My parents and girlfriend always ask me what I want and I always tell them I have no idea. So far I think Im getting: - A bartending set - Ski Jacket - Some Blu-Rays (hopefully Expendables) - Gift card to Bobs Discount Furniture for my new digs in January What Im getting other people: - Xbob Kinect (brother) - Cappuccino machine (parents) - Tiffanys Necklace and Vermont Teddy Bear (girlfriend) - Money (perpetually broke sister) On Black Friday I really only buy stuff for myself as Im not burning the calories of getting up early and in line at Best Buy for anyone else. How I do my Black Friday shopping: 1. Go Best Buy the day before Thanksgiving 2. Find everything Im going to want Friday (DVDs, Games, whathaveyou) and hide it in the bottom of a washing machine or dryer on the floor 3. Go in Black Friday, get all my stuff from said dryer and go check out; no rushing or scrambling for anything. Bingo bango.
Focus: I don't really need anything so my brother and I are both asking my parents for a trip to Montreal during spring break. Fuck those overcrowded Mexican resorts. We're going to see the Habs play, drink too much, and see the sights. Alt. Focus: Last Christmas I got a subscription to a beer of the month club from the ex. At first I wasn't too stoked but once the first shipment arrived at my front door I thought it was fucking great.
My kids (8 and 6) want Paper Jamz, the fake guitars. I have no idea about them, does anyone here have any sort of experience with them? <a class="postlink" href="http://www.amazon.com/Wow-Wee-Paper-Guitar-Style/dp/B00342LJOW" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.amazon.com/Wow-Wee-Paper-Gui ... B00342LJOW</a>
I just don't want another shovel. That's all I got from my parents one year. The years before and the years after have been normal but that one year just fucks with my head.
My dad is a pretty wealthy guy. He makes somewhere in the ball park of half a million a year (the bastard). He has pretty good taste and we have very similar interests. He also travels routinely through the Philippines, India and Thailand - places where you traditionally take an extra suitcase and bring it back stuffed with DVD's and shit for giving out at Christmas, and he still can't buy a fucking decent gift to save himself. For my 21st, I got a resin molded statuette of a naked Japanese woman. An ugly naked Japanese woman. My dad, in his infinite wisdom - thought that for a really memorable birthday like my 21st, a 12 inch high, $30 statue of a Japanese woman was what I would like. I know he's gay - but even he should have recognized that the statue was modeled on a fugly bitch. Then he should have realized that the statue is about the last thing I would ever actually fucking want. Last Christmas he got me a pair of white towels. They're kind of nice towels I guess - thick egyptian cotton - but what the fuck? It's not like I'm short of towels dad. In reality, I think it's not so much that he's hopeless, as that he's forgetful. I'm fairly sure that an hour after he gave me the towels, he was back at the shop, buying two more towels for himself, because at the moment when he needed a gift, they were the only thing in the house still in the wrapping that he thought might make an appropriate gift. The statues are sold from the store next to the taxi rank outside of his apartment - so I assume that he was on his way to dinner with me for my 21st and remembered that birthdays are a gift giving occasion. Every decent gift I've ever received from him, has been at times when he's had a good personal assistant who did the shopping for him. I'm trying to educate him in the many wonders of a card full of cash, or get him to keep a draw full of gift cards around for all the times when he forgets to buy someone a gift. I'm expecting more shit from the cigarette shop next to the taxi rank though.
I'm thinking of just buying myself one of these. http://lumix.panasonic.com.au/products/Lumix/Camera/DMC-ZR3
My parents have always been horrible gift givers. I have received more cat piss aftershave and car buffing t-shirts from them over the years than I care to think about. Now that mum's passed away, I can only dread what dad will find to give. For my birthday, I got $20 and a card. I'm expecting less effort, quite frankly. Between my brother and I, we realise that we don't need anything. Instead, we buy stuff for the "hell of it" basis. This year, I think I'll get him a Nerf gun, a cannister of darts and a bottle of Johnnie Walker. That way, he can drunk and shoot his tv without destroying it.
I put a lot of thought and effort into buying gifts for folks, and there is nothing I like better than seeing the look on someone's face when I've really nailed it. I'll never forget seeing my dad get all misty eyed when I gave him a baseball autographed by Mickey Mantle one year for Christmas. Conversely, I never go into the holidays expecting much. I've always had pretty much all the stuff I've wanted (I'm not spoiled, just easy to please) and certainly had everything I truly needed. Easily the most baffling gift I ever received was from a friends of my parents, who thought a 15 year old guy would like an Air Supply's Greatest Hits album for Christmas. Of course, not wanting to let a perfectly good gift go to waste, I listened to it. More than once. Don't judge me.
I just don't need much. My family always asks for a wish list and I never know what to put - all the stuff I want that's affordable is downright boring. I mean, yeah, I need a larger hard drive, and I'd like a bigger boil kettle for my brewing. Yawn. The trouble is I've hit the point where I have most of the stuff that I want or need, and the stuff I don't have is big bucks - which is why I don't have it. Gift cards are awesome... but frankly, Christmas is far more about food and family, and the gift giving has moved towards a lot more of a symbolic gesture. My dad and stepmom have taken to buying me a bottle of wine and donating to a charity in my name, which is great. Less stuff to clutter in my house and they always put some thought into the charity to pick something I would contribute to.
I'm in a jam right now for Christmas gifts. My family is bugging me non-stop wanting gift ideas because they don't want to give me gift cards, but there's just nothing I want right now that they can get me that's small. Other than clothes. Fucking clothes. It's always clothes for Christmas. I need ideas, fast.
It depends who you give them too. Gift cards to girlfriends under one year= trouble. Gift Cards to Mom's can be a little dicey as well, they want to see effort. Other than that almost everyone appreciates gift cards, rather than give them crap let them pick something they actually want.
I'm working a security detail at Wal-Mart Black Friday, from midnight to 10 AM. The good thing is I can get all the deals from the get go, the bad thing is breaking up fights, ect that morning. I think I'll get myself a few blu rays, and get the wife a few things while I'm there.
My grandma was a district manager for AVON for like 20 years before I was born, and retired right about the time I came along. I remember being very young and seeing every closet in their house filled to the top with every sort of AVON garbage you can imagine. EVERY Christmas, from my first to around my 30th my sister & I received 6-8 gifts from my grandparents. AVON, every single one of them. We would purposely gather all of their gifts and open them first to get them out of the way. I've thrown them all away over the years, but had I kept this crap my collection would be something like: 15 porcelain beer steins. Small and not glazed so you can't even drink from them 10 glass cars that are filled with shitty smelling cologne 10 nail clipper sets, at least half dozen leather wallets 30 bottles of cream rinse 20 assorted pins, most of them American flags 8 wooden duck statues 10 small bottles of cologne that smell like old people Many other things I've blocked from memory All in all, I think I got the better end of the bargain. My sister has more pink eye shadow and fuzzy slippers than a reasonable person could use in 2 lifetimes.
Alt Focus: My Grandma once gave my brothers and I crackerjacks. Crackerjacks that were well beyond expiration and filled with roaches. She also gave us a crochet duck that you were meant to put jelly-beans and other candy in. You would squeeze its belly to get the candy out. Of course the hole was its ass. The poop-duck as it was affectionately known was actually the pinnacle of her gift giving. Focus: This is my first year in the real world and if I had money I would buy my friends some cool stuff, but since I am still relatively broke I think I am just going to go with the best beef jerky I have ever had
This year, I want a new iPod because, like an idiot, I left mine on the plane flying down here and didn't realize it until we were here 3 days. Now I'm stuck with terrestrial radio in my truck until 12/25. The wife want's a purse-pocketbook-bag-thingie--Coach, D&B or Louis Vitton. I'm going to a conference in San Marcos in a few weeks, and there's a big outlet mall there, so whichever one of those stores I find the first parking spot for is the brand she gets. She handles all the shopping for the kids.
The Wire: The Complete Series It's half off on amazon right now for 98.99. I'm hoping posting about it will distract me from buying it. not. working. shit.