Wait a minute, Vortex, your mom is planning for thanksgiving now?? Did I read that right? That is nuts! And for only 20 people?

I admire the people who shop without lists, and get gifts for their loved ones based on their tastes. I sort of feel like it's a skill (one that I don't have).

Never, ever, EVAR shop for Pete without a list. EVAR.

However, he is excellent at finding presents for other people based on their tastes, and has never given me a "dud" present.

My family is big about lists but sometimes my parents will go off list and sometimes it gets interesting - I got some really odd sweaters from my dad when I was a teenager but then he'll do things like this Christmas. He gave me Rocky and Rocky II soundtracks - because of the first song- Gonna Fly Now - because of how proud of all the progress I've made and how I'm ready to really fly on my own.

Um, that's an ugly hoodie.

I KNOW!!

Hee.

I give Greg a list every year, and every year he buys off list because he wants to surprise me, and mostly I don't like it nearly so well as what was on the list, but he doesn't like buying from lists so... I buy things for myself and I tell him thank you for being so thoughtful, and I wear/use/consume whatever he bought.

Yeah, we do lists. But the SO is really great about getting people stuff they love. He does well for my parents every year and they thank us effusively and I have to admit that it was his idea.

Like this year, the present wasn't even so much the thing, but when I went to our old church for their missions weekend and to the subsequent convention before visiting them for Thanksgiving, he had me take my Flip and record little video greetings from all their old friends. They loved it. They had to watch it multiple times, because the first time, my mom kept exclaiming over every new person, so she never actually heard what they said. It was just a thoughtful thing he suggested, that I never would have thought to do, but meant so much to them.

And today I was extolling the virtues of my leatherman, and we realized that I had a stellar gifts year: leatherman, tomato success kit, telescope, nook.

Oh, and even my mother-in-law succeeded again. She's hilarious, because she shops at all these bizarre discount shops, and all her gifts for every single other person are wildly off base, but she has never missed the mark with me. This year it was another calendar, which I was just getting ready to replace, and a super cute black hoodie style sweater that I have worn everywhere since. It's perfect for our Arizona winters, where it'll be freezing one day and balmy the next.

And yeah, the telescope was off list, because who would put a telescope costing hundreds of dollars on their list? Not me, is who, but I've always wanted one, and he knows that, and as a result? Endless nights of entertainment.

Someday, Greg promises me we will retire to the country where I can actually see the stars, then I will also get a telescope. Astronomy was one of my favorite classes in college.

we will retire to the country where I can actually see the stars

That's one thing I really miss about the farm I grew up in. I loved walking out into the field at night and looking at the Milky Way.

Yeah, our stars are ridic out here. One of our coworkers once brought kids from the reservation to our neighborhood to look at stars because it's darker here!

I am slowly learning. It's funny because it's all, like, basic stuff. But I knew, and then I forgot, and so it's like starting from scratch. At this point, I pretty much start at Orion and work my way outward. So I can now reliably find Sirius in Canis Major, and Castor and Pollux in Gemini. But the more stuff I want to look for with the telescope, the more comfortable I have to be with finding my way around the night sky, so it's been really fun learning.