Christmas Baby Woes

Happy Endings, S03E07

The gang found out that Jane was really born on Christmas and tried to celebrate her birthday without letting Christmas sneak in.  Dave tried to help Penny give Pete the perfect gift and failed to see the sentiment of Pete's gift for her.

Everyone would have been able to pull off the no-Christmas birthday party for Jane if it wasn't for Max and Alex.  I wasn't too surprised that Max was unable to stay away from something he loves to consume--that's like telling a fish not to swim.  Alex's fetish with unwrapping gifts, though, was so out there and a little creepy.  But she is very childlike, so it's not uncharacteristic of her to enjoy the process of opening presents.  Still, I wish she could have shown a little restraint.  Max was a lost cause, but if he wasn't and hadn't had that "back nog" on him, Alex would have stabbed him in the spine!  Then it would just be blood spraying all over the place.  Somehow, though, for Jane being a Christmas baby, I'm sure she would have preferred that.

I really identified with Jane's problem.  I have a birthday in what I call the "Christmas Radius" where any date that falls within it gets swept under the carpet by Christmas (and sometimes New Year's as well).  If you've never had a gift that seemed to just be an unimpressive extension of a Christmas gift, then you can't really relate.  It is a little sad when you feel like the one day you are allowed to make it a little about yourself is ignored or made light of.  Because of this, I thought Jane's idea to tell people her birthday was a completely different date was a pretty damn good idea.  People aren't going to remember the real date anyway, so what's the harm in that?

One thing that I thought was interesting in that story was Jane macing all of her friends.  She had just woken up from bed and was still in a robe, yet she had two bottles of it ready to go.  I know she doesn't like surprises and is always prepared, but damn!  I couldn't imagine carrying mace in my own house at the crack of dawn.  If she's that worried that a robber or rapist might be waiting for her on the way to the kitchen, she should invest in a security system.

I sort of wish that Dave's claim to "gift whisperer" was nothing more than hot air from him (as usual) and his gift for Pete had been a bust.  But it turned out to be just right.  Ugh.  Nothing more than I hate than seeing Dave feel superior no matter what insignificant thing he's gloating about.  It was nice, though, that he turned out to be dead wrong about Pete's gift for Penny.  It did seem like Pete hadn't put any thought into it at all, but it turned out to be a big symbol of his love for Penny.  Yay.  That shut Dave up for a second.  It's annoying that he thinks that he could possibly know the depth of Penny and Pete's relationship.  He needs to back off.  Even if he's unconsciously showing some kind of untapped affection for Penny.  I still hoping that road will never be taken again.

This was an okay episode.  Nothing too bad that made me upset.  I think what I liked most was that the story was something I could relate to.  With all the crazy things these friends get involved with, I'm fairly sure there won't be many more stories like that for me.  And I don't think that I'll find many more stories I like in general as well.