Yeah I hear you... Even though I've put on some pounds as I've got older, it's still true that many "small" shirts and sweaters would hold 2 or 3 of me. So what do I get for Christmas? Large... Large.. Large...

Make sure it's the Grammar Police. She just looooves us, err, I mean, them. :love:

I don't want Sting's newest CD where he plays ancient instruments and sings ancient songs.

I thought I did, and even put it on my list before listening to samples on Amazon. But boy, it's a stinker. Unfortunately, in the 24 hours between putting it on my list and taking it off again, my mom three states away had gone out and bought it for me. She was at my relatives' for Thanksgiving, and later tried to pawn it off on all my cousins there, but was met with much mocking and ridicule. Actually, I imagine the mocking and ridicule was directed at me. She finally had to return it. She gets major point for the ordeal I put her through.

I saw Sting on Public TV last night, a typical "give us money" special, designed to drain funds from Baby-Boomers like myself. Sting, playing an ancient instrument (which sounded like a cheap guitar but looked like something Mr. Spock might have played), singing a James Taylor song, in whose honor the entire shebang was being thrown...and filmed.

Looked good in HD, though, and there were many *killer* performances therein...Dr. John and Taj Mahal, Keith Urban (yeah, I was amazed, too, and with Nicole looking rather fine in the audience, too) and Allison Kraus.

We do not have a "don't want" problem at our house as we sort of wrapped up the gift issue in one fell swoop by buying the 42" plasma tv on Black Friday, using windfall money that had been in custody of the state for the last 18 years without my knowledge...until Selene discovered and liberated it.

Cool, huh?

EEEKS, just listened to some samples on Amazon. I used to love Sting back in college but he has just progressively grated on my nerves since. So full of himself.

I like Sting, and I like classical music. I saw Sting perform Fields of Gold on his mandolin thingy on "Studio 60" and thought it sounded great. I assumed the album was old Sting songs sung with accompanying ye olde tyme instruments. But it's not. Not at all.

For Christmas I don't want

A stick in the eye
lingerie
a gift certificate for a colonoscopy
Boy George
A steaming heap of groat custard
Rock Hudson's rotted corpse
a handgun
An 8X10 glossy of U.G.
more debt
ingrown toenails

I could go on, and on....

a draft card

a bj... oh wait this is what we don't want for Christmas... never mind then :smack:

My brother tried saying that to us in the past, "I'm too poor to get you presents, so don't get me one". I have never bought anyone a present because I expected them to give me a present, I have always bought them as a symbol of my affection. So I regularly ignored my brother's exhortations. I'd like to think he understood.

I love to give. Even if it is a batch of cookies or fudge. The best cooks I know are male friends and have taught me the value of such overtures. Or at least how to make them better.:p

Which has nothing to do with those who want to give gifts to you.

mmmm....... last year I had a couple of collapsed lungs and spent Christmas & New Year in hospital.... if it's all the same to you, I'd like to pass on that one this year.

Other than that, I'm grateful for whatever. It's nice to know that some-one thought of you.

My parents are coming up to see me the weekend before Christmas. So they're spending the money on petrol and a hotel instead of a present, which benefits all three of us instead of just me. And of course for me spending time with them is a better present anyway.

My brother isn't as into presents as the rest of us. If you say to him, "No presents this year" he'll just go along with it.

And that's it on the present front - I don't have hordes of people queuing up to shower me with gifts.

I'm making cards for the above, which I hope shows more love than spending the money/ vouchers they would send me on presents to send back to them.

As I was typing this, my Mum called to say she's booked the hotel. I have something to look forward to now :)

Yep, SG, that is what it is all about. Even in the past, when I have fretted about not being able to get for people what I want to give (and I also tell my family I don't want anything...but they don't listen) Christmas comes and I am with my family, laughing and joking...that's the best gift I could ever get, and I count myself extremely lucky for having it.

Cheers to everyone, whatever holiday you might celebrate, and take time to show your loved ones how much you care.

:)

I don't want my sister's to give me anymore T shirts that are 2 sizes too small or too large and have stupid stuff silk screened on them, like "Save the Manatees" or "I Love Vancouver" (never been there anyway).

I don't want a 22 inch non stick frying pan (I returned the one they gave me for my birthday). I rarely make an omelet for 15 people!

I don't want anymore wierd flavored vinegars or olive oils from the gift shop of the Trappist Monastery in Conyers, Georgia. I haven't used the ones they gave me last year or the year before.