Wow, that would be enough for me, can I be your new husband?

Ha ha, I think A. might object to that. Besides, I’m a very crabby person.

Entire box of mechanical pencils/favorite pens—so many some can get lost and there will still be some hanging around in mid-summer. A fancy old-fashioned letter opener. An excellent penknife or leatherman. Some small, but exceptional thing that supports his favorite hobby (ex. when I was cross-stitching all the time, I was given a platinum needle.) Something incredibly, but subtly, sexy (only you will know what this might be), that will make him blush with delight.

Shaving oil, gift certificate for a massage or for a little spree at his favorite shop, little sampler bottles of good single malts if he likes that sort of thing.

I knew a woman who would gradually build up a massive stash of regular toiletry things and wrap them all because her husband absolutely loved having a big pile of gifts to open. A pair of socks wrapped with a bow was enough to make him happy, so it can really depend on the guy!

factors for forgiveness of crabby in ascending order:

a gift certificate to his favorite restaurant

airline tickets to, hmmm, Acapulco

keys to a Porsche Boxster

Donald Trump’s American Express card

What great ideas! He has a thing about fountain pens; I should get a little jar of an ink color he’d enjoy and stash it in his stocking. Hmmmm.

I don’t want to think about what I’d have to do to get Donald Trump’s AmEx card. Blech.

You can’t have enough needlenose pliers!

Nips

scratch tickets

The general store down the street has band-aids that look like strips of bacon! Disgusting!

maple sugar

silly xmas boxer shorts

you can’t go wrong with small precious foodstuffs, like caviar, saffron, truffle oil, chocolate-covered espresso beans etc, etc.

a nice cigarette tin filled with joints, if he’s into it.

opium! A nice drug for the holidays!

I must find those bacon/band-aids! A. is a runner, so he uses tons of band-aids.

Mmmmmmm chocolate covered espresso beans...

The bacon band-aid company has a website—

www.accoutrements.com

also, as many little vintage Golden Guides as you can find in your used bookstore.

Bad server response. Hmm.

I can pop some in the mail to you if you want. That’s my real email.

They cost 3.99.

kiss my face sample/travel products!

I’m off to buy stocking stuffers. I will report back.

Have fun shopping Beth!

Re: bacon band-aids. I am terrified by the “free toy inside!” label. What could that mean?! Maybe I will email you about them, Beth—is there any hope of finding them locally, do you think? (You don’t need to go out of your way for me...)

Toiletry/Kiss My Face stuff also a great idea... I’d like to find him some hand lotion because his hands always crack in winter, but he’s super picky about what kind. He complains that everything is “too greasy.” The one that he likes that I can actually find smells horrible to me. I always walk into the room and wonder to myself if he’s secretly been out digging up graves when he uses it. (It’s some help hand lotion thing from The Body Shop. Yuck.)

Forget the band-aids get gummi bacon!

at radio shack, and i had to ask my BF AND the manager to make sure of the price, i bought eight personal organizers for $1.97 each! i bought one for myself to try them out and see if they weren’t just crap, but they aren’t! it’s a good gadget to back up stored phone numbers from a cell phone JUST IN CASE. other features include a memo and schedule function, english/spanish translator, games, calculator, and currency conversions.

brand: SHARP

model: YO-P5B

price: $1.97

too, they don’t look shoddy, you can give them to the postman, the doorman @ work, WHOMEVER and they’ll think you just paid too much!

Wow, I need about 100 of those personal organizers!

Gummi bacon?! OMG, it’s so clear that I need to get out more. Wow.

The Gardener’s Hand Recovery Cream from Crabtree and Evelyn is very not greasy, as I recall! It goes on very light & powdery.

http://store.crabtree-evelyn.com/hands-and-feet-treatments.html

I take that back: skip the recovery cream, it’s an exfoliant. Get the Hand Therapy Cream, instead, and damn their similar names.

I’m back. I didn’t get much—a flipbook so you can watch Marilyn Monroe’s skirt blow up over and over, a jumbo pack of regular band-aids and jumbo bottle of ibuprofen because my older son is always taking mine, USA map fridge magnets, other non-stuffer items.

I think I might try and get all bacon related gifts...here’s some bacon tape...

And a bacon in-car air freshener thingy...

Beth, I love the ibuprofen idea! I want some.

Who knew there were so many bacon-themed products on the market? The things you learn at ILX/sandbox...