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11-06-2012 at 11:07 PM
Svenny1011
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Svenny1011 is not online. Last active: 05-19-2013, 11:58 AMSilver

NTTGP: I know this is early but (holiday question)....

I'm getting overwhelmed with the thought of all the people we'll be hosting for Christmas already. DH will be traveling for 2 weeks in early December, so I'll be stressing about the prep alone. Soooo, I'm asking for your help with gifts / stockings. I posted this over on The Nest too.....

We're hosting Christmas this year for the first time. I'm excited b/c I love to entertain, but am a little overwhelmed with all the people. My in-laws (parents + 2 brothers + 1 girlfriend) are traveling across the country, and my parents are driving up. So lots of people, many of which who don't really know each other well. Actually, the girlfriend is fairly new. 

Our families do different things. We usually just get my parents and my brother a gift, while my in-laws do the name drawing thing. Since we are all doing it together, and we're not all close with each other, I'm not sure how to handle the gift thing, so I'd love some help here.

I'm also planning on having stockings for everyone, but don't know how to deal with that either.

Does anyone have any fun ideas for stockings and gifts? What if, for gifts only, we name draw just for me, the husband, the brothers and the girlfriend (gifts for each of the parents are just assumed)?

Thanks!  



Married since 2008; TTC #1 since 2011
2 losses - Nov 2011 @ 5w and Aug 2012 @ 5w3d
Dx: HSG shows clear tubes but minor diverticulitis; Borderline DOR; Hormonal imbalance (low DHEA and low testosterone). On to IUI or IVF.

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11-07-2012 at 12:18 AM
aessary03
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aessary03 is not online. Last active: 05-19-2013, 8:20 PMSilver

Do you have a $ amount limit for each person? You could do something fun, like a new pair of pajamas or slippers/christmas socks in the stockings with something personalized, like a small coffee gift card or a small box of chocolates or bottle of wine, etc. ? Are you going to have any time alone with your parents? maybe to prevent things from being awkward, you could arrange a time alone together to exchange gifts and then have them participate in the name drawing if they want. Sounds like itll be a busy family holiday! :)

 

Please excuse bad punctuation/misspellings.....bumping from my new kindle fire hd which is pretty darn cool! 


Me - 32, DH - 32. We have been TTC #2 since January 2012.
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11-07-2012 at 6:53 AM
AbbyMMM
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AbbyMMM is online. Last active: 05-19-2013, 10:12 PMBronze

Svenny1011:

What if, for gifts only, we name draw just for me, the husband, the brothers and the girlfriend (gifts for each of the parents are just assumed)?

We have a big family gathering and gift giving every year (20+ people). It used to be that everyone gave everyone else a present, but that got expensive and started to take a LONG time. For the last few years, we draw names so that each adult is buying one other adult a nice gift. (The little kids get lots of presents from everyone anyway). This is great because the nice gift tends to be something the recipient wants anyway, since they have given a list of ideas to the gift list dispatcher.

To keep it fun, we do the same thing with a crappy gift right after so that every adult gets one nice thing (like a new coat) and one ridiculous thing (like a set of crazy straws). This part of the opening is really fun. Especially if you keep the gift giver's name a secret. 

Good luck and happy shopping!

 


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11-07-2012 at 7:14 AM
bewilderin...
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bewilderingstar is not online. Last active: 02-26-2013, 7:50 AMBronze
You should scope out pinterest. There is a ton of great ideas, cheap and all!

BFP#1: 08/30/12 EDD 04/30/12 m/c 09/04/12 6wks

BFP#2: 01/27/13 EDD 10/06/13 no baby/just sac on u/s 02/25/13 chemical abortion 03/02/13 9wks  

11-07-2012 at 7:52 AM
kgoldsmith...
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kgoldsmith1023 is not online. Last active: 03-18-2013, 8:10 PMBronze
aessary03:

Do you have a $ amount limit for each person? You could do something fun, like a new pair of pajamas or slippers/christmas socks in the stockings with something personalized, like a small coffee gift card or a small box of chocolates or bottle of wine, etc. ? Are you going to have any time alone with your parents? maybe to prevent things from being awkward, you could arrange a time alone together to exchange gifts and then have them participate in the name drawing if they want. Sounds like itll be a busy family holiday! :)

 

Please excuse bad punctuation/misspellings.....bumping from my new kindle fire hd which is pretty darn cool! 

This...I would keep things simple too people like simple and since your family may not know his family well if you do a name exchange make sure they give suggestions for gifts they want. We only buy for the kids these days there are way to many of us and it gets expensive. I agree pinterest may have some good ideas. Good luck! It is nice though that you dont have to run to two different parties!  

 

11-07-2012 at 9:22 AM
comeongetd...
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comeongetdown is not online. Last active: 05-19-2013, 5:12 PMSilver
kgoldsmith1023:
aessary03:

Do you have a $ amount limit for each person? You could do something fun, like a new pair of pajamas or slippers/christmas socks in the stockings with something personalized, like a small coffee gift card or a small box of chocolates or bottle of wine, etc. ? Are you going to have any time alone with your parents? maybe to prevent things from being awkward, you could arrange a time alone together to exchange gifts and then have them participate in the name drawing if they want. Sounds like itll be a busy family holiday! :)

 

Please excuse bad punctuation/misspellings.....bumping from my new kindle fire hd which is pretty darn cool! 

This...I would keep things simple too people like simple and since your family may not know his family well if you do a name exchange make sure they give suggestions for gifts they want. We only buy for the kids these days there are way to many of us and it gets expensive. I agree pinterest may have some good ideas. Good luck! It is nice though that you dont have to run to two different parties!  

Not to thread hijack, but, my hubs said he would have voted for Kevin James in the "sexy man" contest.. He said, "he makes me laugh... and that's really important.."  lol

OP - good luck with organizing Christmas this year!  I agree with whoever said to check Pinterest, I've got a few pins that are all stocking stuffers, lots of cheap & easy ideas too!


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11-07-2012 at 3:20 PM
hopeful808
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hopeful808 is not online. Last active: 05-19-2013, 8:30 PMNewbie

You could see if people are interested in doing a yankee swap for the adults and maybe a second one for the kids if needed. My family did this last year and it worked out great. There are 25 people and it's waay too expensive to buy gifts for everybody. It was fun because unlike with a name pull where there was the stress of finding a gift for someone that you only see once a year. You just have to get a gift that at least someone would like. It was really fun because everybody picked gifts that people would like and it made it interesting because people were coveting some of the gifts. Special favorites were pretty wine glasses with a bottle of wine, chocolate mousse cups, and a cake pop maker. 

                                  The Hopeful808 Family Yankee Swap Rules

The way we did the swap was everybody brings a wrapped gift. The gifts go in one pile, and everybody draws a number. The person who draws #1 gets to go first, they pick a gift and unwrap it. Next, the person who has the 2 goes, they can either steal the gift from #1 or pick a new gift to unwrap. It continues with the person with the next number  who can steal a gift that's been opened or pick a new one. If your gift gets taken you pick a new gift and unwrap it. This goes on until all of the gifts have been unwrapped then person number 1 gets to the option of stealing anyone's present.  We also had a $30 limit on the cost of the gift. 


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