Any special Christmas gifts of note, received or given?

[Darrell KSR]

The best gifts are being together with family. But are there any special gifts you'd care to mention? Doesn't have to be anything expensive, in fact, my favorites are ones that are not expensive at all.

A couple of note.

I was pretty happy with the "car bags" I put together for everyone with cars. Thanks to all here for the suggestions. Was funny to let them read the list the elves had prepared, together with descriptions on how they saw them possibly using each item. Had a lot of fun with that with my mechanically dis-inclined family, but I hope they have some very basic things in there that they could use.

Going to post the gift that got the biggest laugh in a minute. I'll explain it after I post the pics. I accompanied my wife shopping last week late one night (not unusual for us; we hit Kohls, which was open 24 hours). Anyway, l was just tagging along, providing "protection" and my wallet, and I saw this item and had to have it, even though I wasn't sure who was going to get the gift. She tried to talk me out of it, said it was a waste, and instead, it turned out to be a hysterical hit. Hang on for pics.

[Darrell KSR]

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[Darrell KSR]

Now, I'll set this up.

The box is a "prank" box. You may have seen these before; I had not. My 16-year old daughter has an adopted cat, "Mittens." She constantly tells us that if the house is on fire, she'd save Mittens before any of us. Anyway, she dearly loves this cat.

The box is an empty box. You put whatever you want in it. We put her high school class ring (we used to get our "senior" ring in our "senior" year; apparently my kids' school orders them the beginning of their junior year. Packed it with some packing material and put the ring box in it so it had some heft, but wasn't very heavy.

Anyway, she opened it, and couldn't figure out if it was the best gift she had ever received (for her cat) or the worst. Her mouth opened wide--I have a great picture of it--and she was laughing hysterically, as was her 23-year old sister sitting next to her. After a couple of minutes, she finally told her to open the box, and that's when she learned it was just a prank box.

My poor, naive 16-year old, oblivous child. I loved it.

The "regular" price was $12, and it was on sale for 50% off, or $6. Best $6 present I bought, and the most fun we had with any gift.

Well, maybe except for my son's drone. That was pretty fun, too. :)

My oldest daughter who lives in Nashville also has a cat, and a housemate. She begged to take the box back to wrap up her friend's present to give to her to pull the same prank.

[suncat05]

Another Christmas, and no new guns! Darn it! I'm beginning to think my family thinks that I think that guns are way too important in my life, and instead wish to substitute new T-shorts and underwear as "needs". :Christz_pillepalle:

[kingcat]

Pocket knives from Red Hill Cutlery (http://redhillcutlery.com/) were my theme this season. Gave my son a CASE XX and son-in-law a nice Remington knife. The owner and I are old high school friends and they are pretty much right next door to me.
A great place to walk in and look around if anyone is in the area. the website doesn't tell the whole story.

Oh yeah, I secretly gave myself a Case XX Peanut with red bone on one side and green on the other. Super sharp right out of the tin. :653:

Really love pocket knives.

[Darrell KSR]

Pocket knives from Red Hill Cutlery (http://redhillcutlery.com/) were my theme this season. Gave my son a CASE XX and son-in-law a nice Remington knife. The owner and I are old high school friends and they are pretty much right next door to me.
A great place to walk in and look around if anyone is in the area. the website doesn't tell the whole story.

Oh yeah, I secretly gave myself a Case XX Peanut with red bone on one side and green on the other. Super sharp right out of the tin. :653:

Really love pocket knives.
Love it. That's the kind of gift I like. Something you would really enjoy, wouldn't necessarily buy for yourself on a day to day basis, but really appreciate receiving as a gift. Even one you give yourself.

[kingcat]

For the grand kids the theme was Star Wars and Frozen gifts. I even bought the old Operation game for everyone, except it was R2D2 and all his movie techno noises. :)

[CitizenBBN]

the perfect gift for the man who has everything: penicillin. ;)

[PedroDaGr8]

A bunch of super-geeky stuff.

A nice set of 100% german screwdrivers, the Wiha ESD-safe Master Precision Technician Kit. Has a variety of screwdrivers (flat, philips, hex, torx, pentalop, nut drivers) and a 72-tooth mini ratchet. Very very high quality I have to say.

http://i.imgur.com/sG7hAYOl.jpg (http://imgur.com/sG7hAYO)

Plus a couple of electronics books (The Art of Electronics and one other).

Also, my BIL is a farrier and welded together a horseshoe wine/beer bottle rack. It is VERY nice.

[dan_bgblue]

Pedro, I would love to see a picture of the wine rack. I have a very good friend that is a horse enthusiast and a wino. I would love to get some ideas on how to build one for him.

Thanks

[dan_bgblue]

I got a real pair of socks, and a framed picture of my precocious grand daughter standing beside my truck to which she has just applied a Duke magnet to the driver side door.

[PedroDaGr8]

Pedro, I would love to see a picture of the wine rack. I have a very good friend that is a horse enthusiast and a wino. I would love to get some ideas on how to build one for him.

Thanks
Sure, here you go.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160102/54f7d7b1ac1c0ac4f999a85a531650dc.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160102/27a6b90285fccd8eaeb41e20ad0415d7.jpg

He also pounded out a couple of robust bottle openers out of horse shoes:

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160102/9f427450762149b776cf88ef7f174cd1.jpg

They have a very rustic style to them.

[dan_bgblue]

Thank you very much for sharing!

[KSRBEvans]

Mrs. BEvans and I got each other FitBit Charge HRs, which do a bunch of things like measure your steps, heart rate, sleep quality, even has a watch feature and caller ID. I find geeky stuff like My Fitness Pal and fitness apps like Run Keeper help me eat better and exercise more, so I'm hoping the FitBit wil help with that, too (as well as help with more sleep).

Probably the best gift I gave this year was an Amazon Fire Tablet for my mother. Great little $50 reader, plus runs apps and does email, too. She was thrilled, which made me happy.

[blueboss]

Many years ago my grandmother (mom's side) gave my Dad what she thought was a gold cross which actually turned out to be an anchor for a Christmas gift. It was always kind of a inside family joke.

Anyway some years later my mother took some of their old gold jewelry they had laying around and had it melted down into a medallion, and since they had a houseboat on the river, going with a nautical theme she had the gold anchor melted in on top of the medallion and gave it to my Dad for a birthday present. From that point on he never took it off and wore it for years.

My Dad slipped me a small box on Christmas and told me it was a little side gift he wanted me to have. Yep,it was the gold chain and the medallion.

Since my Mom passed away several years ago, and knowing that the medallion contains gold from some of her jewelry, as well as my Dads gold, along with the "holy anchor" I was deeply honored.

Now I'll never take it off... Greatest present ever in the history of presents.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Darrell KSR]

Many years ago my grandmother (mom's side) gave my Dad what she thought was a gold cross which actually turned out to be an anchor for a Christmas gift. It was always kind of a inside family joke.

Anyway some years later my mother took some of their old gold jewelry they had laying around and had it melted down into a medallion, and since they had a houseboat on the river, going with a nautical theme she had the gold anchor melted in on top of the medallion and gave it to my Dad for a birthday present. From that point on he never took it off and wore it for years.

My Dad slipped me a small box on Christmas and told me it was a little side gift he wanted me to have. Yep,it was the gold chain and the medallion.

Since my Mom passed away several years ago, and knowing that the medallion contains gold from some of her jewelry, as well as my Dads gold, along with the "holy anchor" I was deeply honored.

Now I'll never take it off... Greatest present ever in the history of presents.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Very nice, blueboss.

[kingcat]

Many years ago my grandmother (mom's side) gave my Dad what she thought was a gold cross which actually turned out to be an anchor for a Christmas gift. It was always kind of a inside family joke.

Anyway some years later my mother took some of their old gold jewelry they had laying around and had it melted down into a medallion, and since they had a houseboat on the river, going with a nautical theme she had the gold anchor melted in on top of the medallion and gave it to my Dad for a birthday present. From that point on he never took it off and wore it for years.

My Dad slipped me a small box on Christmas and told me it was a little side gift he wanted me to have. Yep,it was the gold chain and the medallion.

Since my Mom passed away several years ago, and knowing that the medallion contains gold from some of her jewelry, as well as my Dads gold, along with the "holy anchor" I was deeply honored.

Now I'll never take it off... Greatest present ever in the history of presents.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

yep..a great story among several here.. Thanks for sharing that.