25. Doing something for other people by James Curtis
 
Dave and I were in a generous mood as we prepared for Christmas 2004. Christmas dinner was going to be at Mum’s that year, with Catherine, Jonathon and Ariana joining us. Uncle Colin was still living with Mum at that stage. We decided to make a joint effort for the family. Doing it together and doing something for other people was fun.
 

We had a relaxing day in town together, planning what we would buy over a beer in the courtyard at the Matterhorn in Cuba St. This has always been one of my favourite Wellington haunts and I wanted to share it with Dave. We agreed we wanted to buy something special for everyone that year, so we put a lot of thought into what each person would like.

I was quite impressed at David’s generosity. He wanted to buy the beers and to be generous. It was part of his reformed character, I guess.

We bought a really big lego set for Ariana, a kind of rescue airport. We knew she loved lego and we probably thought we’d enjoy playing with it too. For Catherine and Jonathon, we bought a milkshake maker and for Nana a luxury white bath towel from her favourite store Kirkcaldie and Stains. We knew how much Uncle Colin liked chardonnay, so choosing something for him was easy.

It was David who suggested we buy Mum a bicycle. He knew she had been talking about getting one for ages. What we did was pay for the bike, then get a voucher which we put in an envelope for her. She seemed pretty touched by this present when she opened it on Christmas Day. Sometime after Christmas we drove into the city to collect the bike, which, rather sensibly, she decided to upgrade into something a bit tougher, so she could cycle down to the Pencarrow Lighthouse without the whole thing falling apart.