1, 2, 3, 4-- PRESENTS!

that is how i countoff presents for any and all gift-giving occasions. well, apparently to some of my mom's friends, our engagement is such an occasion.* which means Thurston has been subjected to this cheer-of-sorts on many occasions lately.

here's how the engagement gift opening goes down...

first, i open the giant outer box which is filled with those loathesome styrofoam peanuts. then i manage to extricate the inner box (wrapped, natch) without letting too many of the peanuts escape, lest our giant cat Winston ingest them.
this is what you may find inside:




check out the nifty faux-crocodile embossed wrapping paper. ooh la la!

then i open the card and see from whom the lovely gift is.
finally, i tear through the wrapping paper and all the bubble wrap and see what the gift actually is--


oh, look! a large platter!!

so far we have received gifts in our "everyday" china, viz., a medium vegetable bowl, a gravy boat and a large platter.

gravy will be so much awesomer when served from this boat!

we have also received some off-registry items, from T's family, such as a hand-blown glass bowl and a crystal vase. the bowl looks akin to this:


except our version had a bright blue inside and yellow rim. this bowl wanted to travel though, and now lives at Thurston's office.

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* this occasion is very different than the pseudo-gift-giving occasion T and i faced a few months ago when i allegedly sent us an engagement gift well before our actual engagement. i still contend that i did *not* register pre-engagement!!