So this weekend I took a trip over to Chinatown in New York City to visit my grandparents and finish up the Christmas holiday. After eating a good lunch at their apartment, as usual I made my way over to Hop Shing to pick up three boxes of baked cha siu bao (roast-pork buns), coconut buns, and dai bao (big buns). I also went by one of the VCD / DVD stores which was apparently going out of business for over a month since I last saw it on Thanksgiving. They didn’t even increase the discount from 20% and the store looked just as full as last time. Anyway, lastly I passed by the NY Music & Gifts store on the corner of Bowery and Canal Street and picked up a nice wall scroll featuring Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. Take a look at it in my office along with my Bleach wall scroll I picked up last Christmas.
As I couldn’t finish this post before the New Year, I decided to add this video I capped while watching the NBC coverage of the Times Square New Year’s celebration. Happy New Year Everyone!
It’s the day after Christmas and everything is starting to go back to normal for the most part. I immediately noticed that the Christmas music stopped abruptly and it went straight back to their regular programming. Anyway, apparently I’m getting old because I don’t seem to get nearly as over-excited over getting gifts as when I was in grade-school. I think I’m becoming more interested in getting some nice clothing or 红包 (red envelopes) and it’s now more about spending time with friends, relatives, and family rather than the quantity or price of the gifts received. Take a look at this video of how I couldn’t remotely be this excited anymore (and turn the volume down).
It also made a difference that I knew almost exactly what my gifts were weeks beforehand since with clothes you really need to try them on to make sure they look decent and are a good fit. My brother got a pair of copies of Grand Theft Auto IV for Xbox 360 so we can play online through Xbox Live and my parents got us a box of See’s Chocolates. Given that most people have no idea what to get me or that what I want or need is in the $1000+ range (DSLR camera / 52″ HDTV for my office), actually knowing what I’m getting and picking it out would get rid of having to go back to the store and exchange everything for something of comperable value. I really could go on about the inefficiencies of gift giving and why the concept of waiting for Christmas day to open gifts as a whole leads to lost potential enjoyment, but I’ll spare everyone the boredom. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays (and belated Festivus and Happy Kwanzaa) everyone!
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