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Anniversary gift ideas


Sbbruin

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1 minute ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

After that long, can you really go wrong with some sort of consumable? Flowers, champagne, chocolates? 

Flowers are a given.  She sells wine so we have champagne coming out of our ears.  And she's not really a sweets person.  But good thinking.  At least it was a serious answer.  Buncha jagoffs around here.

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Spa appointments are usually the easy go to.

I suck at gifts though. We don’t buy gifts and just buy what we want which essentially means my wife buys what she wants and I usually buy her something as well. She informed me today that she was replacing her engagement/wedding rings for our 25th and had met with the jeweler to design what she wanted. I would rather be spending $100 on something she doesn’t want than what I found out this is going to cost me.

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sub'd - I've got a similar challenge 

Is there something she already has and uses that has a nicer version you could get her? 

example:  If she likes coffee, get her a fancy machine and a fancy grinder (though a nice one will be > $500)  Be careful around the kitchen stuff.

If she sells wine, maybe a super swanky set of crystal glasses.

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You think it’s tough now. I’ve soon be married 41 years. Wife is in poor health. We don’t do much. Fancy dinners bore us as we have eaten in lots of fancy places and find spending stupid amounts of money on dining disapointing, travel is hard for her, her jewelry stays in a box, we’re trying to downsize and thin out, and money is tight. Gift giving is a challenge. I’m watching here for good ideas.

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9 minutes ago, Texzilla58 said:

You think it’s tough now. I’ve soon be married 41 years. Wife is in poor health. We don’t do much. Fancy dinners bore us as we have eaten in lots of fancy places and find spending stupid amounts of money on dining disapointing, travel is hard for her, her jewelry stays in a box, we’re trying to downsize and thin out, and money is tight. Gift giving is a challenge. I’m watching here for good ideas.

Scrapbook? Download a bunch of pictures and have them printed at Walgreens or wherever of all her grandkids and such.  Get a blank book and put the pictures of all that in there and then tell her she can help you write the captions together for all the pics. 

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20 hours ago, Texzilla58 said:

You think it’s tough now. I’ve soon be married 41 years. Wife is in poor health. We don’t do much. Fancy dinners bore us as we have eaten in lots of fancy places and find spending stupid amounts of money on dining disapointing, travel is hard for her, her jewelry stays in a box, we’re trying to downsize and thin out, and money is tight. Gift giving is a challenge. I’m watching here for good ideas.

Temporary hi-jack, congrats on the 41.  Keep it up and tell her to hang in there.

Now back to our regularly schedule thread of gift ideas.

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22 hours ago, UTPhil2006 said:

Scrapbook? Download a bunch of pictures and have them printed at Walgreens or wherever of all her grandkids and such.  Get a blank book and put the pictures of all that in there and then tell her she can help you write the captions together for all the pics. 

That’s a pretty decent idea for any of these long-term anniversary’s especially as kids have gotten older, grandkids come into play, the realities of life kick in, etc. I’m probably not doing it (any time soon anyways), but I can recognize a good idea

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On 11/3/2023 at 6:53 PM, Sbbruin said:

Flowers are a given.  She sells wine so we have champagne coming out of our ears.  And she's not really a sweets person.  But good thinking.  At least it was a serious answer.  Buncha jagoffs around here.

If this has not been a Surly motto at some point, then it damn well should be the Surly motto at some point.

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At this point, 27ish years, I look for experiences as opposed to things. Weekend in NOLA, concert tickets, etc. A couple years ago, I gave her a day at COTA with the Audi driving experience.

I tell folks if you have the means and your health, take your adventures when you can. We put off a lot of things we wanted to do: trips to Ireland, Spain, Greece etc. hiking tours. Etc. what happened? My industry collapsed and money’s now tight. Worst, wife has severe arthritis, and while her total knee replacements have done great, her spinal degeneration has been terrible. 4 failed spine surgeries and having a fifth huge surgery in a couple weeks. Your life can change quickly in the future; grab life in the present.

Thanks for suggestions and good thoughts!
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I always lean in the direction of experiences and think a weekend getaway, concert tickets, or some other kind of performing arts tickets are good.

Since you live in LA, there must be an overwhelming amount of things to do at all times. Are there any cool things that you’ve somehow managed to skip over in all these years? Maybe an annual event or holiday themed activity that you’ve never done?

If nothing else, pick a nice hotel for a night, book her a session at the spa, and pick a new to you restaurant.

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You think it’s tough now. I’ve soon be married 41 years. Wife is in poor health. We don’t do much. Fancy dinners bore us as we have eaten in lots of fancy places and find spending stupid amounts of money on dining disapointing, travel is hard for her, her jewelry stays in a box, we’re trying to downsize and thin out, and money is tight. Gift giving is a challenge. I’m watching here for good ideas.

Maybe a new live plant for your house? Something nice that she could look at, like a redbud, Japanese maple, or crepe myrtle. Or maybe get some pansies or other winter flowers planted. Or a fiddle fig or something similar indoors.

You live in the FW area I think, so you could do tickets to Bass Hall or Casa Manana. Or take her to the Botanic Garden Lightscape if she can get around that much.

What does she do for personal enjoyment? Reading? TV or movies? Cooking?
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Plant a tree somewhere special to both. Give the kids the same tree with the same advice. 
And forget the trees nominated above. Go Native. Some Texas Oaks or Pecans. If you go Cedar my 84 year old dad is going to cut them down. 
Or just take some viagra and get busy. 

My grandfather planted probably 50000 oaks around north Texas and Ft Worth, though I think he probably planted cotton woods and mimosa trees in Dallas.

He carried a box of big burr oak acorns when he travelled out of state to hand out as Texas sized acorns.

I hate crepe myrtles. Damn weeds.

I am a big believer in planting trees that are meaningful to a couple or family.
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To add a bit to this, I like giving families trees instead of flowers, usually an oak, for funerals. My dad started doing that to honor his father who planted so many trees for folks for free. He had a great idea of a memorial garden to take a undeveloped park in the small town they lived in that was basically a pasture, where folks could buy a tree with a little plaque to eventually cover the place with trees.

There’s something comforting in the cycle of a tree and it’s long life.

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