Home-made Present Idea - Family Quote Book

Our family makes our own Christmas presents for one another each year.  Some of us, 

(well, only one really - you know who you are J) 

sometimes wouldn't mind if we just bought them instead, because it would be easier! 

but for the most part, we have had a lot of fun with it over the years..  

And we have had some great presents!  :)

One year Abby spent a couple of months jotting down some of the 

silly/funny/wacky/witty/you-really-had-to-be-there comments 

made by various members of our family, (whenever she remembered and felt like it),

 then compiled them into a family quote book for that year.   

After typing it up and printing out a front and back cover, she used our home binder 

to make them into A5 size books, complete with clear plastic covers,

 then gave them as Christmas presents.

This was the back cover, below.

  

Now, I know that we are not the only family who make these 

silly/wacky/funny/witty/you-had-to-be-there kind of comments..   are we?

Of course we all forget them unless someone does write them down.

I'ts fun to remember them though... so perhaps you can use this idea too :)

Below is a small selection of a few of the quotes from that year's book ...

(Tammy would indubitably have been featured a LOT more, if she wasn't living overseas during this period :)

___________

Abby: Jonny that was my healthy lunch you just ate!

Jonny: I only took a bite! – Now it’s healthier :)

Abby (in art class): I just picked this picture (a cute, cartoon skeleton) cause I liked it.

Tutor: No, you have to give a deeper interpretation

Abby: Okay…  I picked this picture because it reminds me of my brother (class laughs) cause we’re always visiting him in hospital with the cancer and he broke his neck and back in a car accident…

Class: (long, uncomfortable silence)

Abby: (uncontrollable giggle)

Mum: We’ve just had an explosion here!

Abby: An explosion??!!

Mum: Yes

Abby: As in… ?

Mum: Bang!

Ben: The battery blew up

Abby: No way!

Oliver: Yeah we haven’t had an explosion like that since Ben attached his little car thing that he made through wire into the electrical socket!

Mum: He what?!?!

Ben: It’s okay – you already got me in trouble for that one

Mum: Oh, good! Don’t do it again.

Ben: (wicked grin)

Dad: You hit all the wrong notes

Abby: (playing viola) No I didn’t!

Dad: Well then I hate the song!

Oliver: (to his identical twin) Ben, you’re really, ridiculously good-looking!

Bethy: I could cook meals for them..  (to help out a family in need)

Oliver: Um..  They’re already sick

Abby (about Sarah) : She’s my friend!

Jonny: No, she’s my friend!

: Okay we’ll put her in the middle of the room and both call her and see who she goes to.

Ben: Oliver, you’re really ridiculously good-looking!

Bethy (playing the card game Phase 10):  So, we have to get 2 sets of 3…won’t everyone run out of 3’s?

Jonny (calling home): Hey Bethy, are mum or dad there?

Bethy: Who’s this?

Jonny: Are you serious? It’s Jonny

Bethy: Oh – okay, hold on…

(mum answers phone)

Jonny: Hey can some people come over tonight?

Mum: Who is this?

Jonny: (sigh)

Dad: We’ll sing the first verse of ‘O How Lovely was the Morning’. I know it’s a big choir song, but –

Mum: I’ll take first soprano!

Abby: I’ll do descant!

Mick: I’ll take bass!

Jonny: I’ll take tenor!

Bethy: I’ll take alto!

Ben: I’ll take audience!

Jonny: Why did the blonde get thrown out of the M&M factory? … Because she kept throwing out all the ‘W’s

Mum: What was wrong with the ‘W’s?

Abby: How do you get ink out of a white skirt?

Tammy: Are you paying me out because I tried white-out that time?

Tammy: Remember that time I tried to suck the air out of that bag of cut onions and I nearly passed out?

Dad: What would the family be like if we only had Mick and Tammy?

Ben: Uhm… well I guess I really wouldn’t know.

Dad: (opening a Christmas present) Honey this is from your mother… oh… we’ve adopted a platypus…

Dad: Honey you need to work on focusing

Mum: You guys don’t understand, I can focus on lots of things at once!

Tammy: Mum, the definition of ‘focusing’…

Ben: No, Oliver! That was my only ruler you just broke!

Beth: Yeah.. but now you have 2!

Abby: I didn’t get to sleep at all on the flight

Mum: yes you did, because you kicked me in your sleep and then you smiled…I think you were asleep!

Abby: Oh yeah that’s right – slept for ages!

Mum: Wait, this road looks familiar! … I think we’ve been lost here before

Abby: (opening a Christmas present) Yay! More undies!!

Mum: They’re Elle MacPhersons!

Micky: What is it with second hand undies?

Abby: We should do Denise Austin’s 30 minute blockbuster workout!

Jonny: Okay – how long does it take?

Mum: Abby stop sticking your bottom out – stand up straight

Abby: I’m not sticking it out

Mum: Oh...

Micky: I just heard on the radio that in the last year several large asteroids passed very close to earth, and a NASA scientist published his belief that they were flung at earth from a civilisation millions of light years away.

Abby: Haha – and they missed!

Bethy: What’s Al Qaeda?

Mum: You don’t know?

Bethy: Well I mean, I know it’s a place…

Jonny: Learning Korean was awesome - I’m the smart kid! The hardest bit was trying to read the English translations.

Mum: Jessima you have beautiful eyes

Dad: And lovely teeth

Mum: And you’re a lovely height

Oliver: They’re going to eat you

Jonny: Here’s a sharpener

Dad: I’ve got one and mine’s better

Jonny: Mine has Barbie on it, how could yours be better?

Dad: Mine doesn’t have Barbie on it.

Oliver: (beat-boxing)

Abby: Hey you’re almost as good as Jonny at that!

Jonny: How insulting!

Abby: Okay you’re right – Oliver you’re way better than Jonny!

Abby: I’m excited for the houseboat, but we’ll get bored

Dad: Are you serious?! Swimming, fishing –

Abby: Swimming? Are you serious?! What about crocodiles, haven’t you been to Australia Zoo?

Dad: There are no crocodiles in the Tweed River!

Abby: Really?

Dad: The sharks ate them all.

Ben (at the Pancake Parlour): How freaky would this place be if it were twice as big, and the lights were really dim……and you could hear shuffling…

Abby: I’m so excited about the houseboat! Except I don’t think I’ll swim cause of sharks

Oliver: I know! We can fish, catch all the sharks and then swim!

Jonny: Except you’ll probably catch the babies and the mum shark will eat you!

Micky: Or catch all the fish and so the sharks are hungry and then eat you

Abby: Yeah… I’ll watch.

Jonny: Mum - I’m not perfect

Mum: I know - you get that from your father

Jonny: Can I have some chocolate?

Dad: Steal your own!

………………(a while later)……………………

Bethy: Where’s my chocolate?

Dad: Jonny is that Bethy’s chocolate?!

Jonny: You said ‘steal your own’!

Jonny: She was aiming for my head!

Mum: It being the biggest target!

Micky: When mediocre results are required, I’m your man!

Dad: Bethy your friends won’t even notice if you’re not there!

Bethy: Of course they will, there are only 2 of them!

Mum: Oh sorry to keep you waiting – I put some hand cream on and I couldn’t get out the door!

Mum: Bethany you really do need to stop acting dumb

Bethy: I’m not acting!!

Mum: (hearing the end of a conversation): Who has 2 right feet??

All: Ben!

Ben: Hey! – Mine are left!

Ben (After singing ‘Give Said the Little Stream’ in FHE): I always thought that song said ‘give said the little string!

Oliver: Me too! I couldn’t figure out why it was running down the hill… or why it was a Primary song.

Micky: Sorry Tam I couldn’t hear you – Abby was talking to me and she’s pretty much impossible to ignore.

Tammy: Yeah, Helen Keller couldn’t ignore her!

Abby: Wow, Oliver! – You knew something I didn’t! Quick, go and write it in a little book!

Oli: Uhm, that book is full.

Bethy: Did we get a heap of new bowls recently?

Abby: Uh…we did but ages ago

Bethy: Well I’ve been meaning to ask that question for a while

Mum: So you had fun camping?

Bethy: Ahuh

Mum: And you were really good the whole time?

Bethy: Ahuh!... Oh wait – define really good.

Mum: Tammy got another 2 exams back, and they were both out of 10. For one she got 16, for the other she got 15. What I want to know is - where she lost the mark in the second one?

Abby: Remember that ‘M.A.T.C.H’ game? – you’re gonna live in an attic, drive a skateboard, marry Brad Pitt and have 37½ children!

Oliver: Gee, I’d hate to be the half!

Jonny: What are you talking about? – You are the half!!

(halfway through mum’s FHE activity)

Jonny: Oh! Can we play a game??

Mum: We are playing a game!

Jonny: Oh… I mean… a fun one! 
Mum:  sigh                                                                                                       

___________

Ok, you may not get them all, but to us they are funny -

and that's the point really, that our family enjoys having this!

Perhaps your own version of The Family Quote Book would be hilarious!  :)

Bethy put out a second edition a few years later...

We had three more people in the family by then :)