I was sitting here reading the boards when suddenly my daughter walked in holding a necklace. I t’s a beautiful gold rose on a delicate gold chain. It’s the necklace my husband bought for me our first Christmas together, we were still dating at the time. It brought back all the mushy feelings I had that day but also that nagging “Oh God why didn’t I know?” feeling. See, my husband, the lovely Zoom, and I weren’t exactly dating in the sense most people understand the term. Mostly he just hung around alot and watched tv at my house. I wasn’t really sure what he felt for me so I just thought we were really close friends. So Christmas comes and I bought him a box of Oreos. It was a nice box but still…it was just a box of Oreos. He came in with three presents for me. The first was UNO! I love UNO and I usually force anyone who comes around me to play. The second was a really large rock. The previous week I told him the story someone once told me about penguins mating for life if the girl accepts the boy’s rock. The third was this necklace. Three beautiful and thoughtful presents. He put alot of effort into my gifts and I bought him…Oreos.
Has anyone else ever had something like this happen?
I sing - a lot - all the time. Jingles and showtunes will be stuck in my head for days. I tell you this because…
Our first Christmas - I bought him some practical things, and an quartz carving of an elephant, which he adored.
He gave me… a dremel moto-tool. Ya know, the rotary thingy that abrades stuff or whatever. I thought it was a joke, that he bought himself a power tool and “said” it was for me. I laughed. And he looked crushed.
He was so proud to have bought me this tool thingy, and he said I had been hinting for months, every time we went into the hardware store. Remember the singing? Every time I saw this tool, I sang the jingle from it’s commercial. (But I also sing the J-E-L-L-O jingle in the grocery store, but didn’t get any gelatin or pudding!)
IT was a wonderful thoughful gift… that we returned the next day.
I was dating a guy who gave me a Swiss Army knife for Christmas. I think I probably laughed, because I have no use for something like that. Poor guy really did mean well, but wtf? A Swiss Army knife?
Well, I can see from the box of Oreos and the long underwear lying discarded on the floor that my wife is not dealing with amateurs here, but she has you all beat. She manages to spend considerable chunks of change buying unsuitable gifts. First, let me set the scene. I am pretty much your prototypical family guy. I don’t have a lot of power tools and I don’t find farts funny, but otherwise, I’m just guy. Buy me stuff for my hobbies (running, swimming, biking, skiing, reading …), buy me toys, pictures of my family, … I’ve often forgone a present so we could get something for the family. Damn near anything will do. Except:
Mrs Slow: “Honey, would you like a handcrank ice cream maker?” Me: “No. I think they are a lot of trouble, and I don’t much care for the product. I’d rather pay Ben and Jerry to make it for me.” Two weeks later. Mrs Slow: “Honey would like a handcrank ice cream maker for your birthday?” Me: “No. I already told you that.”
I get: A handcrank icecream maker - for about $200.
This birthday: New flooring for the garage entrance and the washer and dryer area. I protest when I see the first installment on the credit card statement. $950. $1450 and counting. (What she wants, she thinks we need. What we need, she thinks I want.)
Faced with my displeasure, she goes shopping. My job is informal, so I usually wear jeans, but sometimes I need Docker style pants. I own about 20 pairs of black socks from my old suit wearing days. Among my gifts, 3 pairs of black socks. (At least they aren’t lonely, and they were cheap.)
Christmas a few years back. Our trusty old water bed from the early 80’s had sprung a leak. So I bought us a new kingsize mattress bed, with the understanding that we would not buy a footboard or headboard for another year or two. My Christmas present: a footboard and headboard. Again, more than $500, but I really don’t remember.
For my birthday, I get some shorts and a belt. Except, the shorts make me look sillier than a postman in his, and she can’t stop laughing. So she sends them back. I end up with: a belt.
My personal favorite. Father’s Day. New drapes. Just what the guys at work were all saying they wanted for Father’s Day.
Scarlett, mine did the same thing to me our first Christmas together. I wasn’t working at the time (he had convinced me to just up and quit my old job which I had hated and said he’d take care of things till I found a new one) and so we agreed that we wouldn’t even EXCHANGE gifts with each other - we’d spend the money on my sons and our families gifts.
So we’re at the annual Christmas Party at Odells (bar where we met) and out of nowhere, he hands me a box with this in it:
He got it for me to go with my mother and child ring which I got many moons ago at Service Merchandise. I didn’t know he had even noticed…I ended up in tears I was so touched.
sniff - I’m getting all sentimental just thinking about it…sniff
Happens all the time in my family – I’m noted for completely forgetting to give people gifts and then going to the dollar store, and my sister is noted for giving people very lavish things. I’ll give my family dollar store trinkets and end up getting half of Bath & Body Works in return. You’d think that someday I would learn, but no, it never fails that I forget about presents.
Most of the gifts DrJ gets me are pretty cool by my standards, but other people tend to get this blank look on their faces and say, “He got you a WHAT?”
I’ve come to dread the perennial “So, what’s he getting you for (fill in gift-giving occasion)?” conversation. For starters, I don’t like to know about my gifts in advance, and everyone always disapproves of what I think I might be getting.
Like the year I thought he was getting me that doggie seatbelt I’d been wanting, or maybe one of those cool collapsable dog kennels. (For the record, it was some training aids and treats for Dolly the Vicious Attack Hound.) Or the year I thought he was getting me a cordless drill, or maybe a nice pocketknife like I’d been hinting around for. One woman I used to work with told me I ought to tell him to make with the real presents or get out.
I still don’t understand why people get all bent out of shape over him getting me a tool box for Christmas. It’s a damn nice toolbox, and I rather like it. Hell, I’m the one who put power tools on our wedding registry. If it caters to my interests and preferences, and I’m happy to have it, doesn’t that make it a good gift?
Absolutely, positively, with no undue uncertainty, etc.
Pretty much nails what’s wrong with most of my wife’s gifts. They generally cater to her interests and preferences and, she’s happy “I” have them. (Did I mention the Valentine’s Day gift that was a movie featuring her favorite hunk, that we had watched together and I had explicitly said was fine for one viewing, but I wouldn’t want to own it? And that while watching it rapturously she said, “He is sooo cute!!”, but was otherwise silent?)
Which explains why she needed the movie… :::d&r:::
Gosh, my stories don’t really compare. I had an ex who would buy me mirror gifts. I would buy him something and he would buy me something similar in return. Problem with that being I would buy him things that I thought he would enjoy and which interested him, which were often things which I would not enjoy and in which I had little to no interest. We broke up before I got around to testing out the idea of buying him things I would like to see if I’d get something I liked in return.
My most embarrassing gift moment…two Christmases ago, when I had been “sort-of-dating” my now-current boyfriend for about three months. He had been wanting sunglasses, so I bought him a pair from AE, about $25, and I framed the one picture I had of us as a sort of “I hope we’ll be together for a while” sentimental gift.
He gave me…a $100 gift certificate to Victoria’s Secret. :eek:
Another story…
This past Christmas, I exchanged gifts with my ex because we’re still good friends (you know, the “we should have just stayed friends” boyfriend). I gave him the 2003 Simpson’s day calendar. He gave me a book called “Bitch” that was all about feminism. He thought it was clever and really, honestly, truly thought I’d like it. sigh
Whenever you come over I’ll break out the UNO cards!
I went into my kitchen a few minutes ago and saw the most horrible gift my husband has ever bought me. My birthday about 5 years ago, my husband is really sneaking around making a huge deal out of buying me a present. I was about seven months pregnant and just felt like a whale. I had asked for something just for me, something to take my mind off the pregnancy and the misery of the pregnancy. He came in thrilled with…a blender. I refuse to use that dayum blender to this day.
One year for Christmas my exbf got me these black velvety pants, or maybe I should say tights. You know, they hug the ankle. Very not cool for a highschool senior.
Him: I thought you’d like them because you have another pair like them.
Me: No, the pair I have now are flares, and not manufactured with old ladies in mind. And besides, why would I want a pair of pants similar in colour, style, and material to ones I already have???
But then again, he only ever wore plain solid colour t-shirts, jeans (same style, different colours), Dockers (same style, different colours), and suede vests (same style different colours). Yes, a highschool student wearing that, not some middle aged man!
Now, you do understand that that gift was for him, not you. Indirectly, of course. I’m guessing that he’s gotten tremendous enjoyment from that present over the past few years …
He bought me a fancy cordless phone as my big Christmas present. I’m not the one who likes to roam around while on the phone. He is. And the phone was in his favourite colour. Oh well. The boot also goes on the other foot, because I wasn’t raised to spend a lot of money on presents, and he was. So for the first Christmas, I probably spent about £15 on him and he spent about £100 on me. So, yeah, I’m not only ungrateful, I’m cheap!
