I'm also sucking at gifts this year except for teh kids. I bought my parents steak. And my brother and his wife are getting preserves/curds/shortbreads. I bought K a hippo for Christmas (because of the song).

I know my parents' tastes pretty well, it's just...they have plenty of stuff and don't really want more. So I tend towards practical, or just...charity. Books, except they buy them regularly, so are likely to already have something I find interesting (we have similar tastes.) Ehn.

Also (random) I need to get better about getting a new vial of insulin before I'm down to the last 3/4, because Mister Kitty's picked up a lot with the new vial this week. Guessing the old one was losing viability. Uhg, makes me feel crappy for making him probably feel crappy. I was worrying he seemed to be losing weight, but didn't make the connection until this weekend.

Quote from my mom, "Well. I don't know what your dad wants. Anytime I figure out he wants something, he's already bought it for himself."

@@

Aggravating parents.

I love frankentrees! I don't know if you remember my parents', but OMGYES frankentree. I would insist on every ugly homemade ornament go up and cheesy ones to boot. I love it, it is our family history.

I kinda miss it.

I will start my OB hunt tomorrow

due to internet issues you all have missed my diabetes rant -- which is good. I'll sum it up because my basic idea is important.

Diabetes comes with a barrel of guilt. Listen a little and you will hear "lose weight and you will not get diabetes". So whoever has it, gets to feel guilty for not preventing it. and then the word control is used. For a disease that is progressive. So there are a lot of factors that decide if you get it. and once you have it, you can really only influence it. if you want to help - Don't talk about food. Make healthy food available, but don't talk about the cake. And make opportunities for more time on the feet. As my doctor says -- in this case exercise means move the big muscles , not sweat

My parent's are easy to shop for. My brother is the hardest...he's not exactly chatty, so it's hard to know what he wants and he usually gets what he wants for himself anyway. I usually end up getting him a shirt, or something small and out of left field plus a gift card. I got him a set of Top Gear DVDs this year, because he's into cars. But I am not sure if he'll really like it.

Really glad we stopped buying gifts in my family. We just get together and eat and drink. It's definitely less stressful.

Usually we do a big group gift but this year my siblings abandoned me. Buttheads.

Honestly, other than the kids, I wish we'd do that. Though for brother and SIL, more than happy to give cash or gift cards or buy specific needs. The rest of us, ehn.