Gifts & Gift Giving

I've never really thought about it before, but my husband brought something up today. Most of the Father's Day cards he was looking at talk about dad golfing, drinking a beer, sitting on a toilet, being lazy lounging in a recliner with a remote, or burning something on the grill. But when he shopped for Mother's Day cards last month, they never talked about mom being lazy or making fun of her. They were nice, talked about what an inspiration mom is, how much she does, how she deserves a special day, etc.

What kind of Father's Day cards did you buy this year...did you go for a funny, make-fun-of-dad card, or something a little nicer? :)

Only a few days away, so what are your plans for Father's Day??

We will definitely be going out to dinner somewhere nice within the next week...that's always a treat for special occassions!  I'm sure my husband will pick Logan's or Texas Roadhouse.  And my husband usually likes to GRILL something special on his day. And maybe a small little gift, since we just bought the Wii a couple weeks ago.  We agreed that was birthday, Christmas, Father's/Mother's Day for the next year :) 

My cousin in getting married in July and I was shopping for a bridal shower gift for her this morning.  It made me wonder, how many of you buy straight from the gift registry?  Or would you rather give your own gift or gift card/cash?

Personally, I always shop from the gift registry or give a gift card.  If they've registered, it must be something they want and think they will use.  A gift card isn't all that personal, but it can be used to buy up the rest of the registry items they didn't receive or other things they need. 

My 4 year old was invited to a birthday party for a boy in his preschool class. I don't really know the boy, and haven't heard my son mention him but figured that we would take him just for the "social experience". I don't have regular birthday parties for my kids every year to invite friends, partly because I don't want the hassle and expense of big parties for every birthday but also because I don't want them to expect lots of presents each year either. I don't know where we would possibly keep all the presents if they invited friends each year too. So I am not sure how much is appropriate to spend in this case. I know if it were me, I would encourage other parents that small inexpensive toys would be great (easier to find a place to put away). I was thinking maybe a small lego set in the $5-$10 range, and maybe a sheet of stickers or something like that.

What amount do you think is appropriate for a classmate?

I have bought all the candy that I want to give my kids for Easter and it is probably too much. However I need to find something else to complete their baskets. I don't like to buy the cheap trinket type toys that stores have for Easter because they end up collecting so many similar freebie toys from restaurants and other places too. So does anyone have any really good ideas for $5-$10 small toys for 4/7 year old for Easter baskets?

Valentine's is a month away.  Do you and hubby do gifts on Valentine's Day?  In the past, we've just done small things, but it seems like it is always more work than it's worth.  We have to find time to go out and shop by ourselves, it always ends up being a last minute thought anyway, so we just try to make it a special day without big gift giving.  We always do a nice card for each other, and maybe our favorite candy or something little.  We would rather take our money and go out for a nice dinner together anyway.  What about you, what are your thoughts on Valentine's gift giving?

I found this fabulous website called www.TheThingsIWant.com that keeps track of anything you want to add to a wish list from anywhere on the web with the click of one button on your browser. So say you are "computer window shopping" at the gap and see this awesome pair of jeans... boom, click on the jeans, then click the button on your tool bar and it is ADDED to your list. Then you go from the gap to say, toys r us... same thing. And so on and so forth. I have millions of sticky notes and even more "mental notes" about things I see here and there that I'd love to buy "later" so this will totally help keeping track as a wish list. And it will sure be helpful around Christmas time if you can get your hubbie to start clicking that button throughout the year so you can check out his wish later (or send him YOURS!). I thought it was totally cool and totally easy so I wanted to share it.

Best Wishes!

Aymee

What was your favorite gift you received for Christmas?  Anything that was really bad?  What about your kids....what were their favorites or least favorites?

My favorite was a lap desk!  Funny story actually....my husband and I bought each other the same exact gifts, and we didn't even ask for it!  We both got each other a lap desk, both from Staples and the same exact color.  At night, we both sit down with our laptops and we both thought we would be fighting over it, but turns out we both got one.  Lap desks...we are such geeks :)

It's hard to tell what Luke's favorite gift is.  He kept saying he wanted Santa to bring him a SpiderMan truck, but he really isn't playing with it much yet.  I'm sure he's just busy with all the other new toys.  His other favorites are all Shawn's new toys!  The worst gift Santa brought Luke was an Air Hog Helicopter.  What a piece of junk!  It broke within the first 30 minutes of playing with it. 

Shawn's favorite - the paper all the gifts were wrapped in. 

We went out today and picked up a few last minute gifts. I was surprised, the stores weren't all that bad. Lots of people, but it didn't seem alot were shopping...they were basically just in the way of those of us who were trying to finish up! :) Tomorrow, we will make a trip to Target to buy lots of batteries and anything else we forgot.

Do you have your shopping done, or do you still have to go out on Christmas Eve?

We are wrapping gifts tonight after the kids are in bed.  Then tomorrow night, "Santa" just has his items to get ready.

Do you have your gifts wrapped already?