By Jean Brody

I really hit the jackpot today. I have a friend here at Brookdale Littleton and at Christmas we exchange a few gifts.

Since we (all the residents) have been in quarantine for eight days, I did not go out to buy gifts this year. Instead, I told my daughter what I wanted to give him and she graciously agreed to buy for me.

This morning (the day after Christmas), we sat in his apartment and exchanged gifts. He gave me more Pandora pieces for the necklace he gave me last year. I was thrilled.

Then came his turn to open. The first item was a lovely, warm Denver Broncos  sweatshirt. He tried it on, he is a big man and it would not even meet in the middle to close. I will have to exchange it for a larger one, so back in the bag it went.

Next, I got him a Broncos calendar. It looked nice and big. The trouble was the pictures of each player were huge but the numbers on each page telling you the month and day were very small. He could not even see the numbers! I was getting embarrassed — two out of three were no good, so I gave the calendar to one of my favorite staff people and I will try to buy a better one with big numbers.

Last but not least, I got him a really nice desk lamp to use with his device to use Google Earth, emails, to research info, etc. I was very excited to have found this high-tech lamp that also looks classy and manly. So, we removed the parts, put it together, following directions 100 percent. He plugged it in and guess what? It did not light up.

We called the maintenance man here who knows about all that stuff. He played with it a good half hour — nothing. That blasted lamp I was so happy to give was defective! Now, I ask you, how could a mechanical device in a sealed box from the factory be defective?

Picture this: here we were,  standing in a room full of gifts that didn’t work, didn’t fit and could not read. Luckily, I had a picture of me framed for him so I did give that to him.

Of course, I will just bet you when we mount it on the wall, the frame will come apart and the picture will tear as it hits the floor.

Oh well, it is the thought that counts, right? I did give them all with the best intentions.

The view from the mountains is wondrous.