Maine Nesties
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I love Christmas mostly to give to others and really think about thoughtful gifts This year, being home was honestly the best gift I could have received. However, my seltzer maker is pretty freaking awesome. We don't drink soda, but always have seltzer on hand! I'm ecstatic! My favorite gift I gave (well, Abby gave) was the Santa hand print to Tim and grandparents.
What was your favorite received and given?
Re: Your favorite gift :-)
Why are you still up Jess?? Lol
My favorite gift I received was my new LL Bean Wicked Good Slippers. Our cat peed on our slippers (mine and chris', and we both had Bean slippers) a few months ago....It's been a bit chilly but we have been suffering. So, yeah for warm feet! and my Mom bought him some so he will get his when we have Christmas in Bangor on Jan 1.
We also go some cash from MIL and FIL so we will buy a new bench with storage (from Bob's, in Camel) plus maybe splurge on a Kindle or something.
I gave Taylor a cube toy from Target. Actually, it's just like one Abby has. She played with it some at the GTG and seemed to enjoy it. Sure enough, she cried when I made her give it up today so we could open more presents! She's a happy girl with all the lights and activities!
It's going to sound sappy, but seeing Christmas through Ben's eyes was the best thing I could have asked for. His response to seeing Santa just makes my heart full when I think about it. We caught a few minutes on video and I've been watching it over and over laughing at his responses (along with everyone else yelling in the background). I can't think of any gift more enjoyable than a good dose of Christmas magic
I got a subscription to Maine magazine and Maine H+D magazine that I am pretty psyched about. I have been wanting it for a while and was surprised that DH actually remembered.
My favorite gift given was actually from Santa to Miss Ridley and it was a pink Radio Flyer trike. She loves it even though she hasn't figured out the pedals yet!
I'm very excited about my new iPod touch. I thought about getting an iPhone but I couldn't justify the monthy cost when I hardly make any calls from my cell phone. I'll keep my cheapie prepaid cell phone for calls and use the iPod for fun stuff.
I'm also excited about the heated mattress pad we got. DH can keep his side turned off and I can set mine to "11".
Well, my parents got us a digital camcorder- one of those really small ones that look like a tube and fits in the palm of your hand- so that pretty much rocked. They with that over a Flip type camera because of the quality- and I'm just happy to have something portable that I can tape James (and other stuff I suppose) with and then extract easily!
But I had asked for something like that, so it wasn't a huge surprise! DH got me a gorgeous necklace which unfortunately James broke by early yesterday afternoon. It is a solid silver collar and then he got a sandollar pendant that had been glazed with a turquoise hue glaze- really beautiful. James twisted the pendant and the sandollar snapped off the ring. Adam is going to bring it back to the local artist to see about getting it fixed this week. And then James will not be allowed near it at all!
As for giving, I had a few winners. I made a hilarious calendar of James for both set of grandparents, the great grandparents and great aunt (and us!) It was a huge hit. Then I got DH a bouy bell windchime that he wanted and he is really excited to hang it in the big pine tree in our backyard so it will provide some nice ambient donging in the distance.
And of course the piece de resistance was the play kitchen we got for James along with all the food accessories he got from us/ Santa and my parents. He loves it and I think it will be a hit for years to come.
DH and I spent Christmas alone together this year, which was rough. We celebrated with my family last weekend, and I caught a killer cold (and with my lovely suppressed pregnant immune system, it's double as bad). We went to the movies and had Chinese buffet for lunch/dinner.
We mostly exchanged gifts that we specifically asked for (boring), but he surprised me with a gift certificate for a prenatal massage from my OB's office!!!!
My Wedding Bio! Not updated in a LONG time!
We have chinese every year for Christmas. It started on our first year together, we ordered for Christmas Eve and it just stuck. Tastes soo good!
I'm sorry you have a cold...no fun, but sometimes just the two of you is the best!
This was one of my favorite Christmases I can remember. We all had a sleep over at my parents. My mom bought us matching PJ's and we had SOOOO much fun. I loved waking up with my whole family and everyone getting to wake up with Luke and watching him light up when he opened his new tooth brush in his stocking. It was sooo awesome.
Best gift..... I love everything I got, but I gotta be sappy and say it was the time with family. It was so awesome and I feel so fullfilled right now.
Best gift I gave.... I was pretty psyched to give my brother/SIL a flip camera. I know they wanted one really bad. And I loved giving my Reuse Zone sandwich bags too
My SIL was commenting on my bag the other day and then she got one 
MH was SOOO psyched to give his brother hockey skates. They went out on the ice today and it was so nice to see them having a great time together.
This is amazing. Your mom wins the award for the best gift ever!
This was exactly what I was thinking! We used to do this at VTB and I was always amazed at some of the stories behind the custom made bears. Truly a memorable keepsake!!!
We had such a fun family Christmas. My favorite part is always the giving ... I'm always kind of embarrassed to have people watch me open gifts!
Favorite gift given: a doc my mom used to work with wrote a book and I ordered it for her, and the publisher waited till the doc could sign it for her to ship it. So I couldn't give her the book on Christmas, but she was so excited about it anyway.
Favorite gift received: ahhh, a tie between my Keurig and Nook Color! I feel so spoiled, but I love them both!
This is awesome!!!! What a great keepsake. I should see if there's anything of my mom's left to make something for Adrian.
I tried to do up a keep sake with old jammie pants this year. My mom (who died when I was 15) gave us jammies every Christmas. The last pair she gave me finally ripped. I reinforced the fabric and made numbers for an advent calendar. There's 24 stockings and mittens hung with close pins with numbers on them. Perfect for stuffing mini candy canes and hershey kisses to use as a candy advent calendar..
I ended up with the flu on Christmas day, so that was definitely my least favorite gift (DH had it on the 23rd). It didn't really come on until noon, so I was able to enjoy the morning before spending the rest of the day in bed.
We kept things simple for ourselves this year and bought a few things on sale around Black Friday for Christmas gifts (small flat screen tv for bedroom, Wii Fit Plus, popcorn popper), but have been using them already. One thing I was excited about was using a WalMart gift card from my uncle to by Just Dance 2 for the Wii. Normally I would just use it for groceries or things we need, but I decided to treat myself to a real gift. So fun!
The best part of Christmas was seeing Eli's excitement. He didn't totally get the whole concept, but loved talking about Santa and knew that it was a special day. One of his favorite toys was a race track for his mini tonka cars (which I have to add was 75% off at Target this summer for $4.24!) Once we set it up and showed him how to use it he said "It's awesome!" which I had never heard him say before. So so cute! He is also now obsessed with "presents!" and "cookies!" and just randomly asks for them all the time.