<p>How did everybody do this year? What were the hits and misses? </p>
<p>I STRUGGLED this year to come up with gift ideas but everybody seemed to love their gifts… the big hits were the “ninjabread men” from thinkgeek and… <em>drumroll please</em> the robe! He loved it.</p>
<p>My FMIL made me this beautiful little Christmas tree centerpiece with little ornaments she hand picked and tied to the tree herself, I was really touched-- it was obvious she put a lot of effort into it. That was the highlight of our night on Christmas Eve.</p>
<p>I am off to make butter cookies with my new cookie press but I am curious what the hits were at your house this morning! How did that brookstone sand turn out? I almost got some for myself…</p>
<p>Well, my youngest loves her ipad-who wouldn’t? Her older sister is very happy with the cash and walking boots, and her brother really needed a new phone since his job depends on it and his old one was dying. Arranging to have our fireplace fixed was a thoughtful gift from my son.</p>
<p>But really, it all pales next to the gifts I got for a desperately poor family in the church I work for. They sometimes can’t afford heat so I got all of them warm clothes, hats and gloves. And I wrapped them all in pretty paper and added a fancy but nonbreakable ornament to each package. They can’t even afford decorations. The pastor hired one of the teens to help around her house and the teen told her, “I hope I get one present for Christmas. I have never had a present.” So I did good, and I feel good. My family has so much, and it wasn’t that hard to do this. I inspired the pastor to drum up a “buddy” from the congregation for each of the kids so that they feel like “regular” kids on their birthdays and Christmas. </p>
<p>I have all of my kids here today and in-laws due soon. It’s a good day.</p>
<p>I bought a few gifts which were big hits in the 'Santa swap." Among the hits were a kitchen knife, “Smart Ass” board game (yes, that’s the real name), and lego. H swapped to get New Orlean’s coffee that my sister bought on trip. </p>
<p>S gave all the cousins and his cousin’s baby Gund Amazon bears, which he received due to his many Amazon purchases this season. They were a great hit. The kids are still sleeping, so no idea what they think of their gifts yet. Am hoping they will like them and can barely remember some of the things I purchased any more.</p>
<p>Suspect they will like the cash we gave, in any case. :)</p>
<p>My mother loves her new Kindle and my fiance loved his new fleece blanket. </p>
<p>My dad got a pair of slippers from every one of us (4 total) because he sends us all the same list and we never talked about what we got him. Whoops. </p>
<p>We’re having Christmas with my in-laws this weekend so we’ll see how that goes. They always get me presents I don’t like (and can’t/won’t use) and I can’t even take them back because they don’t give us gift receipts.</p>
<p>The best present of all was a surprise I had set up with my cousins overseas (UK) to have my mom Skype with her aunt that she hasn’t seen in almost 20 years. They managed to get my whole family there in one house to Skype over. It was wonderful.</p>
<p>very touching about the robe and the ornaments.</p>
<p>2 sandboxes were accepted, but I don’t know if they were enjoyed. My son returned his, as well as the Brookstone Bluetooth keypad. The new Nintendo game (he hinted) was also fine. surprisingly, the s/o and son liked clothes best. She wore PJs that night. (All this is from Hannukah, several weeks ago.)</p>
<p>My g/f friend liked the tickets to see MR Banks and dinner. She took me and others to see Book of Mormons. I gave my adult friends the alcohol of their choice. I shopped with my s/o, so we both liked our gifts.</p>
<p>My miss? My boss’s wife gave me same Izod sweater she gave me last year, I think in another color. Same size Large, where the sleeves hang low on my short, 105# frame. Yes, she has known me 23 years. I gave him Kettle vodka. Since that is only miss, I feel fine.</p>
<p>It is always fun to hear about the best and the worst.</p>
<p>Roman==Last year I tried to return the sweater to Macy’s (in their box), but was told they never carried this brand in women’s. This “new” sweater goes straight to charity. I have exchanged things without a gift receipt, as long as the store recognizes the code. best of luck.</p>
<p>Agreed, much fun reading about hits and misses. Not sure about misses at our house this year. I like the surprise hits, the little thing that turns out to be a big favorite. For S1, it was a plush toy pancake. It has a syrup smile and a butter pat nose. He had seen one and there were some inside jokes about the pancake with his friends. S1 is crazy about it. S2 is enamored of welding goggles we gave him. He’s into steampunk; the goggles are currently on a bowler hat, which he has been wearing all day.Sometimes it is the little things.</p>
<p>book, I’d try that, but I honestly have NO idea where she gets them from. They’re generic things like DVDs, etc (which is nice, and I appreciate the thought, but between Hulu, Netflix, etc, we just never use DVDs).</p>
<p>For those who have spouses that are awful at buying gifts…</p>
<p>A dear friend does this and swears that it works…</p>
<p>Get a large box and stick it in the corner of your closet (no peeking! that’s key!!!)</p>
<p>a few months before your Bday or Xmas, start ordering/buying yourself some things. As you buy the items, immediately put them into the box (again, no peeking). As the weeks go by, add more things…large and small. Keep each item in its bag/box.</p>
<p>Shortly before the big day, have your spouse take the box and wrap the gifts up (if he won’t wrap, then at least YOU wrap the big box - NO PEEKING). </p>
<p>My friend SWEARS that by the time she opens the gifts she’s forgotten about most of them and is truly surprised…and happy!!!</p>
<p>I did a version of this for myself. I don’t receive many gifts, so this year, I purchased a few and wrapped them. I stuck them under the pile with everyone else’s gifts that I also purchased and wrapped. I know I WILL be happy when I open my gifts and that it fits and is just what I wanted. May be surprised because haven’t seen the items since I purchased them.</p>
<p>I used one present that I wrapped a year or more ago and didn’t need to give out and had no labels as secret santa swap gifts and it turned out to be a kitchen knife (thought it was a spoon rest). It was a popular item and was ‘stolen’ several times before the end of the evening.</p>
<p>H and I tend to give each other mainly experiences–nicer hotels and meals when we travel, not feeling guilty about travel to spend time, and splurging when we feel like it. It has worked fine for us. At this point, we don’t need much more “stuff” in our lives, so we give family consumables, like candy instead of things that will fill our closets and home with more clutter.</p>
<p>I’m a pretty good gift giver if I do say so myself. No one ever writes lists, but they will mention something along the way sometimes.</p>
<p>Everyone for the most part enjoyed everything. I got a paperwhite kindle that I just registered and am charging - as a huge reader I’m eager to see what I think of this new technology. </p>
<p>The clunker had to have been the remote control airplane hubby bought for d. She’s deep into “teendom” and really enjoyed the clothes, purse, makeup, curlers, perfume so it was kinda funny to see her like oh…hmmm…okay. thanks</p>
<p>The hit - The big-hit gift that I gave was Leatherman Micro for the men in my life -DH, DS, and new SIL. They all loved them and were quick to put them to use during the gift unwrapping. </p>
<p>The miss - I have a hard time buying any surprise gifts for DD, and this year was no exception. I bought her a striped knock-off Longchamp bag, but she wasn’t too keen on it. Unfortunately, I bought it in a resort gift shop when we were traveling, so I can’t return it. Looks like it might be mine after all!</p>
<p>Bags are TOUGH to get for others. Last year, I bought 5 for D and ended up returning ALL of them for on reason or another. This year, I bought her 2 and will be fine if I have to return to Macy’s. They have return gift tags on them and I’ll just put it back on my card; gave her cash so she can find any other bag she prefers.</p>
<p>I hope YOU like the bag you bought, Cincy, since it sounds like it may be yours. :)</p>
<p>Have given Leatherman Micros back when the kids graduated HS and were starting college. It was a hit, for the young men AND women. I love the ones with a scissors. S liked using the scissors for cutting his toe nails–different strokes!</p>
<p>I had bought a few things for my D when she was home at Thanksgiving and had them shipped to her at school so I only had a few small things for her to open this morning. One is a iHome bluetooth speaker she can hook up to her iPod, iPhone or iPad and she loved that. I also got her some stuff from Ulta because they had an awesome deal on Black Friday where if you spent $40 you got this bag of stuff free. So, I spent money on things I knew she’d use like dry shampoo, eye liner and mascara and got the bag of other stuff for free. I also got her a sorority sweatshirt she said she wanted but she thought I couldn’t afford…lol. She was very happy.</p>
<p>S seems happy enough. He got a lot of gift cards because he wouldn’t give me any ideas and I can’t figure out what he wants anymore. His only real gift was a sweater and a thermal. He loves the sweater so much that he actually owns it already… <em>sigh</em>. He has a wardrobe at my house and a wardrobe at his dad’s house so I’ve never actually seen this sweater. I know what kind of thing he likes though- and was right on that…lol. He thought it was funny. He’ll exchange it. He loves the thermal. </p>
<p>I had told my dad exactly what I wanted so it was no surprise, but I love my new, very professional looking, red leather laptop rolling bag.</p>
<p>We won’t open our presents until tomorrow night. D1 is getting two very nice bags. D2 is getting short changed a bit because a leather jacket she wanted was out of stock, so I am going to have to give her an IOU.</p>