Holiday Gifts?

[PrincessFiona]

Christmas, Kwanza, Hannuka.....now that the festivities are over...what presents did you get?

I got a digital camera (yippee!) from Thomas and a little angel birthstone (from Aidan) for my birthstone necklace from my mom!


kris

[SueC]

My mom got me some maternity shirts and sweaters (she drew my name). My dad always gets all of his girls jewelry (my mom and my sisters) so he got my sisters and I each a diamond necklace that I absolutely love!--it has 3 diamonds on top of each other and I guess it is supposed to symbolize past, present, and future (that coming from the jeweler, I'm pretty sure my dad didn't come up with that). My husband and I decided to buy presents for ourselves so I got myselves some comfy pj's and a gift certificate to have my house cleaned. All in all, a good Christmas!

Eric and Bryn gave me a super comfy pair of red velvet-y slippers that I am happily wearing right now. And....a really nice watch. Quite a nice gift. I have to get a few links taken out but will wait until after the baby arrives since I am retaining a wee bit of H2O. It is really beautiful. My mom gave me a saute pan I've been eyeing....and a gift certificate for dinner and free babysitting. It's for a wine bar so I'm waiting until after the baby arrives!
And I gave myself....a splurge shopping trip at a local cooking store. Yeah.....buy a heavy pizza stone 6 months before moving....I got all sorts of gadgets I've been thinking about, new cookie sheets, and a really cute little mini-bundt pan. But it was all 20% off! Sometimes you have to spend money to save money!

Well, this certainly was a funny Christmas. DH had already got me a pre-Christmas present after Thanksgiving: a Treadmill. Since I opened it early I told him he had to open one on Christmas eve (It was a new camcorder and I wanted him to open it early so we could charge it for taping the kids opening presents the following morning.) He opened it and had such an upset look on his face. He said "Well at least I have a tripod for it." I said Huh? He had gotten me a camcorder as well and it came with a free tripod. (great minds think alike, I guess) So he decided to take mine back. So that left me with no present to open. He said I really couldn't open the other gift. So here I am thinking he bought me a new car or something grand. He hands me a thick envelope.

Now I'm thinking, cool it a big wad of cash, LOL . Instead it is a prepaid voucher to a plastic surgeon in Columbus with all the necessary research material for breast augmentation 8O 8O 8O . Okay, I have been have heartedly asking for one the last few years, but I never thought he would actually do it! Now I think I am too scared to go through with it. I have been flat chested all my life and although I have always told myself its what I want, now I'm not so sure. I know, I am so totally vain here

So that was my Christmas!

[mommax3]

Well, I got some really nice presents.....Travis got me a guitar, which I have been asking for for a couple of years, and an instruction book, and a Yankee Candle, too. My mom got me a periwinkle sweater, one of my sisters got me a pink sweater (these were the colors I had requested! )and the other sister got me an Eva Cassidy cd. My inlaws have been giving both Travis and I a new set of luggage starting with Travis' birthday in September, continuing through my birthday in November, and they finally gave us the last pieces for Christmas.

I felt pretty good about spending, etc. on presents and not giving into excess, until Christmas Eve, when I put together some random comments I had heard from my middle child and realized he was expecting a Game Boy for Christmas and I hadn't gotten him one. (I had gotten him a lot of art supplies since he had been stealing all of my computer paper all fall for making beautiful colored, cut, and glued creations.) Before Travis went in to work Christmas Eve, I told him my fears and he said, "Well, you better go get him a Game Boy", so despite my planning, I was at Toys R Us bright and early that morning getting a Game Boy and a couple of games......and then I had to buy a little more for the other two to keep things even.....but I still did better than I have done some other years. Anyway, everybody was happy Christmas morning and there were no tears of disappointment, something I dread. DH was on call, as he has been for three years running, on Christmas Day, but he was home for all of the present opening although he delivered a couple of babies later that day. Some years he has come home just in time to open presents, and some years we have been opening as fast as we could so that he could see it all before he went in, but this year was perfect.

All in all, it was the best Christmas I have had in several years.....very peaceful and full of great times with the kids.

Sally

[migirl]

DH had a nice little surprise for me... I had made a 'Wish List' on Amazon.com (books, CDs, DVDs) and told him to just buy from it because I knew he wasn't going to have time to get away from the hospital to get me anything from a regular store. So even though I told him that, I was still grousing a little that none of my gifts would be surprises since I had already picked them all out myself (I had even bought all of my own stocking stuffers since I knew he wasn't going to have time). Christmas morning we went to open our gifts and out of my stocking came a wrapped box that I didn't recognize. It turns out that he had secretly collaborated with his mom to buy me a pretty ring box that I had been admiring at a store that we were in a few weeks earlier.

It wasn't a big Christmas-gift-giving bonanza for us, but it was nice nonetheless. My MIL bought me a sewing machine that I can't wait to try out! The most I've ever done is sew buttons, so I'm excited to actually try to make things.

[Auspicious]

My boyfriend's gift to me was tickets to a Broadway show called Avenue Q. We're going on Thursday and I'm excited. We already have more possessions than will fit in our shoebox-size apartment, so I told him I'd rather do something than get something.

My dad does some woodworking as a hobby, and he made me (per my specs) a little wooden box to hang by my front door. The minute I get in my front door I shed my watch and rings and I needed a place to keep them where they wouldn't get scratched by my housekeys, mixed in with my other stuff, etc.

When I was a kid the idea of a homemade gift always seemed vaguely disappointing, but the older I get the more I think those are my favorite gifts!

[BonBon]

Kevin played like the dad in a Christmas Story. He asked me if I got everything I wanted and I said "no". So he tells me to "look over there, in your stocking". I pull out this envelope and it's got a picture of a riding lawnmower!!! Complete with a snowplow blade. I couldn't help but get misty-eyed. Some women cry over diamonds, I cry over cool powertools/toys. (I certainly wouldn't turn away the diamonds though! )

We had two pretty bad snowstorms in December...I'm patiently waiting for another one so I can test this out.

Trisha, have you decided yet if you are going to use your gift? I don't think it's vain at all - if you think it will make you feel better about yourself, then go for it. I have every intention of getting mine lifted if they end up looking like my mom's. (No offense Mom!!!)

[DCJenn]

We decided early on that we would buy each other airfare to San Antonnio to visit our friends. and that's exactly what we did.

My wonderful parents wrapped up cash (yup, in boxes with tissue and bows, from $1 to $100!) so we had plenty of spending money and it was great fun. We stayed at our friends house and ate out 6/7 meals and talked and saw the 3rd LOTR's movie (loved it!!) and generally had a kid free, parent free, stress free weekend- (kid free because hopefully next year we'll be back from Russia by this time and I can talk about holidays with kids!!)

There are very few people that I can have such a great time with and these two are two of them. We are all lucky (or in debt to Uncle Sam- depends on your perspective) in that we can afford outrageous meals and took full advantage of it. Best meals I've had in a very long time.

Hope everyone else had a great time wth friends and family.

Jenn

PS- my 87 YO grandmother was with us for XMAS, I can only hope I'm aswith it. She made us go buy her unflavored voka, she didn't like the Lemon stuff...