I'm still laughing at this one

Today’s turning out to be a fairly big day so here’s a fun “joke” gift (or it could be serious, too! Haha).

Got this one in an email from a friend today. It was a Christmas present from one of her male friends to an engaged couple.

Great way to make sure they don’t forget you after they get married!

Palm trees and coconuts...

I always figured I'd get married one day. I also knew that my parents would generously pay for most, if not all of my special day. And when that day came, I wanted to be able to show them my appreciation.

About 5 years before I actually got married (I was dating the guy I would eventually marry, but I didn't know it at that point), I went on a cruise with his family. Somehow the cruise ship messed up our reservations and to apologize, upgraded all of us (we had a total of like 8 rooms) to balconey suites. Afterwards, I started an unofficial savings account.

You see, balconey suites were expensive. I know my dad, and knew that he's all about the deals. I thought the balconey just made the entire trip. Waking up every morning to see that crystal blue water? It was just amazing. I wanted my parents to experience that.

A few months before the wedding, I contacted a travel agent and explained to her what I wanted to do. Since I didn't know when to actually book the trip for, we decided a gift certificate would be the easiest way to go. I told the travel agent that I didn't care where they went (although I had a few suggestions of places I thought they'd like), my only stipulation was that it had to be a balconey suite.

The night before the wedding, I went into my parents' room and handed them a box. Inside were several cruise books/pamphlets and a gift certificate. I told them it was enough for a week long cruise to most places in the Caribbean.

They were a little "mad" at first but I just told them I had been saving up for this for awhile. Plus, their house had flooded about two months before the wedding so they'd been dealing from all the stress from that. They knew they needed a break anyway.

They loved the trip, it was a well-deserved break for them and it made me happy to be able to give back to my parents, who have given so much to me. They've been great parents and I love to do unexpected things for them because I want them to know how much appreciate them.

Warning: Do not try while hungry...

The economy pretty much stinks these days. Christmas should never be a burden and homemade gifts are no longer the macaroni-necklace, toilet paper roll Christmas tree crafts anymore. It’s super easy to give the illusion of spending a lot of money (although that’s definitely not the expectation) without the cash. Besides, when the recipient finds out you did it yourself, that’s even better!

Got a candy or dessert that is your specialty? Find a cute way to box it up as a gift!

I made these fudgy bon-bons for work a few weeks ago.

They look professional, right? Find some little boxes, wrap some ribbon around it and voila! Instant look of expensive fudge shops but cheap solution in your own kitchen.

Children on your list? Try these chocolate mice!

I think they are just adorable!

Got a tea lover (like myself) on your list? Pomegranate Winter Tea!

Click here for 26 fun little gift-giving-worthy recipes!

Nyuck Nyuck Nyuck Nyuck

I’m kind of the self-proclaimed queen of random. You’ll never catch me giving my father a tie for Father’s Day (although I’m pretty sure I have in the past…but no more!). With giving gifts comes the potential for that element of surprise. I LOVE that look on people’s faces when they open a gift to find something they didn’t even know existed!

I found one of those gifts for my father in law this year for Christmas. My husband vetoed it, saying it was just “clutter” (*gasp* how dare he??). But I still think it’s pretty awesome.

What is it?

My husband, father in law and brother in law all love the Three Stooges. (Ohhhh the jokes I could insert here).

Life sized Three Stooges cut outs! (Amazon)

If you don’t like this scene, there’s multiple ones on there, just pick the episode you want!

I  thought about getting them Three Stooges masks too but maybe that’ll wait for another day…

Go Team!

As I mentioned a few posts back, my best friend and I exchange Christmas ornaments every year. We try to do something that’s special to that year and this year she got married in August (I talk about weddings and getting married an awful lot, don’t I?).

Concerned that she would get a bazillion “First Christmas” or “Just Married” ornaments, I decided to think how I think best – off the wall.

My bestest graduated from Virginia Tech and her husband from Wake Forest so naturally during any sport season, they have a good natured rivalry going on. I thought it might be fun to play on that a little.

While browsing on Etsy (I’ve mentioned how much I LOVE this site), I found a quilted Virginia Tech ornament that looked like this:

I didn’t see any Wake Forest stuff on the site, but went ahead and emailed the crafter anyway. I explained the situation and asked if she could possibly do some sort of “split household” ornament with VT and WF. She (Donna) responded back and said she’d love to but she hadn’t been able to find any Wake Forest ribbon (which disappointed her greatly considering she was also a WF alumni). She said she’d look around some more and see if she could come across some WF ribbon and she’d let me know.

Fast forward about a month later – she found some! She messaged and asked if I was still interested (absolutely!). I received the ornament a few days later and it was perfect:

I stuck a note in there saying that I hope this ornament will be the butt of many fights (jokingly, of course) to come as to whose team gets to face outward. The reaction?

ALSO, you are the most fantastic gift giver  EVER!  We love the ornament.  It's perfect!  How do you think of these things???

Another satisfied customer!

What's on my list?

I’ve had multiple people ask for lists of what to get me. I’ve told most of them I don’t need anything (true statement, other than clothes that fit from this weight loss but that’s more fun to pick out yourself) but here are a few things that I think would be fun:

I used to do pen and ink drawings in high school and I loved it. I did one of my grandfather which ended up in the school calendar of artwork…one of my brother and I as kids…one of an old building…you get the picture. For whatever reason, doing pen and ink soothes my soul and calms me. I haven’t done it since high school but I always want to get back into it…just never seem to have the time. It’d be nice to have a hobby for “me” again.

My “out there” gift would be a metal detector. I’ve wanted one of these since the first time I saw someone on a beach using them. I just know that I’d find my long lost fortune if I only had one of these…

My favorite bottle of wine. I’m really hoping I get this one for Christmas. I dropped VERY heavy hints to the hubby when we were in Charlotte this weekend. I have never been able to find this wine ANYWHERE but this one wine shop in Charlotte beside a running store we both used to work for. I know he was at the running store visiting with friends this weekend so if he knows what’s good for him, he stopped by and picked up a few bottles for me. Otherwise, I’m buying it from a place online that only sells it by the case and it’s going to set him back a few hundred dollars. Did I mention my birthday is in January?

A Carolina Panthers t-shirt. Everyoneeeeeee up here is Redskins (like my hubby) or Ravens. I’ve always enjoyed being a little different and have decided to choose this year as my inaugural “Panthers Fan” year – partly because it’s my first full football season in the north and partly because they STINK this year so no one can accuse me of being a bandwagon fan.

So there you have it. My list. I'm expecting the bottle of wine and possibly the Panthers shirt (I mentioned both to hubby). The pens I'll probably wind up getting myself for my birthday and the metal detector is just a dream :)

The struggles of gifts

Quick update, hubby’s going to live – doc said his lungs looked much better. We get results back tomorrow, follow up on Thursday and another CT scan in 6 weeks but he was back to being annoyingly ridiculous yesterday so I deem him back to normal!

My brother got married Friday. His fiance’s birthday was last Tuesday. Then there’s Christmas. It’s a lot of gift-giving in a short amount of time but that’s okay. I’m up for the challenge.

I already said earlier I’m giving her address labels for her birthday. Now it’s time for Christmas.

My original gift was a Newlywed Cookbook (hey, my brother said she was on a cookbook kick right now)

And a cookbook stand (Amazon) $14.99

But turns out, great minds think alike and my mom already got her a cookbook stand :P (I guess we know where I got my gift giving abilities from?)

Plan B.

On to Bed Bath and Beyond!!

They had registered for white square dishes at Crate & Barrel. Problem is, there is no Crate & Barrel around here. Luckily, I found this pretty little serving set that I think will match their dishes.

Price tag is $34.99 but we know Bed Bath and Beyond always have super coupons, right? Put that with the gift card I redeemed from my credit card points and total cost to me = $0.00.

Oh, and if anyone is wondering…that Flashback Atari set? A total hit. One of my brother’s college friends was also up when we were doing Christmas and I got the high-five from him and the “How is this humanly possible?” from my brother. To put it into perspective, it beat out the bike Santa gave him when he was 5 years old. Take that, Santa J

Quick personal note.

Quick update...

I know I don't do personal things on this blog, but hubby is having some major health issues right now. They're doing a lung biopsy on him tomorrow morning so keep him in your thoughts and go easy on me if it takes me awhile to update this thing again. After his biopsy tomorrow I (and him if he gets his way) are headed to NC for my brother's wedding then final papers and projects are due next week along with hubby's test results from the bloodwork and biopsy. So...I'll be back when I can!

I spy...

Gifting for the ultimate action lover?

Do they mountain bike? Rock climb? Ski? Snowboard? Anything?

Then I think they might just love this gift.

Last year, my brother-in-law’s girlfriend and I were trying to come up with a final “big” gift for our significant others. They tend to like the same things so we figured if we could come up with something between the two of us, we’d be golden.

While walking around REI (are you seeing a trend in this family? If you haven’t been exposed to REI and buy gifts for an outdoorsy person, it will save you tons of time trying to shop!) we came across…

Helmet cams! It’s more than just a helmet cam though – you can attach it to a bike or anywhere else you can find to stick it.

The one above is $99.95 at REI and now that I look at it, has a terrible rating. Hmmm…anyway, it’s still a good idea and there are good ones out there. Just something to consider!