{"id":828,"date":"2008-12-09T07:59:08","date_gmt":"2008-12-09T07:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/?p=828"},"modified":"2012-05-03T16:09:46","modified_gmt":"2012-05-03T15:09:46","slug":"the-dilemma-of-giving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/?p=828","title":{"rendered":"The dilemma of giving"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8216;Oh, you&#8217;re such a boy!&#8217; said Soph a few weeks ago. Well yes. I should explain that her ejaculation was nothing to do with the sudden discovery that my external body parts are markedly different from hers.<\/p>\n<p>At that stage in time there was a possibility that Daughter was going to jet in from the Sierra Nevada to join us for Christmas and Soph was asking what her mum (i.e. Daughter&#8217;s step-mother-in-law &#8211; I think that&#8217;s right&#8230; I am, after all, a boy) should get for a present for Daughter.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It&#8217;s not even December yet!&#8217; I may have said. Hence the comment identifying me as a boy. Which I am. In many ways, though Soph meant, in this instance, that I am unprepared for the inevitability of Christmas. Which is, apparently, not a compliment. Go figure.<\/p>\n<p>Well yes, I am usually unprepared. I don&#8217;t know why but Christmas sneaks up on me; catches me quite by surprise and finds me, inevitably, rushing around on the 24th of December, suddenly inspired by the pressure of having too little time, but with a paucity of choice as the shelves of consumerism empty before my eyes.<\/p>\n<p>But this year I am determined to be more proactive in the present-giving department. Or, to be precise, I plan on being more <em>advanced-planning<\/em> in the present-selecting\/purchasing department.<\/p>\n<p>I have already sorted out the staff at the yard, but that was an easy hit. Well, more than one hit but it was still very easy. And safe. If uninspired.<\/p>\n<p>Daughter is significantly more problematical but I shall overcome; being constrained by size and weight helps!<\/p>\n<p>Soph though.<\/p>\n<p>Sigh.<\/p>\n<p>Soph is a problem.<\/p>\n<p>How to be proactive in the present-selecting\/giving departments whilst lacking inspiration at every turn?<\/p>\n<p>Yes she has the coat which was an early Christmas gift but&#8230; not good enough. She must have things to open on Christmas Day, tokens from her loving husband and family. Because Vin counts as family and Soph did buy him a bag of carrots last weekend which was tremendously considerate of her.<\/p>\n<p>I shall ask Vin what his thoughts on the matter are. He&#8217;ll probably offer up the same suggestions that he made last year.\u00a0I&#8217;m sure that a barrowload of his very finest poo and a selection of his best hoof clippings are terrific gifts in the equine world and Vin&#8217;s such a thoughtful boy for coming up with those ideas, but I&#8217;m not sure that Soph has a burning need for such things.<\/p>\n<p>Hmm&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>We shall see.<\/p>\n<p>In an &#8216;as proactive as possible&#8217; kind of way.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>B<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8216;Oh, you&#8217;re such a boy!&#8217; said Soph a few weeks ago. Well yes. I should explain that her ejaculation was nothing to do with the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stuff","two-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}