We were kind of blown away by how much stuff people gave us.
My mother in law gave me a winter coat early, around Thanksgiving. She said she figured I needed it before Christmas. She was right. Past two winters I've been double-laying sweaters when it got below 30. She also gave me a couple pieces of jewelry--some Lia Sophia and vintage-y stuff. Some of that was officially a graduation gift, so here's hoping school doesn't find some reason to not graduate me in January.
And another waffle maker here, also from the in-laws. It's for super-thin waffles, not so much what we'd like to make. Still, we've wanted one for a while, and thin waffles will be fine. Nice to have waffles at home. That one was officially for my husband, but if I get to eat the waffles, I am happy.
My spouse apparently has been saving his pennies, because he gave me an iPod Shuffle. I've been jonesing for a running-friendly player for a while, but really, really hate wearing armbands and such, so the shuffle should be a good solution. Trouble is, they tend to fail upon coming into contact with sweat, so I may spend the next several months working through aftermarket accessories to get the thing reliable.
And my cousins gave us basically an entire camp kitchen. Stove, some dishes, four cans of propane, clamp-on organizer thing, some accessories, and a big tote to haul it all in. They seem to have gone to the camping section in WalMart and gotten one of everything. Incredible. I can have some reasonable hope that they didn't spend too ungodly of an amount because my cousin's wife works at Wal-Mart and gets a discount, but it still had to have been a whole lot of money. I kind of feel guilty, because we've been on gift-giving hiatus since I started school, and will be until I start earning a living.
My aunt gave a set of four glass hollow-walled mugs, among other things. I love hollow-walled glass beyond all reason. I swear it makes coffee taste better. The same aunt not only gave the kiddos various cute and awesome clothes and toys, but also slipped us a big bag with about a years' worth of coloring books, crayons, stickers, bubble soap, and assorted other small, consumable toys. Oh, and we also got a silicone oven mitt shaped like a monkey.
Kids got plenty of neat stuff too. The pre-schooler got a very high quality chalkboard (seriously, the packing crate this thing came in is better made and of better quality materials than most of our furniture). Various clothes, several toys for the baby (actually a good thing because she is way more into playing with toys at a young age than her big sister ever was) books, all kinds of stuff.
I spend my spare time today sorting it all out and trying to figure out how to put it all away. Tomorrow I get to hang up the chalk board.
My Jewish mother, not to be outdone, decided to give me a birthday present for my Jewish birthday (lunar calendar, off by several days-weeks, depending on the year), which is apparently this week, so a gift card from her. Also some cash from my grandma, which will be spent on classes at the Y for all of us.
It's been a good weekend.
