XMAS- what you want/ask for vs what you get...

[cantflip]

I have expressed elsewhere how very bad I am at gift shopping. I have a huge aversion to buying some useless crap that nobody will use/want just to fulfill my obligation. The wife took over those duties long ago and everyone knows it. One year I bought a couple cases of Snap-On ratcheting screwdrivers for the male portion of the shopping list, expensive and valuable tools. The looks of disappointment and the few that I saw years later... still never used...wonder how many were thrown away.

I gave up on expecting anything, and the wife and I took to buying for ourselves years ago. So as the packages arrive...what did you receive or buy yourself that was really good or really bad?

 

[Xavi3r]

I do not expect anything. christmas is for me going to church, being with family and good food.
Now I am a grown up so I do not want gifts but I someone offers me screwdrivers I will be very happy !
Usually I receive thing that I never buy like perfumes and clothes and that is fine because it makes me saves money but the most important is the gesture.

Gift shopping is a very hard thing because it requires to really think of the poeple you want to buy gift and to imagine or remind what can really please them.
I give you a piece of advice : if you do not know what to buy, you can't be wrong with good food; something that people will not buy because it is expensive or not common to eat like hand made chocolate, good alcool, beers..
You can go in " geek shop " ( here this is shops specialised in video games and movie culture ) too you will find a lot of cool little thing in them and not very expensive.

 

[78Brougham]

Obviously, your male friends have no idea of the quality of Snapon tools and failed to recognize the thoughtfulness of such an expensive gift. If I were you, I would "De-gift". LOL.... every time you see one laying there, never even out of the box, slip it in your pocket. Then send it to one of your c-body buddies here, who will truly appreciate it them.

 

[cantflip]

I do not expect anything. christmas is for me going to church, being with family and good food.

Very nice advise, thank you. Not really the direction I was going for though. Don't know about France, but around here its easy to see Christmas as a retail holiday with a minor religious implication. I'm not all that cynical, but I also don't fully subscribe to organized religion. My grandparents have passed, they were the devout family members. There are no more small children on my shopping list. It has for us become a time to visit and work around the house on things the normal schedules don't allow.

I was more thinking of that wonderful thing you bought yourself or were surprised with. As well as the "ugly sweater" gifts.

 

[cantflip]

Obviously, your male friends have no idea of the quality of Snapon tools and failed to recognize the thoughtfulness of such an expensive gift. If I were you, I would "De-gift". LOL.... every time you see one laying there, never even out of the box, slip it in your pocket. Then send it to one of your c-body buddies here, who will truly appreciate it them.

The franchisees who buy the truck get bullied into buying "promotional sets" every month. Usually good selling items with poor selling items at deep discounts. They always gripe about the stuff they get screwed into buying... the guy I dealt with at the time didn't like the screwdriver kit he had just bought because of the ratcheting content... I told him get another one and I'll buy you out of both at cost... he was thrilled because he liked the rest of his package... I did pretty good too.

One even regifted back to me a few years later... still in the blister packaging...and he was a mechanic. I suppose he forgot where it came from.

 

[BIGBARNEYCARS]

Christmas 1969. Our Daughter iz Two going on five. Wife and I assembled girl toyz and sipped brandy into the wee hourz. Wife wakez my up way too early and sayz come down stairz. Daughter iz sitting in A Grumman Canoe in the middle of the living room floor with a big grin on her face and sayz Marry Christmas Daddy. My two most favorite women in the world and the younger one has now blessed us with a third and only Grand Daughter. Marry Christmas to you all on this FCBO site and may you all be so blessed, DammitJerry

 

[70bigblockdodge]

I make a list of car parts that I need for my projects, part numbers, where to get them, price.

 

[67-Fury]

I am a Scrooge, I Hate Holidays.

 

[LocuMob]

I don't quite hate the holidays, I just hate all the expected bs that goes with them. I like seeing friends and family and having good times reminiscing, I just don't like unneeded expectations that people add to this time of year.

 

[Fury440]

The adults of my family decided a bunch of years ago to only buy gifts for the children and their immediate spouses. This works well, I have 4 grand kids to shop for and a visit to Kids-R-Us usually does the job. My wife is a different story, I ask her what she wants and she says nothing. Of course I'm no better. The problem is we are both "sale" shoppers and anything we have on our personal want list gets bought. This leads to some silly situations, back around 2011 my wife got into sandblasting Fury parts, so I bought her a big sand blasting cabinet. Unfortunately our little air compressor couldn't keep up, so Christmas 2012 i bought her a huge air compressor and she bought me a furnace for my garage. Then shortly after, March 2013 she decided we needed a new house. I didn't fight too much, I would loose my woodworking shop, but I'd gain a triple car heated garage. As it turned out, I discovered Paul and all the Fury bits and pieces went to Idaho for restoration. My garage is now 1/3 Fury, 1/3 woodworking and 1/3 Jeep. I gifted myself 220 wiring for the garage and for the first time in 2014 the compressor was running. Unfortunately, the sand blaster doesn't work worth a damn, won't feed the sand. Not a big deal since the Fury is all done and I'm probably too lazy to sand blast the extra Fury parts I have stashed all over the place. The compressor earns it's keep blowing out the yard irrigation system. Silly as that sounds, at current rates, the compressor pays for itself after only three years.

Anyhow, look after the children. Don't but stupid crap, buy stuff that will stretch their minds, get them thinking. They are our future so give them every advantage possible. Spouses, on the other hand, will never tell you what they really want so get them something off the wall that you can both laugh about until you cry. Of course it doesn't hurt to buy diamonds every once and awhile. Diamonds are like marital duct tape. LOL

I'm not an expert, there is no such thing when it comes to women, but I am a survivor. This July I'll have reached 50 years of marital bliss and should have 5 grand children to spoil. Life is grand. By the way I have decided to drive the Fury until the wheels fall off, so if you come across a dead Fury on the side of the road, please stop! LOL

Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year!!!

 

[cantflip]

The wife hardly ever asks any more... she knows the answer...
She also knows she doesn't have to go to any extravagant lengths... okay is all the foreplay required...
If only women were so easy to make happy...

 

[thrashingcows]

I make a list of car parts that I need for my projects, part numbers, where to get them, price.

I do this as well....make it very simple for them to find what I want/need. I always get that perplexed look when I open a present and it's just one small tool or item...and I'm friggin ecstatic! :toothy9:

 

[67-Fury]

The wife hardly ever asks any more... she knows the answer...BJ...
She also knows she doesn't have to go to any extravagant lengths... okay is all the foreplay required...
If only women were so easy to make happy...

Man you got it made. Sitting on your *** looking for C-bodys, Getting Blow Jobs. You are my new Hero lol.

 

[cantflip]

Man you got it made. Sitting on your *** looking for C-bodys, Getting BJ. You are my new Hero lol.

Chose wisely... I may not be hero material.

 

[commando1]

Man you got it made.

Don't listen to him.

 

[67-Fury]

Don't listen to him.

Yes Sir....(Sorry Catnip)

 

[69CoronetRT]

...what did you receive or buy yourself that was really good or really bad?

I'm a college football fan. This year my wife and I treated ourselves to a trip to Las Vegas for the BYU/Utah bowl game. It was nice to get to get away for a couple of days to a place that was, somewhat, warmer.

 

[Mopar outlaw]

Merry X-mas !!!!

 

[shooter65]

I've stated in a separate thread that I'm lucky because my wife and I gave up on buying for each other years ago. The reason for her was she didn't enjoy buying for me because I would give her specific Make, Model, Brand, SKU numbers of the items I wanted so she felt there was no surprise.

The reason for me was that we would go shopping and she would take me to several stores where she would show me clothes that she liked. Later that day we would split up and I'd go back to the same stores and the evil rat bastards had moved the racks around so I couldn't find what she showed me. She didn't believe me at first until I showed her. I was done after that.

We only buy for nieces and nephews until they graduate collage or take a full time job if they choose not to go to collage. If they don't give us specific items to buy and from where, they get a visa gift card or cash.

 

[Ripinator]

The wife hardly ever asks any more... she knows the answer...BJ...
She also knows she doesn't have to go to any extravagant lengths... okay is all the foreplay required...
If only women were so easy to make happy...

Uh. . . TMI. . .