seemed to) to give me something I would love dearly.

My parents gave me, among other things, a Magellan, which might not be the most fuzzy gift in the world, but it is something I had been wanting and needing, but never explicitly mentioned.  It has come in quite useful since the holiday, and it will continue to be so.  I just wish that Magoo (as I have named it) had the option like the TomTom to change the voice yelling at you to “Go straight, then a diagonal right.”  What does that even mean!?  I found out, I assure you. 

@DjLunchbox surprised me with something that shall remain on my desk until the polymers in the binding disintegrate.  Many of you know by now that I am a rabid Sandman fan, and that Neil Gaiman remains my favorite contemporary author (he shared that space in the past, but we all remember what happened there).  I opened my door to find The Quotable Sandman, a quarto sized book with favorite and famous quotes from the series and art from the various issues.  It’s magnificent and quite possibly prophetic…

And the BF shocked me with a stunning display of astuteness and thoughtfulness with the first digitized edition of Shakespeare’s First Folio.  It’s Shakespeare.  It’s the First Folio… scanned…. and searchable…. on my computer… in Early Modern English… Even the water stains and printer errors and front-matter are there!  I was overwhelmed, honestly.  I wish I could upload a screenshot to show you just how amazing it is!  As Othello said, it was “too much joy.  It stops me here…”  I spent hours going through play after play, and essays, and just absorbing the fact that I can hops skip and jump around in the First Folio now whenever I want, as often as I want, without need for special clearance or permission, or fear of breathing on the parchment! 

All three of these gifts might seem commonplace to you, but to me they mean the world, and each for a different reason.  So be aware that even though you may not have found anything special about the gift you gave someone, that gift might have made that person’s year.

I hope your holidays were joyous.  And I promise, we’ll be getting back to our regularly scheduled programming here (and also some new programming… muhahahaha!  Watch for it!) before you know it.

Tags: best gifts evar, Books, folger, Holidays, Shakespeare