Themed gifts....

Amanda is going strong on her oh ho ho a bloggy Christmas with oh amanda... check it out! She's asking now about any themed gifts we've given or gotten, or even we would like to give... Honestly, I couldn't think of any! Until I remembered.... I sent Amanda one - it was a blue, white, and silver holiday themed gift! Remember? And then I sent this one, which never got to its intended recipient....

But thinking about true holiday gifts that I've given or gotten with themes.... I'm truly at a loss! My aunt and cousins all gave me Christmas ornaments the first year I had my own tree - but they weren't all given together. I think I've given some book-themed gifts - to either my brother or to a close friend, but I can't remember what themes they were (besides books)! Dang this pregnancy brain! I bought my SIL a pre-packaged theme gift from the Pampered Chef last year - their Pizza Party gift set.... hmmm... I've tried several years to "reform" my dad's taste in cheesy jazz by giving him what I consider gifts of good jazz (it's hard to undo 60 years of cheesy jazz, though!).

But if I had a million dollars to give a themed gift... I think I'd like to give my Hubby a "Thank You" themed gift. A "Thank-You-for-all-you-sacrifice-and-do-so-we-can-raise-our-little-family-the-way-the-Lord-wants-us-to" gift.

First of all (and everything could go inside this one), I would give him his dream car, for driving crappy cars for years so that I can drive the boys around in a new, safe car. I think that for a dream car, this is a very realistic choice, and I would really like to make sure he drives one one day.

Then, for the years wearing of hand-me-downs and not buying clothing for himself, I would buy him a new wardrobe.

I would also give him some type of gutter-shield, for the years of climbing up onto the roof to empty out our gutters. And while I'm at it, I think I'd get him at least a year of a lawn service so he can take a break. Well, let's see - installation of a lawn and then a year of care. I think we'd like to do this together with the kids when they start getting older, so if we can get a good lawn established, then we can take over from there.

For the backyard, I'd like to get him a "sports complex." Nothing fancy - just a concrete pad for a basketball hoop (our driveway has no room for one!) and a sand pit volleyball court. We have a nice sized backyard... Hubby loves a pick up game of basketball, and he would play volleyball every night if he could! So instead of having him go to play with others, let others come and play with him! The boys could grow up enjoying these, too.

Then I have to find something to keep his coffee hot! I think I found something like this for his Christmas gift - so I'm not going into too much detail here. But one of his pet-peeves is drinking cold coffee.

The rest of the million (heck, I have the whole million, right? it's my pretend gift!).... I calculate to have spent:

• $25,000 for car (I rounded up a bit from what the website said, so he could get some upgrades)
• $5000 for wardrobe, according to WNTW
• $5000 for installation of gutter shields, lawn, and year of lawn care (only speculating on cost of these items!)
• $5000 for "sports complex" - I think this might be high, but then he could get stocked with nice equipment
• $25 for coffee solution

for a total of $40,025. OK, so I would pay off the mortgage and put the rest in a high-yield account so Hubby would never have to worry about providing what we need again.

There you go! I know a lot of these things I would benefit from, too, but if I could take some of the pressure away from my Hubby so he can enjoy our family more, I think it would be mighty fine!

Merry pretend Christmas, my love...