As I’ve gotten older my wish list for Christmas has changed. Has yours? Elegante Mother would still like to have a fire engine red sexy convertible and a handsome young man to chauffeur her around. My “wants” are usually simpler. I don’t need or want a fur coat. Dear Husband used to give me a burgundy scarf and mittens every year, and I haven’t quite worn out the last two. (I rather miss those gifts.) I have a perfectly good car that gets me where I am going, so I don’t need to follow EM’s footsteps. There are a few things I’d like to have that I need to buy for myself, and other than that, DVDs, CDs, books and gift certificates to my favorite quilt fabric shop make up my list.
This year I received “Wall-E,” “No Country for Old Men,” “Bucket List” and the fourth episode of the Indiana Jones story. I also have my first Michael Buble CD and the Josh Groban Christmas CD. I’m a happy camper!
The big item that I need to shop for on my own? Two, actually. One is a new sewing machine, and the other is a long-arm quilting machine. I need to try out different models so that I can choose the one I’d like to use. I hope to buy them before we retire. I’d also like to purchase the cabinetry to set up the sewing machine. Right now I sew at a Samsonite table, and it’s a bit crowded.
We used to say of my father that anything he wanted that he didn’t already have we couldn’t afford to get for him, and I may have hit that point in my life. There’s an exception, though. My youngest sister and her husband gave me earrings and a necklace this year that are gorgeous. She managed to find stones that incorporate my favorite colors and added an elegant silver necklace. They weren’t on my list, but I’m delighted to have them.
Perhaps we should stop with the wish lists, and just let people give us gifts of their own choosing. What do you think?
Arrrgh!!!
It's just my state of mind!
I think, and what I do is nothing as far as gift exchange. Gave it up years ago along with sending cards. I get a few cards but since I quit sending I stopped getting. Funny!
I still get something for our son’s birthday/Christmas and suspect I always will. I’m never disappointed like I use to be when I bought something that needed to be exchanged or I sensed it was not something the other person cared for. Many times what I expected wasn’t what I got and felt neglected and unloved. Those feelings are gone, never to return.
I believe most go a wee bit overboard during the holidays, creating a spirit of unrest for themselves and their loved ones to compete to keep it even. People get stressed and pushy in the stores, trying to find that perfect gift. The only perfect gift is love and you don’t find that wrapped in holiday paper.
WE don’t make lists any more – haven’t for several years. Family knows that thins such as longjohns and sweatshirts are always welcome for WS, and me, I usually can’t think of anything (when push came to shove last year, I came up with 1 cup measuring utensils).
WS and I buy each other cards. Okay, this year I got him a copy of MS Outlook for his computer – something I would have gotten him anyway, it just happened to get here on 12/24. But usually, we find somethingwe want (or need) shortly before Christmas, buy it for ourselves, and call it a Christmas gift.
If someone chooses to get us something, great – if not, that’s great too; we are happy with a card. We usually don’t get gifts for others; we send them homemade goodies (salsa and jams) and/or NH maple syrup.
Buffy,
In our family was are all people with such strong personal likes and dislikes that we tend to provide each other with a wish list of what we would like so each can chose what, if anything, off the list they will buy. For myself I find that there are very few “Big” things that I want nowadays.
I work on the priciple that presents are for fun and pleasure and nothing to do with having a perfact Christmas – which I always see as a time when the family is around. And there’s lots of food everyone likes.
For Christmas I received some DVDs as well. And, guess what! I too received Wall-E and the fourth Indiana Jones. I love the gung-ho boys own adventure style of the Indiana Jones and the Wall-E is wonderful, I absolutely loved it. I’ve also seen the “Bucket List” just before Christmas and it made me cry buckets. The other DVD I don’t know – is it any good?
Janeywan, I’d much rather give a gift during the year because I’ve found something I’m fairly confident the recipient would like to have, rather than buying a gift because it’s the season to do so. I shop infrequently, and the stress of trying to find the “perfect” gift can ruin the holiday. I’m delighted to see that aspect of Christmas changing among the members of my family. We still give to the younger ones, especially to our granddaughters, and Dear Husband’s children.
Bogie, I wish more of us did home made gifts. I’ve been working on quilted purses for my youngest nieces and a tote bag for their mother, but for the most part quilted items take so long to make that I can’t do them for the entire family. But maple syrup, salsa, homemade breads or specialty desserts would be a welcome gift. Like you, I have trouble coming up with a wish list, so I resort to DVDs or books. I’ve finally found a few things for Dear Husband, but I’ll blog about that next week.
Adele, I’m not surprised that you and I received similar gifts this year! We seem to be in tune in so many ways that it makes me grin to find one more similarity. I’ve seen the beginning and ending of Wall-E, but I need to sit down to see what happens between his leaving earth, and the captain of the ship turning on manual drive.
I haven’t seen No Country For Old Men yet. It sounds dark, something to do with drug runners. I’ll let you know what I think of it once I’ve seen it. Thanks for the warning about Bucket List. I’ll have tissues nearby.
Wish lists came to us from DH and his children. He encouraged the kids to make wish lists when they were young, and encouraged them to WISH BIG, with the understanding that they weren’t likely to get the big ticket items. They still do the lists, which are mostly music, book and game related for the guys.
Buffy–As the happy recipient of a lot of homemade goodies from Bogie, over the years, I can attest to the quality of her products. While she presented her listing with an “or”, her giftings are usually with an “and”. So far, we’ve only opened one jar of 2008’s goodies (a pear butter); but, it is luscious!