I did not know what to get my son for his birthday. Ever since he got a job, he buys what he wants and does not leave much room for the rest of us to get him gifts. I bought him a Zune car charger for his birthday, only to find out that he had already owned one for months.

I do not want to give him money, as I feel it is very impersonal and under appreciated. I thought that I could maybe get him a new Zune dock cable, as the one he has now is getting quite old. When I told him that he should give me a list of suggestions, he said that I could just give him clothes, but how much fun is that.

I ended up getting him a Zune travel charger, a new dock and a pair of jeans. He seemed pretty happy with the choices and I am glad, as I don’t foresee me being able to get him very many more gifts that he will enjoy.

My son turned five in December, and being that he was now in school, we decided that it was time for him to have his first real birthday party. I was not prepared for the amount of toys that he would receive and after the party, our house looked like Toys R Us.

I am not complaining about the generosity of his friends, but I knew that, with Christmas just around the corner, we were not going to be able to keep all of the gifts that he had received. I asked him to pick a few of his favorites and then we decided that we would donate the rest for underprivileged kids, so that they could have a great Christmas, too.

He of course, decided to keep the race car set with the rubber tracks and the computer game that he had asked for. The rest went to the city’s Secret Santa program. I am sure that the toys were enjoyed and I was happy that, in it all, my son learned the meaning of giving to those less fortunate.

My husband is one of those people that has everything he needs or wants. This makes birthdays and Christmas very difficult, as even he cannot tell you what he wants for a gift. I have learned to be creative and I think he appreciated the effort I put into getting him a gift more than he appreciates the actual gift himself.

I hit the jackpot this year, though. I was walking through Home Depot, trying to find a tool or something that he may not already have, when I came across a display of solar panels. I knew he didn’t have one of these, so I bought one, thinking that I had nothing to lose. I was so right. He was thrilled with it and has devoured so much information on the topic since.

I don’t think that gifts will be a problem anymore, as I know I can always get him another solar panel. Who knows, maybe one day our whole house will be run on solar power. He does, after all, have a lot of birthdays to come in his lifetime. I wonder if it is a good time to tell him that next year, he can also get one for Father’s Day.

I have gotten really tired of people that don’t exhibit any kind of originality when it comes to giving gifts.  The unoriginal gifts that I receive commonly make me angry, annoyed, and frustrated because the person giving the gift didn’t take the time to find me something special or unique.

So, when we decided to move, I was worried that we would run into the same problem.  A bunch of boring gifts would greet us, and all I would then want to do would be to rip out my hair - which wouldn’t be a pretty site.

Well, it turned out that my prediction was wrong.

Thankfully, some of our friends actually purchased something original and unique for us: a Banksy Bowling Bomb Granny print.  It was perfect as we didn’t have anything on our walls, and I would also have to say that it was one of the coolest and unique gifts that I had ever received.

I guess I won’t complain before receiving gifts next time.

My sister has had her cat Fifi for about five years now.  She doesn’t have any children, so her cat is her baby.  As such, we have been buying her cat presents on her birthday - and it is coming up right away.

Instead of just buying one thing from the store, I have decided that I would put together a pet gift basket - just like those ones we give each other. 

Down at the pet supplies store, I had many choices, but few things made it into the shopping cart.  In the end, I picked out some cat litter, cat toys, and a couple of cute pet dishes.

I had a little difficulty finding a suitable basket to put everything in, but in the end, I was able to figure it out.  It definitely looks slick and I hope she likes it.  I wonder if there is a market for pet gift baskets - I might just have to check it out.

Do you ever look at the gifts that you get for your birthday and wonder what the person was thinking?  Well, I have had many gifts like that over my lifetime, and I just have to shake my head.  Perhaps the person that does that the most is my brother.

You see, he picks out the worst things to give as gifts.  One year, I was “lucky” enough to get a potato peeler and bamboo placemats, yippee! (insert sarcasm here).  I just dread what he is going to get me each year, so much in fact, I wish he just didn’t bother.

On the other hand, there are some people in your life that get you the most amazing things imaginable.  My aunt is a good example of this, and she usually gets me better presents than my own parents.

This year, she bought me the Will Barrow and lean master piano course.  It was exactly what I wanted, though I don’t know how she figured it out.  But, obviously she knows me pretty well, and I am very thankful for the gift she got me.  She is the best!

I have to admit that I am not a big sports fan. In fact, I am probably the least sports minded person I know. I don’t even watch the Superbowl and everyone watches the Superbowl, whether they watched a regular season game or not. That is why I found it amusing that I got NBA tickets for Christmas.

In defense of the person who gave them to me, it was at an office Christmas party and the giver does not know me real well. I guess that is quite obvious and I figured that they must have been pretty cheap NBA tickets, given what our price range was for the exchange.

It is not that I am unthankful, but I had no desire to go and see a basketball game, when I would have no idea whatsoever what was going on. I was telling a guy friend about it when he said that he would often buy NBA tickets and that he would buy these from me. I was glad to sell them to him and I went out and bought myself a new sweater with the money. That was more like it.

For the longest time, I have been nagging my parents to get me some pictures of their parents to put on my wall.  You see, family history is very important to me and I wanted to share my family history with my children.  I thought that having a picture of my grandparents would be a good first step in accomplishing that goal.

But, sometimes parents can be just as bad as children for forgetting to do things.  I think I had been asking them for well over two years to get me some framed pictures for the wall, but I just wasn’t getting them.

I had a nice surprise at my last birthday though.  There were some large, wrapped, rectangular presents just for me.  I unwrapped them to find pictures of my grandparents.

But these were not ordinary pictures - my parents had put the photos onto canvas to create family heirlooms of my grandparents.  It will be a gift that I can pass down to them when they are old enough.

I am so happy to see photographs of my grandparents on my wall - I miss them so much…

My best friend and her husband went to Romania on their honeymoon. It was so romantic and I could not wait to get married myself. We had spent so much time together making all the arrangements for the wedding, that when they left, I felt really empty. I missed them so much right from the time their car drove off down the road.

I wanted them to know how much they meant to me. I decided that I would send flowers to Romania for them. I wanted the flowers to be in their room when they arrived and I was assured that they would be. I really wished that I could have seen their faces when they got there and read the card.

It was one of the best days of my life when they got home. I missed them so much. That is when they dropped the bomb on me that they had both had job interviews in Romania and that they would be living there in six months. I guess I will be sending a lot of flowers to Romania in the future.

When you walk into my parents house, it is like stepping through a window to the past.  They have that nice 80s wall paper, and the tacky flower print linoleum on the floors.  But what really gets me is walking into the bathroom.

You see, the bathroom suites in their home are the same as they were nearly 30 years ago.  I especially "love" the yellow tub - wait, I have always hated the thing.  Anyway, since my parents are coming up on their 30th anniversary, I thought that us kids could help them modernize their bathrooms.

Most of the decisions as to what to buy were made rather quickly.  But when it came to decide between whirlpool baths and shower baths, we were stuck.  My mother loved to take baths, but my father would never be caught dead in one.

In the end, we ended up getting one of each - one for each of their bathrooms.  This way they could each have what they wanted (bath or shower) and not have to fight about it.  It will be so nice to visit their home now and not have to look at the yellow tub ever again.