What you're giving for Christmas this year

I'm doing my shopping in NYC this year!

I can't say what I'm getting M since he lurks. Mum's getting the Donovan autobiography [this probably doesn't help with your mum does it?]. Step-dad's getting some A.A. Milne/Christopher Matthew stuff. No clue about anyone else yet but likely to be books all the way.

Oh god, I hope we're not doing secret santa here.

Auntie: Fancy handbag, smellies

His mum: Earrings, perfume, wooden cat

His Dad: Celtic DVD, fleece

His sis: Chocolate fondue set and Something Else (struggling with the something else

Him: No idea.

We wrote out big long lists for each other and agreed to pick four or five items so it's sort of a surprise, but we ended up going shopping on saturday and getting mightily drunk and buying all the things we wanted. Ooops. Now we're skint and back to square one.

we are the same. unless someone wants something specific and can pick it out of a catalog / give us a url then they don't get anything. instead we buy ourselves stuff or stuff that everybody can share (dvd player for instance)(actually, last year we bought the picture above the mantelpiece for mother, a huge print of a stream surrounded by bluebells).

Maybe I'll get her a copy of A Christmas Carol.

Solitaire earrings? What setting? What's the weight of the diamonds? I don't care about the quality so much. I think once you're getting SI quality, that's more than enough. Colour? I think F's great, but depending on the weight, H can be fine too. So long as they are colourless. Uh, yes, I run a jewellery shop.

I'm not sure what I'm getting my husband, his and my parents yet. :-((( Especially my parents is difficult: They have everything. Except a grandchild, which I will give sometime December/January. heh

Spencer wants an XBox (ha ha ha)

Very tempted to give my husband one but he doesn't want it (yet). :-(

for my sis and my bff. they also get stockings full of candy and neat things from me, too.

my dad is getting a new pipe.
my stepmother is getting a new tea set.
my mom ordered me to get her a gift certif to ye olde home depot.

everyone else gets a homemade xmas card. my sister is really good at linocuts (is that right?). i'm good at glitter application. and envelope licking.

I'm thinking eBay. Last year, though, I bought him a bowler hat because he had moved to London and said he wanted one he could wear around the city. Sadly it turned out to be too small (shame, as it was a lovely bowler) and I haven't relisted it yet. So in effect he got nothing for Christmas last year. Must do better this year.
Edward is the really hard one to buy for. He has more money than anyone else I've ever met (year before last it was 30gb iPods for everyone from him for Chrimbo) so you have to come up with original stuff. Stevie bought him a robot arm one year which he had to build himself. That was cool. Last year Paul bought him a ventriloquist's dummy on eBay. I refused to go into the room if it was in there on its own.
Mr. Monkey is under instructions that I want three presents, each one to cost no more than €30. I think that's fair.

So you wouldn't mind one from me then ;-)

(she did *ask* for something from Ann Summers)

Mum's getting the Donovan autobiography [this probably doesn't help with your mum does it?]

Actually, I don't know - she does have several Donovan LPs.

I have also asked Santa for new beds for the dogs, preferably very sturdy ones that they won't pull to bits. Sigh. We can't have nice things.

7 others get presents at a value of £10 each.

They all will be giving me HMV vouchers like they do every year.

I quite like having so many No Ideas because I'd rather drift round the shops and suddenly spot something and have a eureka moment. It gets a bit nailbiting if you leave it too late, but we've all been given an extra day off work for Christmas shopping this year (I am still reeling at the generosity of this and our bonus, both of which are against university policy but have been snuck through somehow) so I'm taking mine on Thursday and if I can get into town around the time the shops open I should be able to get a lot of it done in one day, touch wood.

Eldest brother = Sonic Screwdriver.

Youngest brother = Optical mouse.

Dad = ?

Mum = ?