Anyone else do a big "family" Christmas present?Follow

This tradition started, oh, maybe ten years ago or so, when Mr. Ambrya and I were still setting up housekeeping. Neither one of us are particularly big on celebrating Christmas and tend to lapse into a slack-jawed state of drooling catatonia when attempting to brainstorm gift ideas for other people.

To spare ourselves this ordeal (at least in regards to having to choose presents for one another) we evolved a system of pooling our gift money from various relatives, pitching in the money we would have spent on each other, and buying a fairly big-ticket item that everyone can enjoy. For instance, the first time we did this, we got a 6-speaker home theater stereo system so we could enjoy our surround sound movies properly. We call it the "family" gift.

Of course, now it's a bit harder to do it this way with Tristan, but we still find ourselves leaning in that direction, and just adding on a couple fun "token" gifts we can put under the tree for Tristan to unwrap. Honestly (this year at least) I don't feel compelled to shower him with gift--particularly toys--because he almost never plays with the toys he has. He gets more mileage out of pretending to cook with my rice cooker and crock pot than any other toy he owns. He hasn't bonded with any stuffed animals or dolls, if his blocks make an appearance, it's usually in the role of food to get added to the crock pot or rice cooker game, he'll build with his train set for a short while but quickly gets bored, isn't all that interested in coloring, rarely touches his puzzles. So I don't see any reason to add more stuff he's not going to play with to the stack. Therefore I'll probably get him a few books and maybe a toy vacuum cleaner, since playing with mine is his OTHER favorite game.

This year, Tristan discovered Disney/Pixar movies. I don't have a problem with it because he very rarely actually sits and watches them; he just likes to have them on in the background while he runs around doing other things. Every once in a while he'll sit and watch for maybe 5-10 minutes, then he's off to the next thing, and he's perfectly happy to go outside or read a book or do anything else when a better offer comes along. Since he's in absolutely no imminent danger of becoming a couch potato, I'm okay with letting him have them running. At least he had the good taste to choose movies that don't make me completely crazy to watch again and again.

But I digress. Back to the family present. The first movie Tristan discovered was Finding Nemo, and since I've had an ambition to have a saltwater aquarium for many years now, we decided to take the plunge and finally got one today. Due to budget constraints, we had to keep it small, but we got it. It's now set up with the saltwater and some live sand, and in a few weeks when the nitrate/nitrite cycle is complete and the biological filter established, we'll add some live rock for structure and a few fish. Of course we can't have many because it's only a 15.5 gallon tank.

In honor of his fondness for Finding Nemo, I'm sure we'll have a clownfish and a blue tang, but my personal desire, and by all that is holy I WILL have one of these, this a Mandarin goby. Oh, they're beautiful. We saw one at one of the stores we visited today while pricing equipment and I can only describe its coloration as being tapestry-like. It will definitely be a conversation piece, but I have to wait until the system is well established before I can get one.

Anyway, as to the subject line. Does anyone else do this sort of thing, getting a large "family" gift? If so, what sort of items do you get?

We're doing that. Kids get kid/Santa gifts and Mom and Dad get a family gift. This year we are upgrading our home audio. A few years back we got a nice TV.

We did that in my family for a year or two. 7 kids. One year my brothers and I said we would forgo personal gifts if we could have a pool table.

Elne and I dont go in for a lot of gifts. Money being tight, the new car is a gift to ourselves but that was back in May.
Friends and family get boxes of Gevalia Coffee.

My parents did this as well since there were six of us. First time it was a dog sled with a large bag containing our gifts. I remember that as the year I got my sister and I got our last dolls and toy cast iron stove. I still have the doll, imported from Italy and bought at Lord's and Taylor, as well as most of the stove and pans that came with it.

The next year it was an Stereo preamp and speakers from Heathkit, to replace our old mono Hi-Fi system and a ream of Newsprint, that added to the art supplies I got for my birthday that year. It's one of the few years I got a birthday present instead of dinner out at an expensive restaurant. I think at the time $100 in art supplies, was cheaper then going out for dinner with the birthday girl or boy, cocktails and wine in the D.C. area. My parents used our birthdays and their anniversary as an excuse to go out to eat at their favorite restaurants. Only time we went out as whole family had to be very special like 1st birthdays and treats while on vacation.

The B&W Zenith TV with radio remote, in 1964 was due to my mother's God's son and first cousin had gone to Tokyo for the summer Olympics, were he was an hopeful for a gold medal. Sports Ills. put him on their pre-Olympic issue and he ended up with a virus, unable to run in the 1500m. I got a picture of him and team mates in front of an shrine, since he was my God father.

Jonwin forgot that few years ago we got ourselves a massaging heating pad for the rocking chair in our living room.

My family usually has everyone throw in $50 then we go shopping for underprivileged kids and families.

You linked a mandarin goby, but I'm familiar with the tank you speak of.

Yeah, space is an issue. since I moved I'm actually looking to upgrade to a larger tank from my 65 gallon custom acrylic job. Been checking craigslist. there are people who want to get out of the saltwater fish game practically giving away tanks and stands these days. I'm holding out for a 120-150 gallon acrylic, but I know there are a bunch of smaller tanks available in the portland area on a regular basis.

Doh. I thought I had cut and pasted the address for the tank I got, but I must have still had the mandarin link in my buffer without noticing, lol. Oops.

At any rate, just in case, here it is again.



I had gotten my 55-gallon rig, complete with high-end canister filter and gravel, free from an ex-coworker of Mr. Ambrya's. He had upgraded to a 110-gallon setup and decided passing on his gear to someone new to the hobby for free was good karma.