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.

[raven]

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

[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!

[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.

[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!

[lilysea]

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

[goss]

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

[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. :)

[marginaliana]

Glad you liked Piranesi - I did, too!