What did you get for Christmas this year? This year my husband gave me a very interesting skincare cream. Has anyone ever heard of SteamCream? I did a search and it seems to be popular in England and Japan. I just tried it today on my hands which always get horribly dry and cracked every winter. It is very light and doesn't itch so far. After only half a day wearing it, my bleeding cracked hands seem to have healed up. (By the way, I have a presription hand cream I wear at night with moisturizing gloves which takes about three nights to heal my skin.) I am super excited. I also got a couple of books and my sweet son gave me some chocolate. That truly was a miracle, considering how my son feels about chocolate. If someone is eating anything with chocolate, he tries to get as far away from the person as possible. If you ask him why he won't sit next to you when you eat chocolate, he says because chocolate looks like poo.
My husband liked his presents. Our son keeps saying it was the best Christmas ever. We didn't go overboard. Three presents each. We ordered a pizza and had a gelato cake from our friends gelato shop. We read the Christmas story, opened presents, watched Curious George's Christmas special, and had pizza and gelato cake. This year was simple, but great. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.
So sorry for the late flowers! This year has been a rollercoaster ride already with only month completed. I thought I had posted a reply already. (My 'duh' moment.) Thanks to all who answered!! Hope your New Year is going well!
@Laurie A. - I so totally want to do a Christmas trip to Disneyland here in Japan or even perhaps in the States one day. I've never been away from "home" for Christmas though. Harry Potter World? Oh, that sounds like something fun too!
@Hazel W. - I completely understand the "oh, crap, where do we put all this freakout." Thanks for giving me a smile.
@Cheryl O. -Thanks for worrying about my hands. This cream my husband gave me really seems to be working. It is also working well on my son's skin problems too. I'm not sure a humidifier would solve my problem though. It is so weird. My skin is dry, and I wake up with dry eyes. But at the same time, every window in our apartment is dripping with condensation, and it takes nearly 3 days for laundry to dry inside. Winter is cold and wet here.
@Mamazita - Oh, a massage at a local spa sounds nice too! Envious... Care to share your recipes for German pancakes and roasted cauliflower soup? Sounds yummy!
@Leigh R. - Yes, my son was very noble in giving me chocolate. He make me laugh too. ;)
@Sherri G. -Care to share your recipes for lemon chicken and Greek lemon potatoes? Always looking for a great recipe...
@Queen of the Castle - Moisturizing socks! My husband gave me some of those several Christmases ago. I had the exact same reaction, "um? right?..."
A blender and a vacuum! LOL! But I was going to get myself a new vac - but they all went together and got one for me! Also got some clothes and a couple of gift cards. Son got several gift cards - he is set to add music!
Little one got a boatload of stuff -as usual! We have a whole new group of dolls now! I need to add a room just for all her stuff!
D.:
I'm sorry about your hands. Do you have a humidifier in the house? If not - i would suggest you get one. My neighbor has dry hands in the winter. She uses Mary Kay Extra Emollient Cream and then puts on latex gloves...her hands haven't cracked and bled since...
Sooo glad to hear you had a nice Christmas....our nephew came up and spent Saturday through yesterday with us - it was WONDERFUL having him here!!!
Gifts were nice too. Thanks for asking!
i think simple is best. ours too was a "minimalist" christmas - our son only got a handful of gifts from santa. (not counting his stocking, which was 99% filled from the dollar tree). an I-spy book, a set of construction vehicles, a "real" tool bag with "real" tools, and a popcorn tin. from mom and dad, he got two shirts and a pair of jeans, a $3 cardboard spiderman city play set thing, and a leapster2, with three games that i found on craigslist for $30 (HUGE mega-hit, let me tell you). he is so incredibly happy. (it helped that he wrote an actual letter to santa this year, so i just picked a couple things off his list) i wouldn't have had it any other way - i was tempted to spend more, a couple times, and i'm so glad i didn't. we nailed it this year.
oh sorry - you asked what "I" got lol. i got some fuzzy pj's, two really cool coffee mugs, a woodwick candle.... my inlaws got us a deep freeze, it will be delivered in two weeks. that's really the only "big" thing we got. oh and i was super excited, two people gave me AMC gift cards - so we will be going to the movies soon!
i really think the key is keeping it simple, and keeping your expectations of other people low lol. makes for happy holidays!
Oh, if ONLY I could convince my 11-year-old daughter that chocolate looked like poop so she would not want it. Then it would all be mine!
Well, the choco-love is a bond we can share. I'll look at it that way....
You made my day with that detail. Hilarious. And your son is truly noble to give you chocolate if he feels that way about it!
Ours was nice too. The kids got about 7-8 presents each but half was stuff they needed anyway, like socks, underwear, boots, etc.
I got EXACTLY what I asked for, which was a massage at a local spa, yay!!! Plus hubby gave me some really nice soap and candles, which I always appreciate (a good hot bath is one of my favorite things.)
We relaxed all day, and I only cooked for the five of us which was easy, German pancakes in the morning and roasted cauliflower soup in the afternoon. My youngest made us dessert using her new cake pop maker.
All in all, a very good day.
We see the extended family on Saturday and Sunday so I will be busy, busy cleaning and baking over the next few days!
My big gifts from my hubby were a Kindle Paperwhite and a solidstate drive for my laptop. He also installed Windows 8 and and Office 2013 on my computer. He also took my daughter to shop and she got me a cool owl necklace (she did great picking it out as she is only 5).
Other gifts - money, a Willow Tree figurine, an awesome Lia Sophia bracelet, new cute hat, mandolin, and a game.
My husband went completely overboard with me. I'm still not sure if I am happy or upset about it. He got me all the stuff on my list: an under counter radio, a Bissell Little Green Machine and the Fifty Shades Trilogy. Then he got me a Kobo eReader, $100 LuluLemon gift card, a $25 Superstore gift card and a $100 Ikea gift card. I was not so generous with him. I bought him a new shovel, 2 snow brushes, jeans, shoes, socks, pj's, underwear and a hatchet. For his big gift I made him get up this morning and go to Superstore at 6:00am to get himself a tv for his office as the doorcrasher special. The kids got everything they needed and much of what they wanted. Now to figure out where to put all this stuff!
We had dinner at home just the four of us last night. I made lemon chicken and Greek lemon potatoes. Tonight is our big family dinner.
I didn't have a single present to open and it was a pretty amazing Christmas. It was also the very first Christmas that the kids didn't get any clothes from anyone...lol. I did get them an outfit each but with all the packing to move I lost them. Her's was a red dress from Ross with a dropped waist and sparkle dust all over it. His was a Spiderman set with a long sleeved tee and some sweat pants, if anyone sees them tell me where they are!...lol.
Hubby and I got a lot done on Christmas Eve after the kids went to bed. We didn't even have a tree up. We had planned on just doing the presents when they woke up and not even decorating but hubby decided he remembered where the tree was. So he sat in the floor in a semi dark room putting a tree together. He couldn't find the ornaments or tinsel or anything. So the bare tree was up and underneath was bunch of presents.
The kids each got stuff for their new bedrooms, her's is Hello Kitty and his is The Avengers. Pillows, sheets, trashcans, blankets, comforters, he got Avengers curtains and she is going to help me make her curtains. They got stuff for their bathrooms too. Towels, shower curtains, rings to hang it with, toothbrush holders....this HUGE box was my granddaughters favorite box to open.
Then Santa brought them bikes. They got normal kids toys and had a blast all day playing inside since it was icy and snowing outside. What a wonderful day! I love winter and all the messy weather. It was a perfect day.
And we totally forgot to even buy some stockings or try and find ours in one of our 4 storage units...
Well we gave each other a trip to Walt Disney World and Universal, so that we can go to Harry Potter World. We are excited!!!
We read the books as a family starting when our daughter was 8 yrs old. We have so many great memories of that time.. As a family, we really have not been able to go on a real vacation, because money has always been tight. But now that our daughter has graduated from college and I started a new business.. this is really exciting..
I got an under the cabinet radio/CD/color TV combo to replace the old, crappy CD/radio one I have. Can't wait til it's installed. It will be a great addition to the kitchen. I also got a I-Phone docking station with speakers, a gold charm for my charm bracelet, a jogging suit and some lovely scented reed diffusers. I got more than enough in gifts. Although, my docking station did not work well and hubby will be taking it back today. Hopefully, he can exchange it with no issue, since we accidently through out the box. Otherwise, Christmas was good.
To me, it wasn't about the presents, though I do enjoy my new running gear. Christmas was about the warm-and-fuzzy feeling leading up to it, taking in the decor, etc.
I enjoyed keeping it simple with my gifts as I am unemployed. I know Santa can't get me a job but hey I'm trying!
Hubby went way overboard on gifts for DD, as did Gramma and Grampa. Expected yes, but I want to set a precedent of giving and receiving.
I got hello kitty pjs, a new calphlon cook set, a gift card to Ulta, my son picked out a hello kitty lunchbox, but I have to use it as a purse lol, and he picked me out some bare minerals make up:) my son got way to much stuff. He and my daughter got a lot of clothing yay!
My in-laws asked me a few months ago for all the pictures I took of the kids over the last year or so... they are saved on my camera. My favorit gift was a few of them printed and framed nicely... one of which my father-in-law altered a little bit. I had taken 3 pictures of the kids sitting on a log in a local Metro-park when the leaves were changing... in one picture all the kids looked great but my 7 yr old, but in another my 7 yr old looked great and someone walking by got the attention of the 1, 2 & 5 yr old. So he cropped my 7 yr old out of one and put him into the other. He does picture/advertisment minipulations - so he is able to do it without it even looking like he did anything. The other 2 frames were cool too... one was my 8 year old during her hiding lessons & the last was my 3 pictures of my 1 yr old when she was about 9-10 months old sitting in the backyard playing with leaves.
We also got a few gift card... but we really would rather that since $$ is so tight. We can now go get some of the things we need day to day or fix a few things around the house.
Oh, and a printer, but we already have one... so they are taking it back - not sure if they will get us anything to replace it. I would be thrilled if they got us a few cartridges for our printer, but we will see.
Hope you all have a great Christmas!!
My mom got me all white Corelle dishes and 3 serving bowls. I've wanted them for YEARS, but couldn't justify spending the money them when I had perfectly usable dishes already. Now I can post my old dishes on Freecycle, and I have a TON more space in my cupboards since the Corelle take up so little space.
My husband got my moisturizing socks (?um, ok), "Smart Receipts," and new pillows for our bed (he is obsessed with pillows).
Somehow Macys.com mistakenly canceled my order for my husband's gift - 2 pairs of jeans and a watch.
Santa brought my kids a pirate ship, beginner's chopsticks, adhesive mustaches, finger-tip sporks (they are having a lot of fun eating with them), decibel-limiting headphones, a Magic School Bus experiment kit, the Team Umizoomi Umi Car, and a Leap Frog alphabet fridge playset. They also received an army guys playset, dinosaurs, puzzles, and books from my siblings and parents. It was a good year, except my husband had to work so he didn't get to see the kids open their gifts and see Santa's stuff.
