My daughter and her boyfriend exchanged Christmas presents early because they are leaving on a trip and they did not want to carry packages. Upon opening the presents, they discovered they had gotten each other the EXACT SAME PRESENT – the exact same model of ukelele. They hadn’t even talked about wanting a ukelele! Maybe not O. Henry, but so cute nonetheless!
Okay, to broaden the appeal of this thread, what did you get your loved ones for Christmas? What are the chances that they’ve gotten you the exact same thing?!
Many years ago my brother and SIL gave each other recliner chairs. They both went to the same store and put them on layaway, and the same salesperson helped each of them, never giving away the secret. Of course, all along they were telling us about the big surprise they had planned. And boy, were they!
I got H a motion-activated, 4-foot tall Darth Vader. There is no chance whatsoever that he got one for me. But he will be thrilled. I’m fairly sure I know what he has in mind for me, and I will be equally thrilled (a new desk chair, where I can sit and play on CC while he is at the newest Star Wars movie for the 10th time or so.
Cute! One year, we gave the big kiddo March of the penguins on DVD. When we opened the gift from her to us, we all began to laugh. Guess what was in the box?
I booked a trip for me and hubby in January, flight, car, hotel, dinner reservations, tee time, even massages. If he did do the same thing I hope it’s a different week and different location.
One year I wanted an e-reader, and my husband wanted an IPAD. I got him the IPAD. He got me an IPAD also., because then I could read books and do other things. We both love them.
My 2 children tracked down H’s favorite beer - that seems to change every other month. I had given up after spending too long on the task but they found it and ordered him a case - Salmon Fly Honey Rye Beer by Madison River Brewing Co. out of Montana. Not easy to find in stock.
Once I gave my aunt a nice dress for Christmas. The next year at Thanksgiving, I wore the same dress to her house. Everyone got a good laugh because she was wearing hers to. Bad planning, I know, but I guess I’d forgotten I’d given her the dress.
D just gave me the best present this evening - she told me to sit down and relax tonight she was making dinner. I gladly obliged. She announced she was making vegan pizza. H and S kind of lost all color in their faces but we all said “sounds good.”
The sauce was a puree of baby spinach, cashew nuts, garlic and olive oil. The toppings were avocado, tomato slices and red onion sprinkled with some salt and hot pepper flakes. Honestly it was delicious and very festive looking with all the red and green. Could not believe the guys ate it and enjoyed it but they did!!
How very sweet, @HarvestMoon1! I have begged our kids for them to cook a meal(s) for us and/or make us a CD or whatever, from the heart, but am not holding my breath.
I was convinced S was giving H an iPhone for Christmas but he shocked me by giving the phone to me! I just finished transferring selected contacts to it, so I now have 10% of those from my old phones and love it.
I love fingerprint ID instead of entering my password endlessly.
I (and my wife also) have not received a gift from DS in recent years. Hopefully, some time in distant future, I will receive a gift from him. (Our family is not big on gift exchanges. We buy things as we need them. But still, I secretly wish I will eventually receive a gift from DS, no matter how small it is. It means he has reached a milestone: start to have a job.)
mcat2 - my kids have always given me a gift for xmas, birthday and mother’s day. When they were very little their dad took them shopping and paid for the gift, but once they had their own allowance/money they bought me what they could afford. I am sure your son has at least 20 in his account to buy you a gift. It is the thought that counts. Maybe your wife can whisper something in your son’s ear.
D2 is not working yet, but she got a massage gift certificate for me. She said my back and neck hurt because I work too hard.
oldfort, Thanks for the advice. You have daughters who love you very much. (I think my wife said in her younger age that she wishes she had a daughter also – so that she would have the fun of “dressing her up” when she was a child.)
I think DS somehow believes all the money he has access to comes from us (so he should not use it unless absolutely needed), even though it is no longer true today (because a lot of his money comes from his student loans now.) He therefore thought he should not use OUR money to buy gifts for us.
He has always been a little bit too frugal. An example is that he keeps living in the dorm just because he wants to save a little bit money by living there. Fortunately, I think he still buys his GF gifts – At the beginning of his relationship (even for his previously “failed” one) we had some lingering concerns he might not even do that so we reminded/encouraged him to buy gifts for her. (What a helicopter parent here!)
Ha…in this Christmas holiday, the only person for whom every member in our family thought about buying a gift was his GF (even though we did not in the end because we do not want her to have a concern about having to return a gift to us. We sent them a “care package” instead.) And I believe his GF and he exchanges gifts. If not, they would break up!
Up to today, the most memorable Christmas gifts DS gave me was a computer game he “developed” for me (with a lot of my helps of course, but I tried to give him all the credits) in his elementary school years. I actually did not know whether my wife threw it (it was on a floppy disk, with his handwriting on it) away when we moved.
