Ghosts of Christmas Presents Past

    As expected, I didn't get any Christmas presents this year, and I am okay with that.  Last week, I mentioned how there's only my mother in my life right now.  I have no close friends, either emotionally or distance, so no one else to get gifts from.  It is just that my mother does not have a great track record in getting me stuff.  Two examples.  I remember helping her wrap up a gift of pajamas for an older male relative, a great-uncle or cousin or whatever, who died just before Christmas.  I swear to you, I think she regifted it to me.  Now, maybe it was just a similar pair.  She said it wasn't that original pair, but I can be quite gullible at times, and the pajamas were a little big for me.  Later, in high school, I remember shopping for clothes that fall.  I really wanted a blue sweater, but it was just too big me.  I wound up buying a red one in a wild print typical of the late 80s.  Wouldn't you know it, but my mom bought me the blue one for Christmas, thinking that I had grown into it.  I hadn't.  Even though I did grow a bit more and filled out, it wouldn't be until after college and I had started weightlifting that the sweater really started to look like it fit me.  By that time, I was turned off of sweaters, mostly because of what my mom did.  So, I mostly stopped wearing any.  Haven't worn one in years, and I only have bought one new one in the past two decades.  I mostly try to get my own things now, especially since many of my niche hobbies aren't really that appropriate for Christmas.  For instance, in the late 90s when I was unemployed and only went out of the house for long periods once a week or so, I made a quick shopping trip before Christmas.  I bought the fourth core book for a shared RPG universe that day.  Enamored, as always by that line.  I would buy two supplements for it with my Christmas money.  That latest edition of that game came out this year.  I've been reviewing it on an online forum the past few weeks.  Nowhere near as good as the previous editions, and many older fans agree with me.  The current holder of the IP just isn't doing what it could to keep the game going in a good direction.  In 2015, I would up giving myself the best Christmas present ever, and it wasn't even supposed to be for Christmas.  I had ordered a limited-edition art tarot deck from DC Comics.  I was first introduced to tarot in an issue of Justice League of America, soon after I graduated from funny-animal comics to super-heroes. I believe the art was by the late George Perez.  Anyway, I was lucky enough to get one, as supplies were probably allocated.  The deck got delayed until Christmas week, and I picked it up with my weekly comic order on the morning of Christmas Eve.  I spent much of the day with it, as last minute stragglers came by the store.  I mention the deck a little bit more in an early blogcast post here.  Earlier this year, on some of my shopping trips, I noticed that DC had licensed out their character for a mass-produced tarot.  I wound up buying one through my store in early December as an early Christmas gift to myself.  It was nowhere near as good.  Sure, it had an instruction manual, but it didn't have the usual meanings many associate with the cards.  Also, the minor arcana didn't have characters on them, just pip designs.  That meant forty fewer characters to portray.  I didn't like all of the choices for suits.  I mean, power rings for pentacles?  The suit just isn't typically that green, especially with all of those hands to portray.  Most of the pictures lacked the fine details and extra elements one would have expected for a deck to have.  Maybe I'm just showing favoritism to my older deck, but maybe not.  Still, it was a Christmas gift.  Merry Christmas to me.