I like finding gifts that are a good match for people. I’m giving my lovely wife a bathrobe, festive socks, a guidebook with pictures for a country we hope to visit, a couple of jigsaw puzzles, a set of taco holders, and chocolate. My side already celebrated Hanukkah, with my gifts including a pet adoption fee, gift cards, a couple of cookbooks, scented hand soap, and a charitable donation. Upcoming family gifts include nice flatware, books, interesting non-alcoholic beverages, restaurant money, gift cards, pants, and chairs. The friends with grown kids got a couple of books, food exotica and locally produced spices, a jigsaw puzzle and a calendar. The friends with kids got food treats, books, and a couple of sets of knowledge cards in areas of interest to the kids. Another friend got a market bag, calendar, and chocolate.
My assumption is that I’ll receive at least one REI card and several books.
Nothing, really. Mrs. L and I declared a moratorium on that sort of thing and it extends to birthdays, Valentines, whatever. We’re trying to purge so we can move more easily but we’re finding that even our stuff has stuff.
But you might say that ironically, the new king sized bed we got (a necessity when two dogs insist on sleeping with you) covers some birthdays, holidays, etc. She’ll probably renew her amazon music, which takes up no space and provides her some podcasts that she really enjoys. Neither of us is super in the mood this year, anyway…she almost skipped putting up the (mini) Christmas tree.
Since all family members are grown we stopped the gift exchange and just give the money away. It’s really pointless to spend time shopping for someone who doesn’t need anything.
We get together for dinner and watch movies so we treat ourselves to that.
Change of plans. Wifey saw a commercial on TV for a heated throw. She said, ‘You can get me one of those for Christmas.’ She gets cold sitting in her chair in the living room. (She has a habit of turning up the thermostat even after the furnace is warming up. I tell her that won’t make it come on faster, and I end up roasting. 80ºF is not a reasonable temperature setting.) So I ordered her one from Amazon, and it will be here Wednesday. I looked at the Wall-O-Gift Cards and couldn’t find a regular Visa one. They were all for specific businesses (Starbucks, Home Depot, etc.). So I couldn’t get her a card for her picture frame.
Those are very nice. The trick is you should buy a back up one in the post holiday sales and stash it in a closet for when hers dies without warning and you can whip out the replacement one and save the day. Once she gets used to it she won’t want to be without one and stores only carry them in gift season.
Because everyone in my family except me is shopping-impaired and would wear rags rather than buy clothing. Also getting daughter-in-law a big box of CBD-infused bath salts. She’s a public school teacher, nuff said.
My sister and I don’t exchange gifts. Her kids are in their 40s so they get nothing. My great niece is 9 and is getting 2 Laura Ingalls Wilder books. My friend is getting a B.A. book on Rolling Stones. My riding instructor got a hand heater to use when the barn is freezing. Another friend is getting a book a out the comic strip Little Lulu. My gift giving tends to be book centric.
But as it happens, on Dec. 24-25, we’re having a romantic getaway in a hotel room with a whirlpool tub because our little seaside cottage only has a small bathroom and a standard tub and Mrs. Commasense misses the more luxurious bathrooms of our previous two houses.
Various uninteresting things for members of my family based on their Amazon wish lists. Although, for my best friend, and for my wife, I make a point of giving them at least one thing they haven’t asked for.
Best friend - an assortment of 16 different Japanese Kit Kat flavors not known in the US. Because!
Wife - a fellow player of WoW, she’s getting ONE MILLION GOLD, because I find it easy to make cash in the game, and because I will demand she do the Dr. Evil line after getting it.
I just bought a second hand slide projector. Against my advice an Aussie friend convinced hubs to shoot slides, early in our travels. But we didn’t own a projector, so we rented, from time to time. We looked into buying one, a few times, but they were very spendy at the time. So our slides sat, unwatched in trays, gathering dust! Literally through decades. From time to time he tries to show me some in the tiny viewer thingy, but I hate that. Ugh. Camera stores that rented and sold such things are long gone. Over the last few years I’ve searched around seeing if maybe I could find one second hand, but never had any luck. Hadn’t thought to look again in ages and ages. Gave it a go last night and found exactly what I was looking for, I was stunned! It’s on its way should be here just after Christmas! Fingers crossed, but I think he’ll be over the moon!
(Just double checked I didn’t pitch out the folding screen during the great attic purge a few years ago! Colour me relieved!)
I forgot to mention one thing I bought: A remote control snake for the grandson. I mostly bought it because I wanted to see it go, but I may just send it to the kid if I don’t see him.
My dad and brother and I agreed a few years ago (after Mom died) to stop exchanging gifts on birthdays and Christmas: these days we can get whatever we want for ourselves, plus none of us was ever very good at buying for the others. I’m single and childless, and the only people I buy presents for are my best friends and their son. I’m actually pretty excited about what I’m giving each of them this year:
Female Best Friend is getting a book of jewelry-making tips (she’s been into that for a while) and three types of dairy-free chocolate (she looooves chocolate but recently became lactose intolerant), and her “big” gift is a concrete personal fire pit that runs on rubbing alcohol. They have a wood-burning fire pit that they sometimes use in their large driveway, but I figure she can use this one when they sit on their deck on cool evenings. She likely won’t try it until early spring; fingers crossed that it works as hoped!
Male Best Friend is getting The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: a 510-page, 10-pound, deluxe two-volume, foil-stamped cloth hardcover set. It was released about two months ago, and I confirmed with his wife (Female Best Friend) that he hasn’t bought it for himself. She agrees that it seems like a perfect gift for him, which I’m proud of because he’s challenging to buy for.
Their Son (my “nephew,” who is 20 years old) is getting a Lego Creator Expert James Bond Aston Martin DB5 kit. He’s currently big into complicated Lego sets, and his folks told me he’d been asking for this one. I also got him a third-party light kit for that set, which I plan to have him open first.
We have a tradition where they give me the current year’s Swarovski snowflake ornament (I collect them), but they always manage to also get me one or two other very cool things. We’ll be getting together for dinner and our gift exchange tomorrow, and I’m really looking forward to it.
I sent the annual case of smoked salmon for my kids to fight over. The Ms and I don’t exchange gifts, but I think she ordered some kielbasa and pierogi for her nieces. Sent cards to a select few folks. Oh, and I gave $383 to a local HVAC place to come and fix my furnace. I don’t think I’m getting a card in return, though.
I’m single and childless, and the only people I buy presents for are my best friends and their son. I’m actually pretty excited about what I’m giving each of them this year: