<p>@Consolation so how does that work? Does everyone give him gifts anyway?</p>
<p>Thumper, it is a precious gift for me when Mr goes to the mall with me! It only happens a couple of times a year. </p>
<p>I got a nice leather jacket from Mr! What a huge surprise - I would have never guessed Mr shopped Saks clearance deals 
;)</p>
<p>My husband didn’t shop at all. I bought myself a kindle paperwhite and wrapped it and said it was from him</p>
<p>I’m more sad but trying really hard not to show it. My D gave my H a $250 fitness watch. She researched it a ton and put lots of thought into it. I wanted a pair of winter running tights, pretty specialized ones. I got 2 pairs of running tights from old navy. </p>
<p>And she was mad because there was one item on her list that I forgot to get. I ordered it and had it sent to her house. I gave her 2 pairs of running tights from lucy. </p>
<p>I’m pretty sad about Christmas this year. I was excited but here we go, same old stuff. </p>
<p>Oh and I had a big, huge, blowup with my sister. </p>
<p>
[quote]
I would have never guessed Mr shopped Saks clearance deals]/quote]</p>
<p>I wonder who he learned that from??</p>
<p>Lol Teri! 
Baby kiddo said it did not take a CSI detective to figure out who actually bought the jacket! </p>
<p>I don’t mind taking the load off Mr B’s shoulders and to do all of the shopping, even for my own presents. I know he is super busy by the end of the year with annual reviews, budgets, and other similarly unpleasant stuff, so shopping would just add an extra layer of stress for him. I do love shopping for presents for the kiddos because I get an excuse to make a few trips to Lulu. ;)</p>
<p>DH paid attention when I talked about an item I was looking at - but he did not pay total attention and got a much more powerful and larger item, did not check pricing and sales or coupons got it Christmas Eve afternoon so paid a lot more for it. Sigh. I like it but …the shopper in me cringes. </p>
<p>On a typical Christmas morning, I get at least five less gifts than everyone else. This year, I wrapped up five additional gifts for myself so that I wouldn’t just be sitting around while everyone else took turns opening gifts.</p>
<p>I am sorry deb922. I have had my years where my husband bought oddball things that were not very personal. I learned to create a list of things I would like. He enlists the help of my daughters since he works a lot more hours in December ( since we have a retail business )
I originally felt bad doing this, because somehow I thought he should just automatically know what I would like…it works out better this way for me. A lot of what I like can be purchased online , so I make up wish lists and that’s about all I can do.</p>
<p>H got me a new lawnmower for Christmas–which is what I asked for. But he got the one HE wanted (electric, not gas). It had been sitting in the garage in a box, which I told him not to bring in the house. He put it together and hid it behind the couch with a blanket over it. I didn’t even notice it sitting there until all the presents were opened. Unfortunately, H accidentally started it in the living room. (Messing with things instead of reading instructions. . .see ADD thread). Lucky nothing was under it except a few gift tags/papers that got chopped up.</p>
<p>I’m Santa to everyone, but usually don’t get much. This year I had a few funny surprises: 10yo D wrapped up a large Snickers bar–leftover from her Halloween candy she just happened to find lying around a few days before Christmas. Two other Ds gave me a fur coat (ratty old $10 rabbit fur coat from a thrift shop. H made me promise never to wear it in public. It is warm, though–I’m always cold and wear coats in the house all winter, so I think they were teasing me about that.) Another D “stole” the PJs I’d bought and was going to wrap for myself–then I couldn’t find them. She wrapped them up and gave them to me. </p>
<p>As mentioned earlier, H (who is usually kind of bad about gifts…ADHD), did get me a purse that he knew that I wanted.</p>
<p>One of my son’s surprised me with LG Tone headset which isn’t something that I would have thought to ask for, but I LOVE!!!</p>
<p>The other son got me a new jacket which is nice and warm. </p>
<p>I ordered a few things on Black Friday and then opened them on Christmas (I actually forgot what some were!)</p>
<p>So, not a bad Christmas after all.</p>
<p>@thumper1 I can relate! I have had a couple of Christmas Days where everyone is opening gift after gift, so now I order a few extra things that I want…I ordered a sewing machine and some other misc things!</p>
<p>atomom, my middle and youngest have made a tradition of funny gifts for everyone…we have grown to loo forward to them. Oldest’s boyfriend takes a hammering, but has a great sense of humor. They gave him an inflatable ( travel size ) doll…youngest got it at a yankee swap a few days before Christmas and felt the need to pass it on to him. I got a roll of toilet paper with the face of a public figure I do not like. Thye tend to go around the house and wrap up random things. They put our cat in a box last year and wrapped it up…he went along with it too</p>
<p>OMG! The lawnmover story takes the top prize with the fur coat/ cat in a box being close second!! </p>
<p>Wear your fur coat in good health, atomom! :)</p>
<p><a href=“MACKLEMORE & RYAN LEWIS - THRIFT SHOP FEAT. WANZ (OFFICIAL VIDEO) - YouTube”>MACKLEMORE & RYAN LEWIS - THRIFT SHOP FEAT. WANZ (OFFICIAL VIDEO) - YouTube;
<p>Maclemore will approve! </p>
<p>That spot on the semi-shag carpet is a little less shaggy now. . .</p>
<p>BB–My oldest D (23) is big on thrift shopping. (When she was in college, her school paper did a fashion feature on her and her thrift shop finds. . . she was runner up for “best dressed” in her class.) My coat isn’t quite as nice as the one in the video. . . maybe I could wear it to mow the lawn?</p>
<p>My husband hasn’t started Christmas shopping yet. No problem though, we both decided there was nothing we wanted ( other some home repairs which we can’t afford at the moment) but will use the money to pay for a trip to SC next weekend to see our son (were supposed to leave Friday last but car decided to have an issue). I Bought gifts for others on Amazon and did treat ourselves to an Amazon fire tv thingy which I am thoroughly enjoying. </p>
<p>Thank God for online shopping.</p>
<p>OMG, this thread has me in my living room being sad and nodding my head in support of some of you who had big “misses” at Christmas and then laughing HYSTERICALLY at the lawnmower story. Epic!</p>
<p>Deb922, sadly I feel like I have been in your shoes! I think that is why I prefer to NOT get gifts -too many years of being disappointed just makes it seem simpler to just not get gifts. Sad but true!!! Order those leggings yourself girl! :)</p>
<p>I think some people just don’t like shopping so it’s difficult for them to become good at it. I like to shop, even if it’s just window shopping. DH, who’s dyslexic, prefers to go in with a list, get what he needs, and leave. Watching my DD (who’s also dyslexic) shop, I get the impression that after a while the noise, people, and sheer volume of stuff just gets to be overwhelming. </p>
<p>I started taking each of our children to the store (separately) when they were pretty young and let them pick a gift for each member of the family (their dad, sibling, and each grandparent). They had a dollar limit for each person and we made a list of interests ahead of time so they had a place to start. I made sure we had enough time to get lunch and I helped them wrap their gifts when we got home. Now that they’re older, the only thing that’s really changed is the dollar limit. They still have one, it’s just higher. Lol. My husband has always taken both with him when he goes shopping so they can each choose a gift for me. I give him a list of things I like to do so he can help them if they get stumped, but I’m fairly easy to shop for so I don’t they have much of a problem. We do have an informal family dollar limit, though, which I think makes it easier. No fair spending a lot on a nice bracelet for grandma and giving grandpa a pair of socks. I notice that the children have gotten in the habit of choosing gifts related to things they do with their dad. DS likes to play video games with DH and DD likes to cook with him, so DS got him a game they can play together and DD got him a wok. My son finished his shopping in an afternoon (he starts with a list of ideas but says he knows the “right” gift when he sees it); my daughter needed to break her shopping into a couple different trips. She prefers to think about it at home, make a list, then go shop for the items on it. She is very much her father’s daughter.</p>
<p>I took pity on my H and gave him a way out of trying to get a Xmas gift. Told him I would like him to go to a specific store in the mall with me in January to pick out an outfit for an upcoming trip. That is like pure torture to him, so we will see if he follows through with his ‘gift’.</p>
<p>H gave me exactly what I asked for. But it was my suggestion to my children. They decided to get something individually, as opposed to together which they have usually done. They asked for ideas from me. I worked hard to come up with something. Since they decided to go individually, they passed the suggestions I gave to them on to H. </p>
<p>It was an online gift, easier for the kids. But I may not actually like it. So H may still have to return it.</p>
<p>He never returns my gifts. Is he more gracious or am I just a better gift giver??</p>
<p>S bought H & me Nokia 635 phones, since H wanted windows phones. I’m switching all of us to the Tmobile plan, where you get 2.5 GB of data per phone at LTE and then unlimited at slower speed. You can bank the unused LTE data, so we will likely be able to do this. The data plan goes down to 1GB/line in 2016, but that will help us decide if we like TMobile. It is a monthly plan, so we can switch any time. It is also 15% off entire pre-tax bill for federal employee discount. This should be about 1/2 the price of our prior phone plan!</p>
<p>S and D haven’t decided what phones they want, so I will be curious about what they end up with. S wants to wait to see what phones are announced in Jan, as part of the big tech show. H & I are fine with the Nokia 635 and hope it is as nice as the ads say it is.</p>
<p>@austinmshauri I love the gift buying lessons that you are giving to your kids! I did something similar, but less organized, with my DS this year for his SO. Doing my part to make him someone who would get good comments on a thread such as this in the future! </p>