Big pile of presents
It's Ben's ninth birthday on Monday, so I'm off to spend the day with him, carrying a big bag of presents. As I can be fairly safe in the knowledge he's not going to read this, I can reveal that he's getting two Nintendo games, a make-your-own-radio kit, Truckers by Terry Pratchett, and a word game called Upwords. As far as I can work out it's piled up version of Scrabble.
Paul said it looked like a good pile of presents for a 9 year old. I think it looks like a good pile, whatever your age! Birthday presents seem to reach a peak size towards the end of childhood, start to tail off as a teenager, and then largely disappear as an adult. I suppose as you buy more stuff for yourself - books, music, clothes, toys - your significant others buy them less. Today's tshirt is a good example. I bought it for myself yesterday, but it would have made a great present. Still, I didn't want to wait until Christmas!