It’s Father’s Day today.
I’m going to be honest here. I love, love, LOVE the Dads in my life- my husband, my own Dad and my father-in-law- and they are all so very worthy of celebration, but when this day rolls around, part of me is always like, “oh man, another holiday I’m supposed to buy a gift for.”
Ivan is IMPOSSIBLE to buy gifts for. He tries to deny it, but it’s just the truth, plain and simple. He just isn’t really a particularly “needy” type guy, in the sense that he likes to receive a lot of “stuff”, to start with. His main hobby is soccer- he loves playing it, watching it, anything soccer.
But, soccer is kind of a terrible “gift buying” hobby for a grown man. I mean, what can I buy related to soccer? New socks? I don’t even really know what kind he likes. Shin guards? Maybe, but his seem to be working fine. New shoes? Even harder. A ball? I guess, maybe, but he already has one and they last a while too.
He isn’t a really handy type guy who likes to do home projects much, so tools and stuff like that are generally out (though sometimes it’s still a “useful” gift, IF I even know what to buy…). As I discussed in this post, he isn’t a reader.
Clothes are tricky to buy him because a) he tends to take really good care of his clothing and doesn’t need to replace it that often and b) he’s really funny about materials, fabrics and stuff “feeling” a certain way, so more than half of the time at LEAST he takes back any clothes I buy him. He tends to buy his own clothing when he needs it, gets what he wants and that’s it. He drinks coffee, but nothing fancy or special. He likes the mugs we have already. He likes to get new tennis shoes, but those are kind of hard to buy for someone else too, and he has a lot already! And on and on and on.
Clothes are tricky to buy him because a) he tends to take really good care of his clothing and doesn’t need to replace it that often and b) he’s really funny about materials, fabrics and stuff “feeling” a certain way, so more than half of the time at LEAST he takes back any clothes I buy him. He tends to buy his own clothing when he needs it, gets what he wants and that’s it. He drinks coffee, but nothing fancy or special. He likes the mugs we have already. He likes to get new tennis shoes, but those are kind of hard to buy for someone else too, and he has a lot already! And on and on and on.
I’ve done new baseball caps, sweatshirts, PJ pants…I’ve tried cutesy things like framed pictures (but he isn’t really too into photos and stuff like that)… I’ve done gift cards… new backpacks for soccer… once I bought him an electric toothbrush (he didn’t return that, so I guess that was a win).
Anyway, long story short, I just dread buying him gifts.
With the Amazon app on his phone, pretty much anything he really “wants” or “needs”, he just buys himself! Like I said, he is generally pretty minimalistic in terms of wants. He doesn’t buy a lot of “stuff” just for the sake of buying stuff.
The things he spends on tend to be bigger items, like wanting a newer, bigger TV. Or really nice, more expensive sunglasses. Stuff like that. But then because he tends to purchase more ‘investment type’ items, they last a long time! Or, he buys very specific items that I would have no clue about, like some specific kind of electric razor or something.
Anyway, I was kind of saved by the bell this year because he just bought (himself) a new bike, after years of not even having one. I think for the last THREE Father’s Day I said, “I’m going to buy you a bike for Father’s Day!” But then I never did. I figure that for the price of the bike, this is now basically covering the last 3 Father’s Days. 😊
On the plus side, my own Dad is slightly easier to buy for (I say slightly, because he is pretty hard to buy for too!!!). But I do have a gift wrapped and ready to go for him at least.
Here’s a few pics of the special guys in my life:
My Dad and me in front of Delicate Arch in Arches National Park last summer. Plus, a very cool Grandpa rappelling down a 125 ft cliff with us!
This one is a favorite of Ivan and the boys. They just love doing dangerous stuff like climbing on really tall rocks having fun with him!
My smiley father-in-law on our visit in March! This was in the town of Metepec. The second pic is just a sweet moment I captured while we were visiting Ivan’s grandma (my father-in-law’s mother) in Mexico City.
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for my Dad! I’m so grateful for Ivan and the amazing father he is to our boys, too, but since it’s FATHER’S DAY, it always feels most relevant for me to focus on my own Dad. He is just out of this world. I don’t even have words to describe how much I love my Dad. He is the most amazing person, father, husband to my mom, grandfather to his grandkids….My heart literally explodes with gratitude every time I am with my Dad.
GRATEFUL KAE 
hahahha…. I read the title and laughed because I'm the same! It gives me headache to think about what to do buy so we basically stop buying.. hahah… i find it better to buy experience or even better, make the experience as gift. Last birthday gift to my husband was to start learning golf so I can play with him, he absolutely loved it!!! 🙂
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See you just need to do what we do – we don't buy gifts! We are so not gift people. It's dead last on our 'love languages' list. My husband is a major minimalist and very picky so it's just not worth buying him anything. And I am kind of the same way. if I want something, I will buy it for myself. So we usually would go out to dinner or lunch on a birthday, and the birthday person chooses the restaurant. Even before covid I would usually order in for my bday as it's in early February and going out when it's cold is just not appealing to me. We will also give each other the gift of 'time' to do what we want to do. So Phil golfed on Saturday afternoon as his Father's Day gift. It is a gift to him because it's kind of a lot of work to solo parent a toddler and he enjoyed doing something he loved!I know some people think it's weird that we don't exchange gifts for pretty much any holiday but we just never really want something…
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That sounds great! We really don't "do" gifts that often anymore either, for the reasons I listed! For Christmas we do try to get each other a couple things at least but we also tend to just buy our own stuff and then we wrap it up to open! Haha! very exciting. If he is buying his own birthday gift, I do try to maybe come up with a little something from me and the boys, but it's often just a container of his favorite chocolates, or something very very small. More of just a gesture with a homemade card. I like the idea of the gifts of "time" that you do. We have never specifically done that. We do typically always make sure to celebrate with a meal out, a special dessert, etc. so it's not like we just ignore the occasion. But yeah, we are pretty hit or miss on actual gifts these days too. Fortunately this year he got the bike, so I didn't even worry about it. Christmas I stress a little more since he usually gets me a few things then.
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That sounds like an awesome gift! I bet he did love that.
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