What I'm Giving

I have a terrible time getting gifts for people. The problem is I'm not very thoughtful under pressure. In May I could probably think of something kind and sweet for everyone. But around the holidays, forget it... Everyone gets a popcorn maker.

I have a particularly hard time getting things for my parents. They never tell me anything they want, which means to find something they might like I have to search the stores as well as their souls.

Here's what I'm giving the impossibles this year. We'll see if they like them.

Who knew this existed (probably OMGReds.com ) but there is a DVD set of all 7 seven games of the 1975 World Series, featuring the Big Red Machine vs. the Boston Red Sox.

Each game is it's own DVD and it all comes in a nice little box. I got it for my dad, who talks about the Big Red Machine with such reverence that growing up I thought he knew them personally. ("Johnny Bench. Best catcher to ever play the game; I ain't lyin' to ya now," my dad would say.)

I think he'll like it.

I also got him the Muhammad Ali "The Greatest Collection" DVD, featuring three fights in their entirety (vs. liston; vs. Foreman "Rumble in the Jungle"; and vs. Frazier "Thilla in Manila") and lots of highlights from other fights.

Guess who's Christmas is going to involve lots of baseball and boxing? (My mom will be thrilled.)

My mom reads like she might at any day loose her eyesight, so I got her a bookstore gift card. It's what she likes but it's not very thoughtful. She also sends lots of cards with random and funny newspaper clippings in them so I got her a box of nice cards from the Cincinnati Art Museum. Maybe she'll fall madly in love with them and that will suffice as my "thoughtful" gift. But I bet she likes the gift card to Borders better.

I also ordered her some pecan torte coffee she was raving about at Thanksgiving. "Gina, this was $10 a bag! This is expensive coffee. Try it!!!" I couldn't order just one bag on Amazon so she's getting a box with four bags of it. She'll hate that pecan torte coffee in no time!

What I'm really giving them for Christmas though is me. No matter how long I stay (which usually isn't longer than a day) my dad always asks, "Why you rushing off?" Which always breaks my heart a little. So this year I'm staying TWO whole days. I'm excited to watch baseball and boxing and drink pecan torte coffee and go to the bookstore.

Merry Christmas to all.