The long weekend was nice

[schneefink]

I had a lovely weekend with my family, including my grandparents, who I hadn't seen for over a year so that was especially nice. We sung Christmas songs for an hour on Christmas Eve, the tree was pretty, the food was delicious, and we played some games together.

It's tradition by now that I always get a book as a gift for Christmas and my birthdays, but in the past few years my parents struggled to find books I enjoyed. For a while they kept giving me non-fiction books about topics that I'm interested in, but I'm very rarely in the mood to read non-fiction. So this year my mom was especially delighted that she found a book for me that I told her I'd already been looking forward to reading: Piranesi, a very pretty paperback edition. I read it the next day and enjoyed it a lot. I was glad that I didn't have any spoilers, the slow uncovery of the plot/mystery worked well for me, and so did the setting.

The next day my mom "sold" me a new kitchen knife for 50 cents, because she knew I could use one but apparently there's a saying that one shouldn't gift knives? I've never heard of that.

I enjoyed my Yuletide gift fic and several other Yuletide fics too, recs to come hopefully soon. I went home to my own flat early today in the hopes of using the time to clean and tidy up, which didn't really happen but that wasn't much of a surprise tbh. Next attempt tomorrow. DD is still at her own family's, and this week will be very stressful at work, fortunately I have a lot of chocolate.

Comments

[writerkit]

"A gift of a knife will cut the friendship", but the only place I've seen it mentioned is in various Valdemar books.

[schneefink]

I'm very sure that's not where my mom got it from xD

[raven]

We always said that in my family! Don’t give a knife because it will cut your friendship, so “sell” it instead?

[schneefink]

Interesting! I checked and there's even an entry on German wikipedia, so it seems to be fairly wide-spread.

[nonesensed]

Yay, Piranesi is such an interesting read! Definitely best enjoyed without spoilers. And huzzah for Yuletide! I'm settling down to enjoy my own gift at last, and have several other fics lined up in my to-read pile <3 Best of luck with work and enjoy the chocolate!

[schneefink]

So many fics in my to-read pile, never enough time ^^

[nonesensed]

That sure is the truth XD My to-read list of fic is seemingly endless and keeps growing at far too rapid a pace for me to keep up ^_^'

[rachelmanija]

I'm so thrilled that you enjoyed Piranesi, especially given the context of the gift. I agree, it's best without spoilers. There's also a fantastic audiobook.

[schneefink]

It might have taken me longer to get into it if I hadn't already hoped that I would like it, or maybe not. I think I might read it again one day to see how it reads when I already know what's going on :)

[scintilla10]

I'm glad you had such a lovely holiday! <3

I've heard the tradition about not gifting knives before; it's apparently so that you don't cut the relationship. My grandmother used to "charge" 10 cents!

[schneefink]

And I will also have an actual vacation next week, I look forward to it :)

My mom charged 5 cents, but 50 cents was the smallest coin I had ^^

[lilysea]

I've heard the superstition about not gifting knives from folklore books - never heard of anyone practising it before tho!

[schneefink]

It was new to me too, but several people in comments said they know of it so apparently it's not that rare!

[goss]

Wonderful that you got to spend that time with your grandparents. <3

[schneefink]

It was so nice! And my grandfather got a new computer for Christmas so maybe we will be able to do video calls every once in a while :)

[dr_zook]

Haha, never heard of the knife thing before, but reading all the other comments-- well, that explains my strained relationship with some relatives. ;)

It sounds like your Holidays went really well so far! ♥ It's good to have some shiny, new fic to read waiting for you when you'll return from work, then. :)

[schneefink]

So, in hindsight, do you regret the gifts or not? ^^

So much shiny new fic! (Now if only my recipients would comment on their gifts...)

[dr_zook]

Haha, very good question! Well, I do not regret getting the knives, they were all pretty good knives. The rest... is silence, as Hamlet would say. ;)

(Now if only my recipients would comment on their gifts...)

Argh, I know that feeling! Some years ago, I also waited for my recipient to react, and thought, "Well, who knows, maybe they're snowed-in, in hospital etc.," but then I saw they did actually comment other authors' fic from that year, and I was like, "Wtf, I did not write that badly, and even if: that's just bad manners, not to say even thank you, I'll comment later or something." I admit I wailed at the mods after about two weeks, and the recipient eventually dropped a comment, but honestly it felt a bit stale. :/ I hope yours are alright and appreciate your fic eventually properly! ♥

[schneefink]

Sorry that happened to you!

In the meantime I got some very nice comments on my Madness treat :)
My main gift recipient, meanwhile, left kudos on day one and nothing since - I hope this means they liked it and are waiting until they have more time to leave an actual comment.

[dr_zook]

Now, that's good to hear! I also think the kudos are only some kind of placeholder. :)

[marginaliana]

Glad you liked Piranesi - I did, too!

[schneefink]

I was slightly apprehensive because from what I'd heard it seemed to be a book that many people loved but some found very boring, and because I was trying hard to avoid spoilers I couldn't seek out clarification to guess if I'd like it or not. Fortunately I ended up enjoying it :)