brothers who shop

P and L went out to get Christmas presents together.  L needed something quickly because he was absolutely determined NOT to do what I had asked him to do:  the traditional, "draw a t-shirt" hand-made present idea (mine).*** 

This is a great town for gift shopping, and they only had to walk a few blocks to get to a 10,000 Villages which is a cool store for fair-trade artisan crafts.  Anyway, L found a clip for his sister V; it's shaped like a paper clip with delicate hearts and it was obviously a bookmark.  Well, P said something like, "What is it, a hair brooch?"  (I wasn't there, I'm piecing it together).  So, L. assumed that P. knew what he was talking about and so he gave V. this lovely hair-brooch. ha ha ha... Is hair brooch even a word?

Anyway, they bought our guests (Pa & Ga) a dragon shaped incense burner and some incense.  Ha ha.  I don't know if Pa & Ga were actually happy to get these gifts, but they made a great show of saying it would be great for their apartment.  So sweet.

L. was incredibly blessed for Christmas because of his brother and sisters (Thanks to the Aunts also) -  It's like everybody knows what he'll like ... and I was stumped this year.  I was impressed; the kid is loved.
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*** I'd like to say that I was mature about L's decision, so I will:  "I was mature about L's response to my idea regarding his Christmas gifts for the family." . .. it could be true, in a parallel universe.  See, I was just immature enough to be able to let it go, but then later "ask" (i.e. request/demand) that he do one of the shirts for his father.  Sigh... Consequently, he did the world's worst t-shirt.  The side he had written said in red letters,
                 "Fine, I wrote on your freaking shirt
                                  --your angsty teen."

Only then... when I saw the t-shirt sitting on a table in the room where he sleeps when we have guests (the closet-sized room that is part of our bedroom upstairs)...only then was I able to just drop the whole thing.

I decided I wouldn't mention it again; I wouldn't wrap it or ask L to wrap it.  On Christmas Eve, he did finish it ... twisting the knife.   Even though I was belatedly telling him that he could drop it and that I wasn't forcing him to do it... ha ha... On the back he wrote, "Happy now?"
Then he wrapped it and put it under the tree for his papa.  I didn't get any present from L.  Sigh... Now that a few days have passed, and I mentioned it jokingly, he still decided he'd rather offer me 10 hours of house work for Christmas!  double sigh...