I got my mom a scrapbook that I know she will love, but that is from the kids.
I struggle with my mom. When in doubt, I get a gift cert for a restaurant-they love that because they enjoy eating out, but hate to spend the money on it.
They were completely excited this summer when I gave them gift certs to restaurants in Bat Harbor where they were going on vaca. They even took pics of themselves at the restaurants and emailed them to me!!! Do you parents travel or anything?
My mom is a massage therapist and my dad does it as well (though he isn't certified), so I don't get them anything for that, lol, but what about a spa treatment or something? Massage?
What about a family portrait? We had intended to do that for my parents one year-pay for the session and prints and all (with my bro and SIL) of the whole family together, but then I went on pred and couldn't bear to be in pics looking like that.
I like Laura's idea about a group family portrait - could you get your siblings and their families together? or a photobook? for don's parents, don and his siblings wanted to have a portrait painted (from childhood pics).
My mama was very specific this year LOL. She is enjoying reading very much so she wanted a Barnes and Noble giftcard. Usually when I do giftcards I add something fun and a bit more personal to it, I found some magnetic bookmarks with letters on them they came in a 3 pack and there were different designs and colors to choose from and they come monogrammed with a letter so I got K for Kathy. I think they are super cool i've got some and i've given multiple sets as gifts.
Kent's moms is much harder but I found some really cute Christmas decorations a doorknob hanger and a decoration to hang on the door, i'm giving her that a little early so she can enjoy them, I found a neat frame at Kohls that says "Family is where our story begins" it has four places for pictures i'll do one of his parents, one of Kent and I, and one each of the kiddo's, and then i'm getting her a Bed, Bath, & Beyond giftcard.
We don't do gifts among the adults, however, I have this huge gift in mind once I am reunited with most of my stuff that is in storage until we have a house.
I was the kid that ended up with all the family photos. Not sure how that happened, but I have way more than my mom or anyone else. I plan to scan them all and the do a photobook, some prints, a slide show DVD. I will give her a CD too, but honestly, she hasn't a clue that the CD isn't a shiny mini-frisbee. Yeah, she is that techno-savy.
We don't do gifts among the adults, however, I have this huge gift in mind once I am reunited with most of my stuff that is in storage until we have a house.
I was the kid that ended up with all the family photos. Not sure how that happened, but I have way more than my mom or anyone else. I plan to scan them all and the do a photobook, some prints, a slide show DVD. I will give her a CD too, but honestly, she hasn't a clue that the CD isn't a shiny mini-frisbee. Yeah, she is that techno-savy.
My mom had all of our family Super-8 films put onto dvd for us one year. it was an amazing gift, one that we all will treasure.
My mom loves to garden so feeds the birds and often I get her things related to that. This year I bought a metal flower stake type of thing that is decorative in the garden and in the centers you can put a suet ball or other things to feed the birds. One of the things she has loved the most was a type of rocker stool she can sit on to weed.
We got my mom a DVD of a show we used to watch when I was little. It's nothing big, but I know she'll love it because it was the only thing my family would sit down and watch together, lol. I also made her a calendar, with pictures of all my nephews and nieces, and my sisters and their hubbies (and mine, of course). And Libby just reminded me that I'd like to do something for her with her recipes because they are falling apart, her holders are stuffed and flowing over, lol.
This is so hard. My parents are retired, have a house that is paid for, and pretty much buy what they want when they want it. Now, it is mostly practical stuff or (for my mom) shoes and clothes and while they are not wealthy, they don't usually have things that they wanted and didn't buy.
My dad wants the SuBo CD. Luckily they were out of them when he went to buy it so I am going to try and do that. My sister is coming from Cali and we decided to stuff their stockings for them. Stockings have always been a big deal in our family so my mom and I are also going to surprise my sister by stuffing her stocking.
We talked so much about what to get Dad and decided on a new watch. He is very practical in the sense that he wouldn't just go buy a new watch because his is old - it would have to be broken. But his *is* old. We are going to do it from mom and the girls so we will engrave it and try to find one with a bigger face/numbers. I think he will love it actually.
For mom, oh boy. She is really hard. I'm getting her odds and ends. Those fuzzy/soft socks, some earmuff/headband thing, and some new gloves. A nice little angel ornament from the boys. Hmm, what else. I don't even know. We will go shopping when my sis comes but it will be nice. :)
I always find it so difficult to buy for parents though.
We are doing one gift for my in-laws. We are getting them a digital photo album. We're going to go ahead and load it up with pictures of the kids that we've taken. And we'll send them weekly new pictures of the kids so that they can constantly refresh the pictures on the digital album.
we always do one gift about Ethan--in the past we've done calendars, photo books. this year Ethan's school offered plates that the kids decorated so we got one for my mom and one for EJ's parents.
We also got my mom a food network magazine subscription--she liked reading my copy while she was here--and a few DVDs. She has a boyfriend. I didn't know what to get him. So the DVDs are for both of them.
For my inlaws, we always order them crab cakes. It reminds them of being at the beach over the summer. When we were local, we would give them a nice bottle of wine or champagne because they like to eat them as a special New Year's dinner but I'm not sure if you can ship alcohol so we skipped that this year.
