My Christmas List

So last night after a long dinner with candidates hubs and I were hanging out watching TV while he played with his new iphone. I brought up the topic of what we are going to get each other for xmas...

Me: "Have you come up with anything else that you want for Christmas?"

Bret: "No"

Me: "Umm, your mom, my sister, dad, etc are all asking and I am not sure what to tell them..I am having a hard enough time coming up with things for me to get you"

Bret: "There isn't anything I want"

Me thinking to myself: "wow it must be nice to have everything you have ever wanted in life...maybe we should add a couple of the things that I want (like a Dyson, a new kitchen table and chairs, that new wok that I want, etc, etc, etc) that are really more for the both of us to your list so that I can get EVERYTHING that I want"

Me: "Well, do you want to know what I want?"

Bret: "No"

Me: "Are you going to get me anything?"

Bret: "I will figure something out...I got you a birthday present didn't I?"

And just like that he has ended the discussion for the night. Can we say frustrating???

It's not that my husband is a Scrooge or anything he just is a last minute procrastinator that I have spoiled with taking care of EVERYTHING for Christmas. I make lists and more lists. I go out on BF for savings and I plan. I buy every single gift except for mine. On the way to our families house he usually asks...so what did we get so and so? It is his brief update so that he can be in the moment when they open the perfect gift that "we" got them. Don't get me wrong I have no one to blame but myself. I love Christmas and the shopping and really I don't mind getting everyone's presents. I usually make his sit down and have a similar conversation when it comes to determining what to get the kids. He usually has a suggestion of something to get them that I hadn't thought about otherwise he just lets me get what I want for them.

Last year was pretty funny. I went shopping with a friend of mine that is also a resident. We were in a really fancy kitchen store and I saw the most awesome salt and pepper mills. They were Tangerine colored(yes my kitchen has tangerine in it...it all started with a Kitchen aid mixer that I got as a gift). When I picked them up though I almost passed out because of the price. Who knew that something so small could be so expensive? I mentioned to my friend that I loved them but that Bret would have a cow over the price for something so simple. Low and behold since he waited till the last minute he asked this friend if there was anything she knew of that I wanted and what did she tell him??? I got the mills and was shocked. (I still love them by the way.)

With my parents we made a list every year...we still do and we got exactly what we asked for with a few small things thrown in for good measure. Today I send my dad links and literally he just orders them from my email. Bret's family is not that way. They will get you one or two of the things you ask for and then everything else are things that they got for you that they thought you would like. For the first few years I got gift cards. After we were married Bret's mom slowly started to buy actual gifts. I haven't gotten a gift cards in over five years. It is fun to open their gifts b/c you never know what you are going to get and sometimes it is just perfect and you would have never guessed. The flip side of this coin is that they don't really tell you what they want either. SO I have to get on board and try to figure out things to get them when all I really want is their list so I can go out and get it.