for taking DH's absolute inabilty to choose me a nice present so bloody personally and not faking gratitude

[halohasslipped]

Dh has just landed after being away for a while. Beautiful clothes for DC's and a travel toiletry bag for me. Having told him about a month ago that i hate his toiletry bag as it's so cumbersome to pack i feel so gutted. I REALLY wasn't expecting anything, so knowing he went out and then got something so wrong really upsets me. You still have to put stuff in plastic bags anyway before you put it in so it renders it all pretty useless and it was quite expensive.

He's upset and i'm upset and i feel like such a bitch because i failed to lie and pretend i like it.

Christmas 1969, PFB expected within the month, money extremely tight, DH & I agree a limit of £2 for our presents to each other.

I was happy with this because I knew he really wanted the new Guinness Book of Records (price £1-19s-6d) which I bought. Guess what he got for me?

Yep, GBOR - but there was a happy ending . Took my copy back, sale now on, exchanged for Sunset Song trilogy, my favourite book of all time.

PS: Same Christmas, my parents, fully aware of our hardupness, gave us an electric carving knife!!!! made a lovely job of a tin of spam.

If you are wanting your DH to grow an empathy gene and somehow just know what you would like, then take the time while away on business or holiday to seek out such a gift for you, then you need to wake up and smell the coffee. He's a man. Cut the barcode or front portion off your favourite perfume box or similar from something you love and use a lot (make up or other cosmetics ), stick it to a piece of paper upon which you have written the exact details of the item and tell him to hand it to the nice lady in the duty free shop. Surprise! You get what you want / need / like and everyone's happy.

I see your crap gifts and raise you this bountiful Christmas Day offering:

A very small wooden bowl from Tesco marked "£1.99 reduced to clear".
A tin opener. From the dog.
A pair of pink ankle socks (wrong size, vile colour) from the dcs but not chosen by them.

We were not struggling for money but ex-h was struggling to be arsed with present giving.

PS. I have never packed a "toiletry bag" for any adult partner. If they are old enough to go on holiday without the mother or in the charge of Akela then they are old enough to do their own packing. Regardless of how badly.

"their" mother.

Once, I saw a black kettle that I really liked. DP at the time (now DH) duly filed that thought away and I got it a few months later for Xmas. Um, not what I was really expecting or wanting for Christmas. HOWEVER, he had listened to me say I liked something and bought it for me and that was what I had to remember. I think this is a case very similar - your DH listened to you and bought it. He isn't to know it was wrong.

Oh and after I had married DH, he did get better at presents. After one work trip to Washington, he returned with a Tiffany necklace.

If I got 'given' the anchor for a boat that wasnt mine I'd be tempted to insist it was a nice decoration for the garage living room and insist it sat there at least until something better had been bought plus lots of grovelling

I can't beat anyone with this but dh did get me a book by a comedian I hated and he liked once. I've never read it. He also bought me a memory card for his camera. He does get it right though mostly. I am heavily hinting telling him outright that I would like a kindle

Oh and he did say when our Hoover was dying that he could buy a new one "for me" as a present. I think my words were along the lines of fuck off no chance.

My dp once bought me an atlas for christmas, I was less than impressed even less so when he said, "My mum would have loved an atlas like that!" She ended up with the atlas. To be fair to him thiswas early in our relationships and his presents have been amazing ever since.
A friends now ex husband bought her a briefcase for christmas 3 years running, She was a teaching assistant at the time so didn't need it. With a week he started using it himself, 3 tears running. I'd have beaten him to death with the fecking thing and then chopped him up and buried him in it for less than that.

I have posted here before about the Snakes.

I was meant to get 3-dimensional unicorn earrings in heavy silver. Despite being told by my bf where to get said earrings and her offering to take him there to purchase them, he left it til 5 to 5 the day before my birthday and ran to the local shops (we do not live in a shopping mecca).

I would imagine it went like this:

DH (in mild desperation): Unicorns! I need unicorn earrings!!
Oik in H Samuels: Nah, mate, ain't got none. What else does she like?
DH: Erm... dragons?
Oik: We got snakes...
DH: Sold!

So I got cheap H Samuel thin gold (I don't wear gold) snakes shaped like the Whitesnake logo, in a fetching earring and necklace combo. Apparently this was 'better' because I got a necklace as well....

However we do laugh about this, at least he tried (a bit). I don't laugh about my owl-and-William-Morris-obsessed mum buying me a glass paperweight in a William Morris owl pattern one Christmas. I don't have a desk, or much in the way of paperwork. She does. Guess where the owl lives now?

I think a tan vinyl suitcase probably has the edge on those two though...:)