Sunday, November 8, 2009

Christmas Angst, it's only just beginning

I'm a terrible gift giver. Terrible gift givers hate the stress of Christmas. Why not just give everyone you know gift cards when you're a terrible gift giver? I would if I could. Oh man, I wish it was that easy. Or better yet, not exchanging gifts. That would be awesome. However, I've been down the road and have been burnt. Make a pinky swear pact to not exchange gifts, and then the stupid bugger arrives with a gift. Oooooooh, that irks me!

3 nephews and niece that live overseas: They're getting money. It costs a ton to mail them anything, plus I don't know what they like since we never see them. I've asked for Christmas lists in the past, and I get so confused. The older boys like Japanese toys that I can never make heads or tails of, the little girl likes My Little Pony stuff. But when I buy any of it, I never know if they already have that specific thing. Sometimes their mom has clothes on their lists, but kids hate getting clothes & I don't know their tastes. Money is just easier.

2 nephews who live up north: Since we're likely to exchange gifts with them, even if it ends up being in March, I'll get them toys or games. Usually on Black Friday I can find something age-appropriate for them.

In-laws: I dunno. We've made a pact to not give gifts this year, but they'll send Julia (and very likely us) gifts, so we feel we need to send them something. (And, no, we didn't end up offering to pay their airline tickets. We mentioned it to BIL, and he said immediately, "Well, who would get them for Christmas?" As if they are a prize, and frankly we don't have enough energy to deal with him. So we quickly retracted our proposal before we created more drama than we solved.)

My mom and her husband: I dunno.

My dear husband: He has one thing on his Christmas list. He wants a notebook that folds open and has a clipboard on one side and a pad of paper on the other. Yes, folks, he wants an OFFICE SUPPLY. Anything else, I ask? Nope. This gives me a headache. What does he want in addition to this? If there is nothing else he honestly wants, I feel crappy if I give him an office supply and some token stocking stuffers (shaving cream, anyone?) for Christmas. Yeah, yeah, the spirit of the season and all that, not gifts, but an office supply as your only gift????

Julia: I don't have any great ideas for her either. I was thinking maybe a toy cash register or a play garage/town thing. I'm sure I can snag something on Black Friday. She'll be easy this year. This might be the last year she's easy to buy for, so I should appreciate it.

Daycare: I was thinking of a nice gift for Julia's primary teacher and then a cookie platter for the other providers to share. Actually, Julia's teacher will be easy because I'll ask the center director (the teacher's aunt) for ideas. So I can crank that one out very easily. Thank goodness.

S's siblings: I dunno. Hopefully we won't exchange gifts.

What do I want: nothing. Except hubby already told me he found me a gift. Great, that adds the pressure to finding him a gift that's something other than an office supply. Yeah, of course me the terrible gift giver would marry the type of guy who has bought Christmas presents by November.

I would give him the tasks of getting all the Christmas gifts except that I know he sucks in getting gifts for his family. And his family are most of the gift recipients.

Lesson of the day: Marry someone who doesn't have many people in their family.

4 comments:

Melissa said...

cracking me up.
Okay, so Julia makes this so much easier. Pictures, calendars with her pics for the inlaws, etc.
Wal-Mart.com has a thing where you can turn her pic into a necktie. My dad LOVES those darn things!

Melissa said...

oh! And does Julia have a play kitchen?? Audrey loves hers.

Scrapping in Circles said...

Gift giving is not my specialty either. I actually have my dh do most the shopping for his side of the family. I don't see why you don't just have S do it for his?

B said...

Melissa, we've done the cheesy pics on stuff. Can we keep doing that, year after year after year??? Right now we don't have much space for a play kitchen, but hmmmm...does have some appeal!

N, S isn't the most budget conscious shopper. And he doesn't have any ideas either. Oh well, I suppose we'll figure it out! :)