Five days to go and drawing a blank on what to get the wife for Christmas. I'm probably not the only guy on the forum in this predicament. I posted here because alot of you guys are similar in age and have been married awhile. What did you get your better half this year (or plan to by Tuesday)?

 

My advice probably won't help you much. My wife is a geek. She is a huge fan of anythign the director Josh Whedon produces; Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, etc. She's also a huge Tolkien fan (Lord of the Rings, Hobbit, etc). So, this makes my life easy. This year I got her all of the LOTR and Hobbit Lego sets.
Last year I got her replica of "The One Ring" that she wears in place of a wedding ring (she lost her original years ago when we were hiking)

Life is good. Good luck with whatever you come up with
Bobby

 

I'm in a similar predicament.
I'm having an antique table refinished for her, but that won't be done until after Christmas.
She also requested to have her wedding ring re-sized and plated with platinum (actually it seems that it's rhodium), but that came too late to get done in time.....

I'm going to get her a month of tanning. These short days really get her down (I think we will be moving South when we retire...)
She wants a black gel watch, so I got the only one I could find. A gal at work doesn't think it has enough bling (and I agree, my wife loves bling) so she is also looking for me.

I need a couple of small items for her to open since the table won't be ready. I SUCK at shopping, shoot I don't even buy my own clothes....now a days if someone wants something, they buy it. Well that makes it more difficult to buy presents.

 

I was very lucky this year as about a month ago she mentioned something she would like to have. Pastels, to take the artist in her a new direction.

 

I just open the wallet for the grandkids now and Linda is so hard to buy for and the fact she said to give her money so I do that, it might not be the right size but it is always the right color. The greatgrandkids we do shop for or I should say she shops for them,I'm too lazy, Garry

 

shoot, i knew i forgot someone. thanks for the reminder. off to the thrift store.

 

Last year it was a skydive jump. This year we bought each other a common present - $3k in interest off the mortgage.

 

My wife gives me a list with about 50 things she would like. I pick a few and she seems to be happy. She woukld really like an I-Pad mini, but there are none around. Have a Merry Christmas goy's

 

One of these wind deflectors...........
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/360508584668?...84.m1438.l2649

for this Mustang

 

Hopefully at least $5.00

 

I've been a jewelry designer/goldsmith for 30 years, I do rhodium plating, but as a friend I'll tell you not to do it.
If it's because she wants to change the ring's color, it will not last a year before wearing thru. It's a waste of money and will end up looking terrible when it wears, and it's not reversible.
If it's a standard band, buy her a replacement in white gold or platinum, and it will last the rest of her life. Yes the price of precious metals today makes it a bit pricey, but I can help make it a whole lot less painful (retail jewelers are taking advantage of the high metal prices to add extra profit margins to make up for the slow economy), and if we got on it today or tomorrow it could still happen by Xmas. If it's a fancy band, I could duplicate it for you, just not before Xmas (you could give her a gift certificate for the duplicate, and ship me the original to work from ASAP) I can turn around a duplicate in white gold in a week after receiving it, and 4 weeks in platinum.
FTE friends you owe it to yourselves to talk to me before buying any jewelry and/or gemstones. If I can't save you money/give you a higher quality product, I can definitely give you an education on how/what to buy. PM me if you need help.

 

I LOVE working in soft pastels! If she takes her art seriously, buy high quality, I prefer Rembrandt. Warning: pro quality is not cheap, buy at a discounted supply like Jerry's Artarama or Dick Blick. Just to make things interesting Rembrandt soft pastels come in 208 different colors, tints and shades! Along with the pastels also buy her a pack of 25 sheets of 400 grit and pack of 600 grit wet or dry sandpaper from a body supply or online. I'm serious, wet or dry sandpaper is the surface of choice for most pastel artists, and the dark grey color ground makes the subtle shades pop. Soft pastels give a soft translucent glow, making them especially ideal for portrait work, but the finished drawing needs to be handled with great care, it is easily smudged or damaged by moisture, touching with the hand or bumped/rubbed against something. They need to be matted behind but not touching glass. You can spray the drawing with fixative, but that changes (IMHO SPOILS) the very character of a pastel drawing. Test it to be sure she likes the look before using on a "keeper" drawing. I can offer suggestions on how to make a carrying/temporary display box.

In addition to soft pastels (they are VERY soft and smooth like compressed face powder) There is hard pastels (more like colored pencils in stick form) and oil pastels (kinda like oil paint in stick form, very brilliant and can be extended, blended, and intensified by dipping into or brushing over with solvent)
If she likes pastels, she should give colored pencils (again artist's not kids quality) a try.

 

For my wife and I each day is an opportunity to give each other gifts...why wait for a given date on the calendar, give as the occasion arises. She really appreciates a nice card on Christmas and her birthday but as for a gift, that is not such a big deal we usually buy a joint gift for the both of us on Christmas. I guess this all started after she told me how hard it was to find a suitable gift for me, she told me that I always buy what I need when I need it and never wait until Christmas or a birthday so she can give it to me as a gift. Now if either of us expresses a need or desire for something the other has an opportunity to "give a gift". I think that this Christmas we will be giving ourselves a new TV...

 

Well im not married, but im planning on taking my girlfriend out and leting her pick out what she wants.

 

Even though we haven't had much snow around here yet my wife is always, always complaining she is cold so when I was at the wholesalers I found a heated coat made by Milwaukee with front and back heat zones and heated pockets. Takes a rechargeable lithium battery. So I bought it then last week we seen some heated coats in Calgary and she says: OMG I need one of these!!! It's so cold!. HA, got it right for once...