{"id":390,"date":"2009-11-30T18:15:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-30T18:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/verastic.com.s96953.gridserver.com\/site\/?p=390"},"modified":"2009-11-30T18:15:00","modified_gmt":"2009-11-30T18:15:00","slug":"you-got-what-for-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/social\/you-got-what-for-christmas.html","title":{"rendered":"You Got What For Christmas???"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">When I was 14 (in Nigeria), my dad went to the store and bought me a Christmas dress &#8211; as was the tradition for Christmas and Easter.  Big mistake for this particular year.  Mom should have gone with him &#8211; as she usually did.  He came back with a peach and ivory poufy dress.  Not only was the dress a mama-tie-me-for-back dress, but it was also a Mary-Amaka dress.  In other words, it had a very long belt that had to be tied at the back, and it (the dress) was also very long.  Did I mention I was 14 &#8212; and in JSS3 (9th grade)???<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">My father is the reason why I am now very adamant about letting a man shop for me.  He is also the reason why I am now also very adamant about eating a man&#8217;s food.  Memories of my father&#8217;s burnt-tomato stew and ball-filled pap (akamu) still linger in my mind.  Until they fully dissipate, I&#8217;ll shop for myself, and when eating any food cooked by a man, I&#8217;ll have Pepto Bismal handy.  I feel obligated to mention that Mr. Shoes, however, is a fantabulous cook.  If I don&#8217;t mention it, he&#8217;ll start <del>whining<\/del> grumbling.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">My mother did not like the dress, but she said I had to wear it because dad had bought it already.  That Christmas was just &#8212; just &#8212; I don&#8217;t even know the word.  The entire time we were in church, my head was bowed down in shame; I didn&#8217;t want anyone to see me in <i>that<\/i> dress.  Needless to say, that was a futile aim.  It was Christmas for Pete&#8217;s sake.  Even the witches went to church on Christmas Day, so of course, everyone got to see me in the dress.  That was the first and last time I ever wore that dress.  It was so poufy that at least one child could hide under me and not be found.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">When I think of horrible-gift stories, the humorous story that usually comes to mind is the episode of Cosby where someone &#8211; can&#8217;t remember who &#8211; gave Bill Cosby a soap-on-a-rope as a gift.  Seriously?!?!  Christmas is upon us, so when you&#8217;re giving someone a gift, think about its usefulness.  If you&#8217;re going to spend money buying a gift, don&#8217;t you want the gift to be used?<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">On Saturday, December 5th 2009, I&#8217;ll be talking about <b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.blogtalkradio.com\/verastic\/2009\/12\/05\/the-christmas-gifts-that-should\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\"  style=\"color:#3333FF;\">Christmas and gifts<\/span><\/a><\/b> on <b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.blogtalkradio.com\/verastic\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\"  style=\"color:#FF0000;\">the radio<\/span><\/a><\/b>.  Be rest assured you&#8217;ll enjoy the show.  But more than that, on Thursday or Friday, I&#8217;ll update my blog and introduce you to some kind and generous vendors who are willing to give you discounts on their products &#8211; just for being Verastic readers\/listeners.  Thank you!!!  Watch this space.  As usual, there&#8217;s a poll for next week&#8217;s show.  It&#8217;s on the top of the right sidebar.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">So tell me, what horrible, totally useless gift(s) have you received?<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I was 14 (in Nigeria), my dad went to the store and bought me a Christmas dress &#8211; as was the tradition for Christmas and Easter. Big mistake for this particular year. Mom should have gone with him &#8211; as she usually did. He came back with a peach and ivory poufy dress. Not<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/social\/you-got-what-for-christmas.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_14738191_14738191":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[63,6,143,180],"class_list":["post-390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","tag-christmas","tag-funny","tag-gifts","tag-radio","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>You Got What For Christmas??? - Verastic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/social\/you-got-what-for-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Vera Ezimora\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/social\/you-got-what-for-christmas.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/social\/you-got-what-for-christmas.html\",\"name\":\"You Got What For Christmas??? - Verastic\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-11-30T18:15:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/#\/schema\/person\/2c1b7969fbea03a45b97d54a5228cc1a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/social\/you-got-what-for-christmas.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/social\/you-got-what-for-christmas.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/social\/you-got-what-for-christmas.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"You Got What For Christmas???\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/\",\"name\":\"Verastic\",\"description\":\"Recklessly authentic.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/#\/schema\/person\/2c1b7969fbea03a45b97d54a5228cc1a\",\"name\":\"Vera Ezimora\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6c1e19c23a08351aab97f35d3ca650f0b87e7e96937f85baf0faf6e0834bc51?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6c1e19c23a08351aab97f35d3ca650f0b87e7e96937f85baf0faf6e0834bc51?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Vera Ezimora\"},\"description\":\"I mean, I'm a lot of things - a Writer, Blogger, Speaker, Vlogger, Content Creator, Storyteller, Truth-Sayer, Milk-Lover, Yogurt-Addict, Entrepreneur, Daughter, Wife, Mom, &amp; Nwa Jesu. 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