Today, I want to know what you would like to have this year for Christmas. I want to know what material gift(s) you want. Is it a particular kind of clothing – perhaps a cashmere coat? Maybe a beautiful ring or necklace. A boat? A car? A new gun? What kind?
Perhaps a new puppy?
Think of what you really want, and be specific. Your ideas may help your other stellars select gifts for their loved ones!
I would like a trip to Scotland. I may have to gift myself.
If you are fresh out of ideas for your loved ones, fortunately there are great gift guides on the web. Here’s just one of them, from Esquire:
Let. Us. Know!
Stella's Place 
To see Glen Hansard in concert 🙂 .
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To go to my grandfather’s homeland of Norway–Specifically Eggum Lofoten Norway
For many many years this has been my wish..
I do believe that if everything works out I will be going next year. I have several cousins whom I have only talked to on FB, who will be putting me up, so that will make the trip a little bit more bearable.
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To have my entire family, all five living generations, sit down to a Christmas dinner while we all can.
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That is so lovely.
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Not likely to happen though.
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Never say never. I thought I’d never see Norway since it is one of the most expensive countries to visit. Yet now I have relatives that I have never met that want me to come & want to put me up.
However, my saying is
If you stop dreaming you stop living.
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Yeah, but with them all spread over the US and most not talking to each other it’s neigh on to ‘ain’t gonna happen’. I did have us all together at my middle son’s wedding about nine years ago, picture of it is a fav, but that’s about.
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I would like one more Christmas with my cousin.
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I get the GGS and will get a new grandson around Mardi Gras time (the 4 July son is the daddy) so I’m grateful I get at least that much. Lotta long gone friends that I had memorable Christmases with (Vietnam comes immediately to mind) and most of them are gone so I get those memories and will lift a glass and share some spirits with the spirits on Christmas night.
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I’m not ready for my cousin to die. He is of course less ready he is 54 years old. We are hoping he makes it to Christmas. I have had friends pass, I even had a cousin (different family) die when she was only 9 but there is something particularly painful in this death.
Maybe it is because I grew up with him, he has always been part of my life, there is no memory of meeting him, we simply always have been. Other than his sister we are the closest two of the family.
He has no children, no wife, no significant other, I am having a very hard time letting him go.
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I feel pressed to say that I never meant to suggest his passing, far from it. I was just commenting on how many of my friends who survived the war have not survived the peace.
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My first post wasn’t really clear. I’m sorry. I am just having a hard time with his illness and imminent passing. It is nothing you said Czar.
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Sorry to hear that he’s ill. An issue here too as Mom will be ‘here’ for this Christmas but not really ‘here’.
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Sorry Czar, that is hard, my parents are here, my dad less so on some days.
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It’s all what you make of it.
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True. I try to get to see them as often as possible, my sister lives two houses away from them, when her husband retires I will likely move down nearer to them.
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Sounds like a plan, make what you can.
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I’m so sorry lovely. I’ll be praying for you both.
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Thank you Menagerie I can ask for nothing more.
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Yes, five is pretty special, and in my experience was short lived. That’s a great wish, and I hope y’all make it happen, soon.
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As I said elsewhere, I got that wish once but that’s most likely going to be it. It’s greedy to ask for the same wish again after you got it once.
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I want a mommy vacation for 4 days to a spa or just a really nice hotel so I can sleep in and dont have to do the housework. My caveat is though my own house must be cleaned while Im gone and my son must be well taken care of by daddy. If only….
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My brothers name is Gil, always funny to me to associate that name and “mommy” terms. Going to him this weekend and will be sure to let him know!
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I remember those days. Sometimes my husband would come home and I would just hand him a baby and leave the house for a few hours. It was rejuvenating. Sometimes he would call after work and say don’t wait dinner on me I need some quiet time. Understood.
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Mine works nights, so essentially, I am responsible for the totality of childcare, housework, appointments, bookkeeping, cooking, pet care, and some yard work, all the holiday type things, school for the kiddo. My time is late night if im not too tired. Eventually Ill get some time.
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This time goes so fast that when you turn around you won’t believe it. I know everyone says that but it is true, I miss the harried days of my girls childhood but I know how draining it can be also and how as a young mom you crave that sanity time.
My husbands job kept him away for days at a time some weeks, those were days that tried my soul.
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I would love to have those days back. The happiest time of my life was when my kids were little.
I tell my daughter that all the time, you wake up one morning and wonder how your babies grew up so fast.
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Good to see you Michelle, it is amazing how fast the time goes isn’t it?
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Yes it is.
I’ve been around, but it seems every time I start to write something either the phone is ringing, an animal is escaping or my grandson is coming in yelling, “Nanny where are you?” That’s when the internet isn’t going out or the electric isn’t blinking on and off.
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Understood completely! 🙂 .
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Our friend got to come home for Thanksgiving. He has to go back for a week or so for some more skin graphs but he should be home for Christmas.
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That’s really good news!
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He’s working hard at learning how to do everything again. He’s determined he’s going to be able to go back to work after the 1st of the year.
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That is beautiful news! So happy for him, his family and friends, I imagine it was a huge boost to his spirit. There really is no place like home ❤️.
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How is your cousin?
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Not well. We are hoping he makes it through Christmas. The doc will give him whatever drugs he wants but everything is palliative now.
Five foot nine and under a hundred pounds.
I’m going to see him tomorrow.
He has to go to a wake and really doesn’t want to go, I’m hoping he changes his mind and doesn’t go, I know it will really depress him.
He wants to go to Vito and Nicks a famous Chicago Pizzeria one last time so I said that is what we’ll do.
Thanks for asking Michelle ❤️. Thankfully he still has his hysterical sense of humor. We have lots of good memories we talk about.
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I’m sorry Lovely. Cancer is a horrible disease.
I read the other day about them transplanting a uterus into a woman. I couldn’t help but think to myself ya can spend all this money figuring out how to do that, yet still no cure for cancer.
Getting old in general kind of sucks, I was going through pictures last night and looking at all the family who is no longer here. Some of course died from old age, but a lot who died from cancer.
Sometimes I wish I could go back to when I was young and all those people were still here.
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Me too.
I want to see on a sun warmed concrete porch in Chicago, I want to hear and feel the laughter unmitigated by reality.
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And thank you Michelle. I just got a call from my best friends son. Amazing how fast time goes, he is 32 .
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I look at my kids and can’t believe they’re grown. It really does seem sometimes like years were just days.
My grandson was looking at old pictures with me and asking who they were, one of me when I was in HS he couldn’t believe was his Nanny. I told him I was young once upon a time and he said, “but now you’re old.” I told him yep but he keeps me young. He said, “are you going to look like that girl?” I laughed and told him nope I’d just keep looking like his Nanny. He said, “I not keep you young then Nanny, you’re funny.” lol
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Your grandson is precious and precocious! What a treasure he is 🙂 . My youngest daughter is 18 she is an old soul though, we listen to music and she ponders what music her children will listen to one day and what they will think of her music. Thankfully she likes all of my music and introduces me to new music all the time.
My youngest is the one who came to me when she was ten and said that she had figured out why time passes quicker as you get older. She said “I’m 10 so 1 year is one tenth of my life is 10% is easy to notice, but if someone is 100 one year is only 1% of their life, that’s easy not to notice.”
Time passes way too fast. I miss the innocence of my girls, but I also appreciate that they have their lives to live. As to grand babies hopefully one day I’ll have some 🙂 .
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https://www.littlethings.com/the-15-most-insanely-expensive-gifts-from-the-neiman-marcus-catalog/
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Like the gift idea link you shared Stella, thanks. And sometimes gifting yourself a gift is the best thing to do. Scotland is very doable, and the sooner the better.
Me? Material, it would be a set of PXG golf clubs, could never justify $5000 on those so would definitely have to be gifted.
Physically it would have to be a new knee, at least one which doesn’t hurt. Would love to run once more in my life.
Mentally, a flame thrower. A la:
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A new knee here would be nice …
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I’ll see that knee and raise you three lower lumbar boneses.
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I need one of those too!
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Ditto on the knee, I need two of them.
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This is a challenge. I can’t think of anything material that I want as a gift that is within reason, and I typically don the think a lot about those things that are not within reason.
I guess I’m going to have to think about this one.
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It doesn’t have to be ‘within reason’. That should help. No limits!
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Here’s one that’s actually doable, except I would have to make it for myself, which takes the fun out of it! Also, I probably just have 24 days of Jack. Nah, actually it would be fun to have some variety
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I want to go back to Scotland as well! I really can’t think of anything I really want materially. A vacay would be nice!
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My son and his family will be traveling a lot over the holidays, up North, and all I want is for them to stay safe.
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I want a tiny cabin outside Yellowstone & a small apartment in Venice. Not asking too much, eh? where is John Beresford Tipton?
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There aren’t too many cities in the world I want to see. Venice is one of them.
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My two favorite places in the world for beauty & multiple points of interest.
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Materially: A Water Pik. My teeth are a lifetime nightmare that has taken thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars in an unsustainable salvage operation. If I had known 25 years ago what I know now, I would have had them all pulled. I’m holding the line with the ones I have left. It’s just discouraging to feel like I have no choice when it really isn’t worth it any more. It feels like whining to say that so it probably is. I have a lot on my plate right now, some of which makes it difficult to keep equilibrium. Oh, well. Everybody’s got stuff and some of it happens in December, and we don’t have to pretend it doesn’t.
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About 15 years ago my sister had to have quite a few teeth pulled. She begged our mom not to tell anybody in the family because she was embarrassed. My mother’s response, “Why, ain’t none of them got any teeth.” Most of them had their teeth pulled in their early 20’s.
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I found out that a woman I know had her teeth pulled in her 20’s and has had dentures for decades. I had no idea.
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In lieu of anything else, I’ll take one or both of the cats in fatigues in the photo at the top of this post. They are cool cats in every sense of the word.
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Being a Dental Technician for over 30 years, I have seen it all! Dentists charge way too much for what they do. A crown made in the lab costs maybe $100, and he will charge in excess of $1000. Never have a root canal! Do research, they can be dangerous to your health! Better to pull it out, and take another route.
The last time I went to a dentist, she charged me $800 for 5 minutes of her time. She replaced a filling that had fallen out! AND she did a crappy job. Floss gets stuck between the new filling and the adjacent tooth, plus the occlusion with the opposing tooth is too high. She is “supposed” to be a good dentist.
I know people who have spent the equivalent of the price of a house for dental work.
I also know of people who have spent thousands of dollars on fancy partials that adapt to 2 teeth only because they want to claim they still have some of their own teeth, lol!
I really feel for you, Sharon, I’ve seen a lot , and it’s like most healthcare. Very little care or health involved.
By the way, water picks are great! I gave one to my Grand daughter for her braces. She just loved it , and now the braces are off, and she has not one cavity at 15 yo.
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Ponies get tired too fast; I want an Iron Horse. 🙂
Harley or Yamaha 650 chopper. 🙂
And space for it in the garage. 🙂
Ok, that’s probably not a gift idea for too many people.
Maybe a kitchen chopper, like a food processor or mandeline.
Or a book that will teach me some new guitar chops.
MMmm, lamb chops. 🙂
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I don’t really want any material things. I just can’t wait for Christmas morning. My grandson is so excited this year it’s contagious. I’m just blessed that my daughter lets us be a part of him seeing his presents from Santa and getting to watch him open his presents this year.
He saw on the morning news one morning that the kids needed to write their letters to Santa and take them to the post office. He made his mama help him write his letter, all he wanted was race cars and cool toys. Then she had to drive him to town to the post office because that’s what they said and Santa wouldn’t get the letter if she put it in the mail box. lol
When I asked him what he wanted Nanny and PaPa to get him for Christmas he said, “race cars and books.” Him and Gracie both love books, you can’t read to one without reading to both. 🙂
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