Saturday, December 20, 2008

Got a decoder ring?

BEHOLD my Christmas list, which I delight in torturing my kids with: I didn't give this a second thought until a friend recently noticed it and exclaimed "WHAT IN THE WORLD?!" My first thought was that Evan must have hawked a loogie on the kitchen counter, then realized she was pointing to my Christmas list.

It was then that I realized that some people have never in their life seen authentic, old school shorthand. When I mentioned to another friend that I kept my shorthand list lying around the house, she said "what if the kids figure it out?" Well, you tell me -- could you BEGIN to guess what's on the above list?! Any of you prehistoric shorthand junkies care to guess a word or two?
As a side note, guess who was the 1983 state champion in the shorthand competition of the Office Administrative Olympics? I'm the closest thing to Bruce Jenner that I know. No autographs, please!
Back to Christmas -- Each of the kids will receive 3 gifts to open on Christmas morning. That's what Baby Jesus got, so that's enough for us! Granted, if a Wii game system had been on the wish list, the wise men may have had to pawn their goods and give that lone gift. Unless they hopped on their camels and fought the crowd on Black Friday to get a miracle of a deal. Just sayin'.
What about you? Is your shopping done, or are you still hunting that much-sought-after gift? What was your hardest gift to find this year?

5 comments:

JDunn said...

My mother and my mother-in-law are shorthand queens as well (no, that doesn't mean you're old enough to be by mother, or anything like that ;). It's sanskrit to me, however. I would LOVE to be proficient in it, since the kiddos can read everything now...I think your list in code is the GREATEST :)

Courtney said...

I took a shorthand class in high school, but I don't remember a thing.

I'm almost done shopping. My husband and I agreed no gifts. Then he tells me he got me one from the kids. So now I'm trying to figure out what to get him. He's the HARDEST person to shop for.

Have a merry Christmas!

Alicia said...

Love the shorthard-that's hysterical! And we do the 3 gifts thing too!!! It makes it so easy because I can tell Timothy he make the longest list he wants, and mom and ad are going to pick 3 things from it. He's getting a Wii as well. I don't know if they can be found, but I bought it used from my brother! And then he's getting Mario Kart & a Bicycle. With gifts like these, it's a good thing we only do 3. But if you think about it, Jesus's gifts were WAY more expensive! Ha! I still put small gifts in their stockings, though. This past Sat night, I had a gift-wrapping party. It was a lot of fun. We're all done in this house!

Christi said...

Glad you posted it, I think it is classic!

Amy W said...

Oh yes, my mom used to know shorthand. I'm not sure if she still remembers it! I'll have to ask her!

I am finished shopping. I think. I didn't have any hard to find gifts this year. I did find a great gift for my in-laws though - it's a book called Once an Arafat Man by Tass Saada. You can only get it on amazon & christianbook.com, unless his son is your worship pastor and he comes to your church to sign them for you. Awesome!