| Ever Get Things You Don't Want For Christmas?
Posted: 12/27/2007 10:51:17 PM | You have good taste, Mystic Magic - do you wear Bvlgari Femme? My friend wears it on her hair - smells great!
When my sis was married, she and her hub would return everything. And it's not like we gave them crap - they just shopped for something else. So rude - with people like that you just hand them the cash. | |
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| Ever Get Things You Don't Want For Christmas?
Posted: 12/27/2007 11:29:18 PM | What you're missing, OP, is that it is the spirit of giving that matters, not what you get. Be gracious and allow the person to delight in giving. Allowing them that is your return gift to them — and the fact that you were remembered should be the gift that matters the most to you.
It could be worse. Believe me.
I know that. It's become a cliche that's been burned into my memory.
I get all that Spirit of Giving stuff. But jeez, who here likes getting things they don't want? But especially when it happens like every year?
Ladies, if your man bought you a Black and Decker Bandsaw or such thing every year, wouldn't it irk you?
Guys, if your gal bought you a blender or some frilly pirate shirt every year? Wouldn't it bug you?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's the thought that counts, but if you're letting people know what you want, and they aren't bothering, there's no thought there right? When it happens year after year with the same people, you have to wonder. You wonder if they delight in it, or are just going through the motions, giving a gift because they feel they have to and not because they want to. I don't want gift-giving to be a chore for people.
See, this is why I try to not to say anything. You bring it up, and then a guilt trip follows.
This is why I always try to get people something I know they want. :)
To me screwing up giftwise all the time makes that Holiday spirit dissipate. I end up not looking forward to it.
I don't care about how much money is spent. I don't care about how big the present is of how fancy of anything like that. It's why I have an amazon.com wish list. I show it to people. I make it hard not to screw up. And it's not like I'm asking for bizarre things like chainsaws or ponys or Big Wheels or uzis. I don't want a Corvette. I'm not expecting a Honus Wagner card under the tree. | |
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| Ever Get Things You Don't Want For Christmas?
Posted: 12/27/2007 11:41:28 PM | t's why I have an amazon.com wish list. I show it to people. I make it hard not to screw up. And it's not like I'm asking for bizarre things like chainsaws or ponys or Big Wheels or uzis. I don't want a Corvette. I'm not expecting a Honus Wagner card under the tree.
Yeah but... Ever gotten nothing?
Be happy. That's all.
The thought DOES count and it's never more apparent than when you have been on the receiving end of no thought at all. | |
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| Ever Get Things You Don't Want For Christmas?
Posted: 12/29/2007 5:36:21 AM | Herding Cats-One year I thought they forgot my birthday, and I was actually happy. :) But then...they remembered. 
But that's the thing, I feel like I am on the recieving end of "no thought at all."
Again, I'm over it, and we had a talk as well. They could tell that I was bummed out. So some things are being exchanged.
Sounds like they're a bit thick, iwarrior
Ever give them the gifts they gave you from the year before?
Here's the thing.
Mom likes to SURPRISE! That's what it is with her. She says that she doesn't go by my list because then I won't be surprised. That's her line of thinking. Plus SHE wants to get me what SHE wants me to have. But what she doesn't realizes is that I might not want what she wants to give me.
My dad on the other hand, often has what I call an "angle." HE gets me what HE wants to have. He'll push for it.
Like fer instance, one year, when I was in my teens, he kept bringing up getting a drum kit.
"How 'bout a drum kit, kid? Huh? You'd like it!"
Well, I'm not that interested in playing drums.
Turns out, HE wanted a drum kit.
Just like he wanted boots this year. He's a boot fanatic. He figured that if he got me a pair of boots, and I didn't want 'em, he'd keep them.
Well, here's another example. Back when I was a kid, and I had a Nintendo, they would get me games that THEY wanted to play, not ones I necessarily wanted. In fact, they'd complain if I got games on my own that they didn't want to play. They'd make a case for it and try to sell me on it.
I hate to say it, but I think they're kind of selfish. Which I think is part of it.
Btw, they don't always screw up either. It depends. I think some years, they just don't feel like bothering too much. Or it depends on how they feel about me. There were years where I wasn't their fave son and others where they thought the world of me. It's all in their whims, and they don't realize how it bums me out. Sometimes they appreciate me, sometimes they don't.
And I do enjoy giving gifts. I actually wish I could give people even more than I can afford. Especially my parents. I would give them all the money in the world if I could. | |
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| Ever Get Things You Don't Want For Christmas?
Posted: 12/29/2007 6:34:01 AM | I have a yard sale every year to thin out my tie and socks collection! Heck! I only wear a tie once a year! and hankies??? Dang! I have a drawer full of them! Every color of the rainbow! I'd have to have a cold every day of the year to use them all!
anybody want a used hankie??  | |
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Mulva
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Joined: 12/28/2007
Msg: 32 | |
| Ever Get Things You Don't Want For Christmas?
Posted: 1/1/2008 1:47:05 AM | That's too bad, iwarrior (this is the poster former known as Lotus_Flower) 
I get such good deals when I shop at ebay and Amazon that I feel I have all I need | |
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| Ever Get Things You Don't Want For Christmas?
Posted: 1/1/2008 4:59:55 AM | I still think it's pathetic to complain.
When you get NOTHING you'll understand why.
Mom likes to SURPRISE! That's what it is with her. She says that she doesn't go by my list because then I won't be surprised. That's her line of thinking. Plus SHE wants to get me what SHE wants me to have. But what she doesn't realizes is that I might not want what she wants to give me.
My dad on the other hand, often has what I call an "angle." HE gets me what HE wants to have. He'll push for it.
One day they'll be gone. And you will look back and wish that they were around to give you the things you didn't want for Christmas.
I can't believe that at your age you haven't realized that already. | |
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| Ever Get Things You Don't Want For Christmas?
Posted: 1/1/2008 10:37:06 AM | I agree with Herding Cats.
My mother use to get me some of the weirdest things. I believe it was the Christmas I was unwrapping a bizarre purse she had given me that it clicked how precious and wonderful it was to be loved by her. She blurted out, “I think it’s genuine toad skin!” I laughed with such joy at that odd declaration, and I realized right then and there how much she loved me and that ugly purse transformed into a Dooney & Burke in my eyes. She saw the delight on my face and commented, “I always know what you love.”
Yes, she did, and it had nothing to do with “toad skin”. I loved being thought of, remembered and adored in the “special way” befitting her personality. From that day forward, I never thought “what were they thinking” when someone I loved gave me a gift. I never exchange gifts for “something better”, because there is nothing better than the thought of someone rummaging through Sears, Macy’s or Target and thinking of me; trying their hardest to get “the perfect thing” to put a smile on my face (little do they know that THEY are the perfect thing to put a smile on my face). How could I possibly find disappointment in such an errand of thoughtfulness? The gift wasn’t the item in the pretty package; it was the gift of placing me in their thoughts as they went about their mission of love. The purse, a silly coffee mug, an “inside-the-egg-shell-scrambler” or what have you, are the manifestations of their thoughtfulness and love into physical form. They are “I love you” trophies; who could exchange that?
My mother and father are both gone now. I’ve uprooted my life to return to where I grew up. I haven’t had any gifts for the past three Christmases. What I wouldn’t give to be in someone’s thoughts again or to show them they are in mine.
QUIT YOUR WHINING!
P.S. - Happy New Year! | |
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| Ever Get Things You Don't Want For Christmas?
Posted: 1/1/2008 11:03:12 AM | This was possibly the worst year ever. Family drama and squabbling is one thing, but I got a few good gifts!
1. Got dumped 
2. A passport Wallet?? 
3. Call a whore by my folks 
4. A book on success... 
Truthfully, when asked what I want, I usually say nothing, Im self sufficient now. This year I asked for a Hoodie...
*shurg*  I guess I must of pissed everyone off. On the bright side, I bought myself a Digital SLR, a new computer and a hoodie. LOL | |
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| Ever Get Things You Don't Want For Christmas?
Posted: 1/1/2008 6:28:45 PM | Herding Cats-I wasn't being entirely serious. I think I stated that. It's not as if I am still stewing over it. Reading some of the other posts here made me realize that it could have been worse. Don't lecture me about how I will miss my parents when they are gone. That's a given. They just get on my nerves from time to time, and the holidays are no exception. I love my folks, but they can get under the skin. I didn't start this thread to be browbeaten. Ok? It's one of those things that irk you yet are funny when you look back on it years later. Humorists have a field day with it. I was just being honest and wanted to see if others had this happen to them and how they dealt with it. Ok?
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| Ever Get Things You Don't Want For Christmas?
Posted: 1/4/2008 2:57:49 PM | No, I always get good stuff. Because I'm easy to please, and appreciate the gesture and love that someone went out and shopped for ME, thought of ME enough to shop for ME. And guess what? Because I appreciate the gifts people give me, people LOVE to give me gifts!!
Woo hoo, ME!! | |
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| Ever Get Things You Don't Want For Christmas?
Posted: 1/4/2008 7:46:03 PM | People who know me well enough to give me a Christmas gift always seem to make the greatest selections...My daughter sent me a BIG ostrich egg from British Columbia, where she relocated this summer...I think it is really unique and she knows I like things that are different and that I have more than enough of everything I need..it will be a great conversational piece. My other daughter sent me airline tickets to visit her since her fiance is a pharmaceutical rep and has earned a million reward miles (well it seems that way anyway)....
Now my friends are different story: one of my best friends sent me red "johnny suit I think it is called", with the drop down flap in the back...he knows I complain of being cold all the time...another sent me a full-body leotard with a man's body painted it one it showing the back side of a male if you are looking at it on me (she wanted me to feel the warmth of a man every day and she knows I work out everyday)...I also received a singing toothbrush from another friend that chimes the music to Mr. Roger's theme song, "It's a Wonderful Day in the Neighborhood"....what fun they were to open AND use...Another male friend who I have known from college bought me 10 pairs of warm socks because I always complain about how cold my feet are in winter...they have the days of the week on the bottom of each pair so I know what pair to wear...I love to laugh and that is the real joy that I received this Christmas.... | |
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| Ever Get Things You Don't Want For Christmas?
Posted: 1/4/2008 8:07:35 PM | okay.. may i put this in my perspective, ? Would you like your July birthday present wrapped in Christmas paper, with a Christmas Card and a Pointsettia Cake? Yes.. my birthday is in Dec.. and yes.. I hate that people do it... but am I glad when someone remembers me at that oh, so, commercialized time of year? Heck, yeah! nuff said, i think :)  | |
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| Ever Get Things You Don't Want For Christmas?
Posted: 1/5/2008 10:45:58 AM |
okay.. may i put this in my perspective, ? Would you like your July birthday present wrapped in Christmas paper, with a Christmas Card and a Pointsettia Cake? Yes.. my birthday is in Dec..
That must of been fun when you were a kid, double the gifts. | |
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| Ever Get Things You Don't Want For Christmas?
Posted: 1/5/2008 10:52:25 AM | OMG! Mine's in January and it's bad enough. All my LIFE everyone's broke and hungover from Christmas. I'm ecstatic if they remember me the following month, three weeks later.
I keep campaigning to move my Bday to August. | |
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| Ever Get Things You Don't Want For Christmas?
Posted: 1/5/2008 10:59:44 AM | Ha ha........funny thread. I actually got a sandwich maker from my oldest son........who is away at college. He was so excited to have me open it. I used it the next day to make him a few breakfast sandwiches. Didn't dare let him know that I have one already in my basement covered in dust. | |
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| Ever Get Things You Don't Want For Christmas?
Posted: 1/5/2008 11:13:34 AM | | My Sister's birthday is three days before Christmas....but my parents made it a priority to make sure we celebrated her birthday as her birthday...She always had a birthday party, presents were wrapped in birthday paper...and her birthday gift was never one she mentioned on her Christmas "wish list"....It was so much fun....especially because everyone was kind of in that happy frame of mind around the holidays....so now, I make sure that I send her a birthday gift every year and a few year's ago, I even had a singing deliverman sing her Happy Birthday when she answered the door.... | |
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| Ever Get Things You Don't Want For Christmas?
Posted: 1/5/2008 3:01:00 PM | Thanks for the replies. You've all given me a lot to think about and have forced me to put things in perspective. I love my parents dearly, but...talcum powder?
Herding Cats-I apologize for getting an attitude with you. Looking back on my posts, I can see how I might have come off as being an ungrateful jerk. My parents are good people. I should be thankful for them considering how many other people I've known who had parents that couldn't have cared less about them. And as you and others have stated, I should keep in mind those who didn't get anything.
They're just imperfect, and I keep forgetting that. They mess up at times. Lord knows I've screwed up and given them grey hairs throughout my childhood.
Bottom line. Parents and family can be goofy. But they're your blood. What are ya gonna do? Besides it's water under the bridge now. | |
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| Ever Get Things You Don't Want For Christmas?
Posted: 1/5/2008 8:09:56 PM | I used to get some pretty awful gifts, but a cool "dear Abby" column over 20 years ago helped
solve my problem.If someone has a difficult time picking gifts for me, I make them a list with at
least 5 items on it. This way they can buy me a gift that they know I will really like & be able to
use, but since I won't know which item on the list they've chosen, it's still somewhat of a surprise.
For myself, if I don't know what to get someone, there are 2 fairly fool-proof possibilities. A calendar,
or coffee mugs (I fill them with chocolates!) Cute, fun, useful & inexpensive!
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| Ever Get Things You Don't Want For Christmas?
Posted: 1/5/2008 9:18:29 PM | | I got a kidney infection once that lasted through New Years. Couldn't cheer in the night with real alcohol. Wizzed painfully on by midnight. I've grown up since then. | |
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| Ever Get Things You Don't Want For Christmas?
Posted: 1/6/2008 3:28:35 AM | | I love to get those unexpected gifts...you know the kind...the ones that when you open, you stand with your mouth agape as you examine it and say, "what in world were they thinking".....but then all of a sudden you 'get it'....they brought a smile to your face or a laugh from deep down....and that is the true "gift" of the present... | |
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