** Official what did you get thread **

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by JeeberDMack

My parents are retired and have nothing better to do than spend their money. From them we got a 40' Samsung LCD, a Wii, money towards a new washer/dryer set, a boatload of tools, and giftcards for Barnes & Noble and Kohl's. I also got a Home Depot gift card, jeans, a sweater, a wallet, and a work shirt and two ties.

Overall a very successful Christmas.

If your parents are looking into adopting, let me know.

[Karlifornia]

My mom and aunt went in together and got me an Ipod Touch...got a bunch of other little things. Pretty sweet Christmas. Here in a little bit I'm gonna go home and drink some of my whiskey!

[Bad-example]

A few shirts and a c-note.

[Izulde]

A Wii (which I'm not sure I want and debating whether to keep)
The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection
La Petite Lilli DVD (mmm Ludivine Sagnier)
A few Blu-rays (American Gangster, Forbidden Kingdom, that one Japanese Western Tarantino movie)
Tecmo Bowl Kickoff DS (Cool game, but I don't like the post-game reports and I'm still trying to figure out how to get the real teams and players in there)
Chrono Trigger DS (Extremely hyped about this one)
The Dark Knight DVD
Barnes and Noble $35 gift card
Best Buy $100 gift card

Some other stuff I forget just now.

[Lathum]

A sweet Giants Winter Coat
3 Sweaters
3 Dress Pants
Jeans
2 Cargo Pants
a sport coat
2 month WoW gift card
Wii party Games 2
Tiger Woods 09
NCAA 09
2 Wii Moats
A wii moat charger
A DVD player for our bed room
A dremel multi purpose tool
$200 in cash
Blue justin Tuck jersey
Black Mets cap
Giants ski cap
scarf
a book about the 1958 championship game

[tarcone]

A Nike hoodie
Down filled slippers
Gift card from Best Buy
A big Hershys chocolate bar
Socks
Boxers
$500
Subscriptions to Sports Illustrated and ESPN the magazine.
A shirt.
An ice cream scoop filled with antifreeze.
Leather gloves.
DVD the Mist
An Iowa magnetic Tigerhawk
and the best gifts were from my daughters who went shopping at their school Christmas store. They both bought my the same thing, unaware of what the other bought. The gift is a pen that says Dad. AND the pen had a chocolate smelling highliter on it. So I have 2 of those which is cool. I always can use a pen.Especially a pen that smells like chocolate.

I have a couple of Chistmas' left with my wifes Dad and then step family.

[Danny]

My wife and I don't usually do traditional wrap something up and wait for the holiday gift exchanges, at least not for Christmas. We are dealaholics , so we shop/decide on things together for really good deals on stuff we want and buy it. Since the holidays usually have the best deals most of the stuff we buy for the year is during this time. Since Black Friday my wife and I have bought the following stuff for me.

3 pairs of shoes (black Reebok, white converse, brooks running shoes)
Swiss Army Ranger Pocket Knife
A bunch of stuff from hockeyattire.com (11 shirts, 2 hoodies and a hat)
Stuff from ecko.com (hoodie, sweater and 6 shirts)
7 dress shirts (Geofrrey Beane, Arrow and Van Heusen brands)
2 PS2 dual shock controllers and a USB converter to use them on my PC

All for about $325

And then today I ordered a certified refurbished business laptop (Lattitude E6400 upgraded with everything I wanted) from Dell for $720 with coupon, it would have cost almost $1500 customized to my specs from the dell site. I've heard great things about dell refurb, so hopefully it lives up to that.

We'll keep our eyes out for any more deals over the next week or two before going back into super save mode until next holiday season .

From others, pretty much all cash/gift cards with my friends getting us some delivered food gift sets (chocolates, brownies and breakfast).

[MizzouRah]

I've had a Dell refurb for years and my brother is getting ready to get a Dell desktop pc.. he's saving about $200 going with the refurb which has the same warranty as a new one.

[hawk4669]

We decided to concentrate on the kids this year and opted to go light on the gifts to each other. That being said, I love everything I got (and so did the wife):

*Axis and Allies Boardgame (funny story about the order....instead of sending us the game initially they sent us 3 Light Brights! The packing slip indicated it was "hand checked for accuracy" by Hasbro. I could've MAYBE understood if they sent another boardgame in its place....but Light Brights?? They made it right and overnight shipped the game to us.)

*Three new CD's (Alice In Chains, Gaslight Anthem, and Alkaline Trio)

*Metalocalypse Seasons 1 & 2 on DVD

*Variety of Habanero Jams (which I loooooove)

*New Tattoo (which I technically got before X-Mas)

*Dethklok Shirt (currently on back order )

*Variety of Giftcards and Money (from family)

*New Cookware Set and Kitchen Knives (also from family)

Anyways, all was great. Wife (who'll probably post here later) did well...but the kids made out QUITE well this year.

Cheers!

[Philliesfan980]

Reading this thread makes me shake my head - you guys all make out like bandits!! Good for all of you.

Makes me wonder how real this recession really is.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

Laid.

[Danny]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

I've had a Dell refurb for years and my brother is getting ready to get a Dell desktop pc.. he's saving about $200 going with the refurb which has the same warranty as a new one.

Yeah, getting the 3 year warranty is great. I can't wait until it gets here . Plus just in case everything isn't perfect they have a return policy without restocking fee. The return fee and better warranty made it an easy decision to go with this model over the Lenovo I was considering.

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by Philliesfan980

Reading this thread makes me shake my head - you guys all make out like bandits!! Good for all of you.

Makes me wonder how real this recession really is.

As long as one has a reasonably steady job (and income remains stable in forseeable future), it has little effect except that it is a buyer's market. The thing I do like is how many are thinking conservation, even among consumers. The evidence in this thread doesn't scream over-indulgence to me (even though I do wish to see more charity efforts).

[Danny]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

The evidence in this thread doesn't scream over-indulgence to me (even though I do wish to see more charity efforts).

A lot of people don't go around talking about how much they give

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by Danny

A lot of people don't go around talking about how much they give

That's true but there is the encouragement to think of others and especially the stories of how charity actually has helped others. It's never about the amount one gives but the size of a giving heart.

[terpkristin]

It's funny, this year I didn't know what to get for a lot of people on my list, so I kind of felt that I got...mundane things. The exception to this is my nephew, who at 1 and a half years is a really fun age to buy for. I loved being able to spoil him a bit.

/tk

[Danny]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

That's true but there is the encouragement to think of others and especially the stories of how charity actually has helped others. It's never about the amount one gives but the size of a giving heart.

That's true too, and when I said how much I wasn't referring to a dollar amount. Giving money/time/love/effort etc... are all important. Also, people go about giving in different ways. Some give to those less fortunate who they hardly know, others give tremendous amounts to family, friends, church etc.. As you said, it's what it is in their heart that important not what/who they give too necessarily.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

(even though I do wish to see more charity efforts).

M Go Blue got laid so, how much more do you want?

[Philliesfan980]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

As long as one has a reasonably steady job (and income remains stable in forseeable future), it has little effect except that it is a buyer's market. The thing I do like is how many are thinking conservation, even among consumers. The evidence in this thread doesn't scream over-indulgence to me (even though I do wish to see more charity efforts).

You're right Bucc. It seems like it's either a "feast or famine" type scenario. If you have a job, it's pretty much business as usual, if you don't have a job, then it's pretty much nothing.

Do agree on the conservation effort though. People in general are showing restraint that they haven't done in years (see the drop in retail % this season). We will come out of this a lot smarter.

Didn't mean to derail the thread. As for me, I got some Phillies gear/dvds, work clothes, a Brinkers chain restaurant gift card, $150 cash, and a really awesome book with pictures of Phillies from the past 100 years. Out of all the gifts, that was my favorite.

Maybe I'm just getting older, but the simplest gifts are quickly becoming my most favorite gifts. Out of everything I've received this year as a gift (birthday included), my two favorite gifts have been that Phillies photo book, and a Phillies license plate holder. I wish people would just think smaller scale with me and give the rest to their favorite charity.

[Cringer]

Originally Posted by MacroGuru

Lets see...

Family Gift: Rosestta Stone Spanish (Latin America)

Call of Duty - World at War

I am pretty sure I gave you the first one a couple years ago.

World at War on what? If it's PS3 then we need to team up some time in the future online.

[MrDNA]

Originally Posted by mckerney

The Braindead Megaphone by George Saunders

Great book, probably my first or second favorite of his (vying with Pastoralia).

I got Dark Knight DVD
warrrrrrrrrm slippers
a tie rack (actually a request)
an Arrested Development T-shirt