I’ve been tagged by the fabulous Crazy with Twins to take part in a little meme to get us all reminiscing about terrible presents we’ve either received or given. So far, all of the Christmassy posts on this blog have served to highlight what a miserable cow I am - I’m afraid this one will be no exception so I apologise in advance to the ‘only 4 sleeps to go’ brigade.

I remember being between 9-10 years old and stupidly excited about Christmas. Usually I’d have my head buried in the Argos catalogue selecting toys and furiously writing them down on my list to Santa. This year however, my mum and dad told my brother and I that Santa had been in touch and was getting us one big present, and as it was so expensive, he wouldn’t be bringing any little toys to the Chamberlain household. Now you can imagine the awesome things my brother and I were thinking; perhaps it was a trip to Disneyland, or maybe Lapland, or maybe we were getting a swimming pool in our back garden… as the days went on speculation was rife and we literally couldn’t wait to find out what it was.

When we woke up that morning we waited patiently for what felt like hours for mum and dad to join us in the lounge. As per usual, we were made to wait until mum had her make-up before we were able to get on with presents. This had unwittingly become a theme at Christmas in our house; as my dad always took photos of us opening our pressies (yep there’s plenty of pictures with me brandishing the latest Barbie with bed-hair and ill-fitting pyjamas), my mum liked to look her best in case she bent over and found herself in the shot.

When they finally made an appearance, we were literally beyond excited. My dad passed us a big envelope upon which we discovered they had set up a treasure hunt to locate the pressie. My brother and I were running around frantically to retrieve similar envelopes from the washing machine, under sofa cushions, and in the laundry basket - getting more and more beside ourselves as the hunt unfolded.

We were eventually led to the garage where this magical present awaited us. My brother got there first and ripped off the wrapping paper chanting a mix of ‘wow’ and ‘thanks’ that only served to heighten my curiosity. I ran into the garage full of expectation and saw my brother’s little face was flushed with excitement - unfortunately his happiness wasn’t shared by me when I clapped my eyes on the surprise.

Now I should point out that I am two years younger than my brother, and very different. What appeals to him is very unlikely to appeal to me (and vice versa). He’s always been fairly geeky and introspective - you’re very likely to see his head buried in a book. I’m more outgoing and, dare I say it, mainstream - at that time I was into boys, music and make-up - it was always going to be a tough task buying us a joint present that we’d both be overjoyed with.

In retrospect, I can appreciate the enormity of the present. I can see how important that ‘investment’ was, and I so desperately want to go back 20 years and play out that scene in the garage again. But unfortunately I can’t and I’ll forever be known as the selfish little wally that cried her eyes out upon receiving such an expensive gift. But at the time, I simply could not understand what on earth I’d do with it, nor why I’d ever want one. Yes, I was furious, I was disappointed, and I was inconsolable. My parents had bought us a PC.

So upset was I, I convinced my poor parents to fetch my birthday present from the hiding place I had discovered a few weeks before (my birthday is immediately after Christmas). They had bought me a CD player (unbeknown to them I had already had it out of the box and played with it) and I holed myself up in my bedroom for 4 hours and played East 17 way too loudly in protest.

I still can’t quite get over what a selfish and ungrateful little madam I was. I went on to study Media and English at university and the PC became my best friend. Now I’m writing a blog on a laptop and simply couldn’t live without it. I feel so incredibly stupid that I threw such a wobbly - but I did and there’s no going back. And so you have it - My worst ever present was a PC. Mum and dad - I’m so sorry!