family visit

[cellio]

We visited my family this afternoon and did the "December gift exchange", since by the time I get back from Israel my nephew will have returned to college.

There is something delightfully ironic about receiving a volume of Rashi (B'reishit) as a Christmas gift. :-) This edition (suggested to me in a comment on a previous post; thanks!) is as nice as it appears to be from the web page. The remaining volumes are definitely in my future. My father commented, on noting my enthusiasm, that he knows what to do for the next four gift-giving occasions, so if I buy any on my own I guess I should find a way to mention that. (I'll probably go ahead and order the next book, Sh'mot, soon and wait on the rest.)

Most of the gifts we brought were well-received. My nephew, it turned out, had not previously heard of a klein bottle, so I think that fell a little flat. He listened politely to the explanation but I didn't see that geek "oh cool" glean in his eyes.

We got my sister a collection of exotic fruits, which went over very well. We printed information sheets on the ones we thought she wouldn't have encountered before. (The "signature gift box" was rather underwhelming; we repacked it into a large bowl.)

We also got my sister an assortment of soap made by chaiya. This was a big hit with her. I got some for myself and they are lovely -- nicely scented (but not allergy-inducing the way the chemical-laden stuff sometimes is), and moisturizing. When I was younger I didn't need moisturizing soap, and I still find it ironic given how oily my skin is, but my hands, at least, really benefit from it.

My sister spent way too much on us... again (sigh). Nice stuff, but she should keep the money for herself. I don't know how to make that point to her; I've tried before.

We had already decided to get my niece an international calling card, because she has a friend overseas she calls a lot, when I stumbled upon her journal and found her wish list -- ten entries, and seven or eight of them were "international calling card". Gee, guess we called that right. :-) I was not planning to tell her that we had found her journal, though we decided to plant a subtle hint in the writeup of the phone card. But I didn't think to discuss this don't-ask-don't-tell plan with Dani. Oops. :-)

(The conversation went something like this:
(some context I missed)
Dani: Things on the internet are there for everyone to read, you know.
Niece: Did you Google me? That's creepy!
Dani: I would never Google you. I went straight to your LiveJournal.)

Niece, if you're reading this... hi. You'll need to do more work to find Dani.