OT: Christmas shopping for your Spouse/Significant other...Let's hear your ideas.

Epoxy finish for garage floor at our new home. Not exciting, unless you are my significant other.

My wife is easy to shop for...

parked in the garage with a big ass bow on it.

Short of that, a 3 month old Golden Retriever puppy.

60% of the time it works every time.

 

 

You and I are in the same boat. Thinking spa day, but the quilt idea, with socks could work too.

Keep up the great ideas- I need them!

Doing things and attending events never go out of style, unlike objects. That's usually my go-to on these qualms.

On a related note, I've been seeing someone for about a month, and now the holidays are upon us. I feel like I should take some sort of action around Christmastime (and here's where doing something together also trumps objects...early-stage relationship holidays), but does anyone have experience in this area? Holidays this early in the relationship are uncharted territory for me.

Edit: What am I doing?!?! My wife knows my Mgoblog handle.  Nothing to see here.

I just bought her a new Nikon D5100 DSLR camera.  She loves taking photos and videos of our kids, the dog, and her landscaping around the house.  The current camera is many years old, so it was time.

I also have anniversary #25 coming up in February.  I still haven't got the foggiest idea what to get her for that.

straight cash, homie

I've found that it is the small things that seem to work best.  Unfortunately, jewelry is small, so I don't want to imply that small means cheaper!  Nice earrings, bracelets, and pendants are always a winner.

My wife likes to do knitting and needle point.  I've bought her countless gadgets for these hobbies.  Since I've done that, she now points out new gadgets and things that interest her making the job even easier for me.

She likes to collect Christmas ornaments and is nuts about anything to do with Halloween.  So, I've bought many ornaments, figures, scary lighted trees, headstones, and other items that relate to these obsessions.

We always have family holiday dinners at our house, so she likes to have different things to mix things up when we entertain.  At a craft show, we stumbled across an artesan that makes plates, bowls, and other things for the table in a variety of patterns so they are all unique.  I bought her various pieces over the years and got her a "plate of the month" membership one year so we have a full set of plates to use.

She likes to cook and I've bought her variety of things that make cooking easier.  An immersion blender (nice to have when making soups), a cool little garlic mincer, really nice baking sheets that don't get messed up and are great for cookies, etc.  There's a lot of neat stuff at the cooking stores.  Also, those stores have all kinds of vinegars, sauces, drink mixers, soup mixes, pastas, etc. that are fun to try.  She's a salad junkie so high quality flavored vinegars (like really good balsamic or red wine) always score points.

We also instituted the "October rule".  Once October rolls around, if you see something you like that you need, you can buy it, but you have to give it to the other party to use as a Christmas present.  I usually get a few presents of clothes due to this rule.

So, just work around her interests/hobbies and you won't go wrong.

I learned long ago that my wife is not so much into "things" as she is events.  So this year, she gets courtside tickets to a mens UM B-ball game and dinner downtown AA at Grizzly Peak. It is actually a true night out as we live over an hour from AA.

As a wife, you know what I'd enjoy? A boxed set of DVDs for some miniseries or season of a well-regarded TV show with a note that we'd watch it together. Throw in some popcorn & fuzzy socks if you want to make it a whole package. It doesn't matter if we could (technically) get it on Netflix or the library--the intentionality of the gift and the fact that he picked it for us to enjoy together would mean a lot. I'd look forward to many hours together watching it (and it would be sweet to hear him say he was looking forward to that, himself).

A CD/playlist of music he'd put together for me would mean a lot as well. it might sound pedestrian but it's very personal. I have an affluent friend who is hard to buy for (she has everything already) but holy cow she goes ape for CDs I burn for her.

I only use one phone case myself, but I have a friend who switches hers up regularly and she loves the ones people buy for her. She has one for every sports team she follows, for example.

Gift certificate for cool classes (like the ones Zingermans offers) are awesome. Art, crafts, baking, etc.

My wife and I don't buy eachother gifts anymore (and we've only been married 4 years).  You should institute that now.

but if you know ANYone in the military, there's a blanket that is infamous that is made primarily in Korea.  They're called "mink" blankets, but they're not mink...but they are THE WARMEST blankets known to man.  In the middle of winter, you can have the heat off in the house, be under this thing and be warm.  The nice thing is that they can be customized with a color and a sewn on patch and be team oriented.  I have a Michigan one, a Red Wings one, a Tigers one and a patriotic themed one.  They're the best.  Run about $35-50 depending on where they're purchased from.  Put out the feelers to see if you know someone who knows someone in Korea.