holiday gift guide

Isn't the concept of birthday presents strange? It's like receiving congratulations for not only existing, but existing for yet another year. If anything, parents should be the ones who are congratulated, at least until the child is old enough to be responsible for their own existence and well-being. 

Another musing on present-receiving in general: have you ever contemplated over what you've received and thought about what the assorted miscellany says about you? Or at least what it says about how others perceive you as? My portrait would be painted by dessert cookbooks, jewelry, red lipstick, sketchbooks, tea cups, ironic t-shirts, hand-made cards and IOU's. For this year at least. It makes me uneasy to see myself in this way (in a completely predictable and logical way characterised by objects). At the same time it is also nice to gloat over all the nice new things I've accumulated simply for still being alive.