When it comes to a gift for my wife... I receive an EPIC FAIL!

[shecky]

Zym's silence on the matter may be an indication of how things went.

Of course, I hope differently.

 

[jmendez29]

Maybe he got grounded from HBT?

 

[Zymurgrafi]

Oh, sorry folks. Yeah, you could have asked me a week ago! We only celebrate the winter solstice so we exchanged gifts last Sunday.

No weeping for joy but I did okay. She of course still gave the better gifts imo, but I did alright.

I gave her a marble bookplate/envelope applicator, and a certificate for a reprint of some custom bookplates I had carved and printed for her on another occasion. A couple of puzzle books (one suduko and one new type of logic puzzle she has not tried) and a set nice flannel PJ's. Yeah nothing too romantic but she was happy.

I got socks and underwear!

Wicked cool hand tie-dyed obnoxious socks and underwear! I am a happy guy. :fro:

My wife is awesome!!!

All is well. Plus I got some great ideas for the future.

 

[NZGirl]

Yay, I love a happy ending... well done... your gifts were great!

 

[Penguin]

Epic Christmas Win here.

got her this
Tiffany & Co. | Item | Tiffany 1837™ interlocking circles lariat in sterling silver. | United States

 

[TheJadedDog]

I completely suck at the gifts too and this year was worse than most. We had agreed not to get each other anything because we recently bought new sofas (and they were not cheap) so that was going to be our gift for the year. Then she goes out and buys me 4 or 5 "small" things. This means now I have to go buy something, and fast. Luckily I went on a business trip to South Africa and scored a really nice throw blanket (since I at least know she has a thing for African textiles, but I only know that because she recently went to a museum exhibit on them). If it had not been for that trip her biggest gift from me would have been a DVD.

What did work for us in the past was that she circled literally everything she liked in Tiffany's permanent collection, that got me through 2 years of birthdays, anniversaries, christmases, and valentines. This year is our 10 year anniversary though and I am epically screwed.

 

[conpewter]

A lot of great ideas here! My wife gave me a magazine with things circled etc. Turned out that they were out of most of it, so I had to do the great internet search of 2008 to find it all, but did get lots of cute things besides her main presents (She loves anything musical, so I'm lucky in that regard)

Now I need to set up my amazon wishlist like you all have so that she can point relatives to that instead of me getting several home depot gift cards, which is nice, but can be a little bit of a letdown. I really prefer to get something personal than a gift card (especially from her).

 

[conpewter]

Tis the season to bump this thread, I still think there are good ideas here

 

[IrregularPulse]

Me and this wife just do stockings and then a big gift together. This year is a wine fridge for the new bar build.
She does not have any hobbies either. She took her one hobby (art) and made it her job (teacher). Only thing she wants this year is a couch. I tried, but her stocking is too small.

 

[zman]

I have been paying attention almost all year. Just thick I guess.

What about a gift cert to a day spa. They usually have various packages available

 

[david_42]

I have an odd problem. Kellie works for a jewelery store. I mentioned that I might buy her "wedding knot" earrings to match her wedding ring. No dice! She can get them at cost + 10%, but she has to pay for them. (Hint: that's about 1/3 retail) Maybe I'll get a small inflatable spa to tide us over until we can build an in-ground unit. Or maybe I'll have her buy the earrings, pay her back and pretend it's a surprise.

On the other hand, we close on a monster house next week. She's never owned a house before.

 

[conpewter]

Hmmm massage gift certificate and PJs it is I think. We'll see what else Target has, maybe the cashmere socks too.

 

[Germelli1]

Luckily I just broke up with my girlfriend...I say luckily because her birthday is during the holidays as well .

But I am very good with thinking of creative and thoughtful gifts.

Last year for her birthday I took her snowboarding and *tried* to teach her. It was an expensive gift for my college student budget. I needed something cheap for christmas a few days later.

Realizing this before hand I spent a few weeks making her an ornament for christmas...cheap, thoughtful and has made every girl who has seen it jealous.

I cut a picture of us in the shape of the country she studied abroad at the previous summer, glued it back to back with the same size map (Highlighting the areas she lived at), then suspended it with fishing line inside the ornament so it "floated" insize the orb.

Then I threw in a little glitter/winter-themed-confetti and little momentos from milestones in our relationship like: a tiny wine cork from the VA tasting tour we went on, a bent-in-half-beer bottle cap from a brewery tour, and a ton of other little things that I could fit in a clear round ornament.

 

[Germelli1]

ps, sorry for the typos, the light circuit tripped at work so I cant seee my keyboard haha

 

[the_bird]

ps, sorry for the typos, the light circuit tripped at work so I cant seee my keyboard haha

... perhaps if you still had a girlfriend, she would have bought you one of these...

 

[Germelli1]

Ok I moved out of the barn office and am in the equestrian office...with LIGHT! Time to edit

 

[Bedlam]

Luckily I just broke up with my girlfriend...I say luckily because her birthday is during the holidays as well .

But I am very good with thinking of creative and thoughtful gifts.

Last year for her birthday I took her snowboarding and *tried* to teach her. It was an expensive gift for my college student budget. I needed something cheap for christmas a few days later.

Realizing this before hand I spent a few weeks making her an ornament for christmas...cheap, thoughtful and has made every girl who has seen it jealous.

I cut a picture of us in the shape of the country she studied abroad at the previous summer, glued it back to back with the same size map (Highlighting the areas she lived at), then suspended it with fishing line inside the ornament so it "floated" insize the orb.

Then I threw in a little glitter/winter-themed-confetti and little momentos from milestones in our relationship like: a tiny wine cork from the VA tasting tour we went on, a bent-in-half-beer bottle cap from a brewery tour, and a ton of other little things that I could fit in a clear round ornament.

ummm...WOW! That is fantastic. What a thoughtful (and cheap!) gift idea.

 

[Bigeb]

My wife swears that the best gift I got her was a Dyson vacuum cleaner. Either I really suck at gifts or she's crazy.

 

[IrregularPulse]

My wife swears that the best gift I got her was a Dyson vacuum cleaner. Either I really suck at gifts or she's crazy.

My wife too does not follow the norm. If I gave her a Dyson she's freak! In a good way. But no, I'm not paying that much for a sweeper.

 

[jgln]

My wife swears that the best gift I got her was a Dyson vacuum cleaner. Either I really suck at gifts or she's crazy.

Makes you wonder just what that thing can do huh?

 

[david_42]

Dysons are amazing. Kellie already owns one. I didn't believe the hype, but I've run the Dryson over a carpet that I vacuumed with my Optimus. Got a huge amount of crud. I also like the bagless feature, as I cannot get bags for my Optimus and will have to junk it when the last bag is used. Can't find any other bag that fits.

 

[Mischief_Brewing]

My SWMBO tells me what she wants, and I usually don't mess that up. I cannot surprise her for the life of me anyway, she's way too nosy and I'm a terrible liar, at least to her...

This year, she wants her own pool cue. On top of that, I'm going to get her a gift cert to pearl paint so she can start painting again as a surprise, but she'll probably find out before the 24th...

 

[jgln]

Well we can't afford to buy each other expensive cars like on TV but every year I pretty much buy her one "big" gift ($200ish) and then I can't help but buy her a bunch of those seasonal socks you see with x-mas trees, candy canes, etc on them. She hasn't complained except when they are too high, not low cut. I then go to the grocery store and buy all kinds of fruits, berries, nuts, seeds, cheeses, cured meats, cans of sardines and such, beef jerky and whatever else I can think of and fill two large stockings with it all. Usually comes to $150-$200 believe it or not. She has actually said this is always one of her favorite gifts each year.

I just got laid off though with my last day New Years Eve (yeah!!!) so we won't be spending even that much this year.

 

[jgln]

Mine has always liked looking for stuff washed up on the beach, on the side of the road, in the woods etc and she always said she thought a metal detector would be neat so I brought her fairly decent one. To this day the only thing she found was the nails in the floor of our living room.

 

[klyph]

My wife's a caffeine junky so a coffee related gadget is always my fall back if I can't think of anything else.

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

Dysons are amazing. Kellie already owns one. I didn't believe the hype, but I've run the Dryson over a carpet that I vacuumed with my Optimus. Got a huge amount of crud. I also like the bagless feature, as I cannot get bags for my Optimus and will have to junk it when the last bag is used. Can't find any other bag that fits.

I feel the same way about Eden Pure heaters. When we got one I was very sceptical (Fu#K the spellchecker, I spell that with a C)

They are GREAT! Economic, efficient, safe and small for the effect they have.

Just the other day I watched one of their infomercials just out of curiosity as we already have one. It was really strange, I was watching the kind of thing I normally avoid like the plague and heard myself actually agreeing with ALL the "Customer testimonies"

I just hate when my marketing prejudices are proven unfounded!

 

[floyd242]

http://www.etsy.com/

A good place to find one of a kind and handcrafted items. I got most of my small gifts this year from etsy.

 

[clamflats]

it sounds like she is setting you up to fail. if she cant tell you what she wants then she should be happy with what you get her. my x and i agreed what we would spend total then we would get our own presents. yeh iknow its not all that romantic but we got wht we wanted and didnt waste time and money. on top of that her family was amazed how we were able to pick the right presents. it took them 15 years to figure it out and when they did i was told it was cheating but very smart

 

[fineexampl]

always.. always..ask her what she wants. example...my wife wants opal earrings. i just asked her.

 

[passedpawn]

Some advice from a 24-year veteran who has made all the mistakes:

For Christmas, don't buy appliances. No sweepers, powered self-cleaning catboxes, mixers. Girls want to be pampered now. So, here's some winners from my past (I've also tried sweepers and catboxes):

• Jewelry is tough. They rarely have a problem with the gem; it's the setting that they don't like. Consider going to a small jewelry shop and just buying gems. They will have some loose gems, and they can get more (they get them on consignment). Give her the gems, in a box, then let her pick out the setting. I.e., I picked out the most purple tanzanite stones, then my wife got to choose some loopy earing settings. the jewelry store was happy to set them. She cried (yes, it's true). I've done the same with diamonds.
• Pamper time. Find a nice day spa and buy her her a day there. They usually include foot massage, painting toenails, and a bunch of other girly stuff I that I have no idea about. Now, here's the catch: you need to contact her best friend's husband, and have him give her best friend the same thing. They go together. You take care of everything else (i..e, kids) and she spends the day getting treated like the princess she is.
• Warm stuff. Girls (at least my skinny one) are always cold. Clothing is hard, but the following is easy, and if it keeps them warm, they'll love you for it: furry slippers, monogrammed heavy bath robe, heavy blanket to go over the other pile of blankets they already use, ear muffs, furry mittens, flannel pajamas. Most of these are easy to size, have timeless fashion, and if you keep her warm it shows you care.

Good luck.