How about this? We have to be in KY to deal with more of Mom's estate stuff after Christmas, so DH said I could get tickets to the Central Michigan game! Merry Christmas to me!!! Looks like it will be my youngest son's first trip to Lexington and Rupp as well!!!!

With the exception of a few gift cards and a lot of stocking type gifts, I just finished the bulk of our shopping tonight. Although it's a lot easier to shop now that they boys are older, I really do miss the days of Santa Claus.

Mom- Cottage bird house...she loves to sit on the back porch and watch the birds in the morning before work
Dad- Planet Earth DVD set
Nieces- Puppet theater from Restoration Hardware for the 4 year old and soft blocks and embroidered robe for 4month old
Sister #1- Trip to Brazil in April
Sister #2- Gift certificate to Maison Lacour in BR for her and her husband
Brother- Bacon of the month club...my husband's idea!
Grandmother- Oscar de la Renta nightgown (you can't buy this woman anything...she gets mad if you spend money on her so it's always a challenge!)
Aunt and Uncle- Gift Certificate to Ruffino's in BR for dinner
Mom and Dad- Gift Certificate to Mansur's on the Boulevard in BR for dinner

Everything I give has to be easily shipped since they all live in Louisiana, and I live in Baltimore.

Hey, it was worth a try.

By the way, I did not know that Woodford Reserve did collectors bottles until you posted it. Thanks for the info. I will now add Woodford Reserve collector bottles to my "wish list".

http://horseracing.about.com/library.../woodford1.jpg

And just to be clear, I am happy to receive a non collectors bottle of either Maker's Mark or Woodford Reserve any ole time of the year. :D

Sweet!
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Memo to self: Make plans now to be in Kentucky for Christmas 2009!

So does my dad! He also prefers to receive Jack Daniel's Green label anytime of the year and hubby likes Four Roses any time of the year. I should check into seeing if they make collectable bottles...

We're getting our younger kids something that our older kids loved. We're ordering personalized books (these came off of the Disney site but you can google lots of firms that make them)...you know, the kind where you send in the name of the child, his birthdate, 3 of his friends' names, etc., and they put them in the story.

Hubby stood in line at 7:30 am this morning for the Wii (note I was asleep, lol) so his Christmas will be happy.

Even happier when he sees what I got him.

I have him a few ideas; there's nothing i truly want cause I keep buying myself things (nothing really expensive, mainly decorating stuff for our next house, lol.

It's just my 2 brothers/family and hubby and me on my side. They've got an expensive 2009 coming up so we've decided no gifts; on the other side of the family, we just draw names.

So I'm done unless I'll probably do some kind of family gift (prob food) to take Christmas Day.

I had a book like this when I was younger and loved it. I also remember it had a pic of me on the back cover and I thought it was the coolest thing. Great idea!

I've seen romantic ones of those where you put your mate and your name in the story, but I've never seen any for kids. that's a good idea!

We've gotten a bunch of those books for the kids over the years--mermaid and ballerina stories mostly, and Pirates of the Caribbean and Winnie the Pooh this year but the best one was the Snow White book I got my husband when we were in our twenties. It had him as the star and his dog and buddies as the supporting cast. I read it out loud at his birthday party ("and then Mr. Carnation screamed, "Snow White! Sapphire is my birthstone too!") and we all had a great time with it.

If you google "personalized books", you can find companies that do them for less than Disney and let you include more friends' names.

2 nieces and 1 nephew - Webkinz. Got them this summer on clearance.
2 kitties and a pug.

1 nephew - A baseball which clocks your pitching speed.

1 nephew - the new one - a Pottery Barn personalized frame with spaces for a picture for each month. Yes, it's more for the parents, but he's 2 months old. ALSO - my Pottery Barn hammock was recalled, so I was able to pay for it with the card I received in compensation.

1 nephew - need to get him a GameStop gift certificate - he's autistic, and games are pretty much all he does. I can't afford a whole game, so hope he will like this.

Gypsyboots - I'm not telling in case she checks!

Gypsy's sister - got her an i-pod this summer with the understanding that it was her Xmas gift.

Boys - 5 - 7 - a dear friend is buying them bicycles. Thank God - they will have a gift from Santa under the tree! The aforementioned castle for one of them, and a Peter Pan ship I got over a year ago for the other.

Husband - he gets to stay married to me. What could top that??:rolleyes:

LOL. My kind of gift!

This is what we were given as a suggestion to get my step nephew who has Aspergers. My sister in law said he would like it because it is like his own credit card.

I got my bf this for Christmas. It's like a modern Swiss army knife.

He asked me for hints, and I told him cooking/practical stuff. Now that I think about it, if he got me pretty much ANYTHING Kappa, I'd be stoked. Haha oh well, too late to order it/drop hints now!