I LOVE giving gifts this time of year.  I sort of hate the phrase “you didn’t have to get me anything”–I KNOW I didn’t, but I did because I generally feel the person I’m giving something too is a good enough friend to deserve something for Christmas.

Granted, I did give most people I knew at Rose some sort of infectious disease this year.

l to r: common cold, mad cow, malaria, the pox, rabies

I went with something different for my suitemates, though.  I know CS is into robotics, so I got him a robot (pencil sharpener).  SC is a mechanical engineer as well, so I got him something sufficiently nerdy while still something kind of cool: a hypertrochoid drawing set (basically a fancy/geeky spirograph kit).  And then, since we agreed to exchange gifts after break, I can’t list what I got for D, but suffice to say, I think it’s awesome.

I gave my boss from over the summer and close friend a gift certificate to Amazon–I wanted to make sure he knew how much I appreciated all he did for me in the past year.

I won’t go into what I got my immediate family–it’s not all that important, really.  I’ll just summarize the “giving” portion of this post with how giving things went: great.  Everyone seemed to really like what they got, which to me is even better than getting gifts in return.

Not to say I don’t like getting stuff.  Here’s a quick rundown of what I got:

• Jeeves and Wooster: The Complete Series
• Logan’s Run
• Trader Joe’s giftcard (already used to fill up on goodies for the rest of the term)
• $50 to use at the Mall of America (there’s a cookware store I want to visit, but because of weather it’ll have to wait until next time I’m home)
• Pastoralia, George Saunders
• A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace
• Inherent Vice, Thomas Pynchon
• Eating the Dinosaur, Chuck Klosterman
• Super Mario Brothers Wii
• ICU Cookbook (a compilation of recipes from my mom’s workplace)
• A completely awesome 1980s Doctor Who board game from a friend I hadn’t seen in over a year
• Call Me Ted, Ted Turner The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, Editors of Cook’s Illustrated (exchange at Borders)

The last one was not from family, but from a friend’s mom who thought that since I’m working on my senior project for Turner that I chose it because I profess a deep persisting interest in the life of Ted Turner.  This is not true; said interest, if any, could be satiated by a 5-minute wikipedia search.  I appreciated the thought that went into choosing the book.  I also appreciated the thought that went into including the gift receipt inside the front cover.  Since I am a larger fan of cooking than I am of Ted Turner’s life story, I got a highly-rated cookbook that looks to be an excellent addition to my apartment’s kitchen–I’ve already found 2 or 3 recipes I’m planning on trying the next few times it’s my turn to cook.

All in all, a good Christmas.  On to the New Year.