1) What is the first thing you'd do or buy for your home . . . or would you sell it and buy another? If so, where? DH and kids would never want to move. But if they were agreeable, I'd move to a house in our neighborhood that had larger bedrooms, a real guest room, a larger living room, a real home office, and a really nice finished basement with real windows and a door to the back yard. And a screen porch overlooking a not-too-big, but bigger-than-ours back yard. 2) What is the first thing you'd do or buy for your spouse or SO? I know that many of us have kids, but to keep this game reasonably short, let's not go there now . . . so just your spouse/SO: A new BMW. 3) What the FIRST foreign country you'd plan a trip to . . . and do NOT tell us "around the world!" (LOL) . . . let this be a more specific answer: Does St. Bart's count as a foreign country? 4) What first charity would you donate a significant amount of money to, or start one of your own for what cause? This is too hard! I'd have to split over several. 5) What is the FIRST big thing you'd do for YOU? Hire a housecleaner once a week and a chef to make dinner every night! 6) OK, are you still following the rules ;^D ?? I know there would be many other purchases and trips, and we'd all save a big chunk of the money, too, but what ONE other thing would you spend some that money on? My 3 kids' college tuitions. Just starting on DS #1 this fall! Can't imagine what it will cost when we get to DD, who is still only 9.

Thank you! Anele - Ha, oh wow! I can't imagine someone buying that but if you had the space and the extra cash... She'd be the talk of the town with that in the backyard, lol. Oakley - Yes, I love wearing different hats on him! I just bought a crochet aviator hat. Really wish I knew how to knit or crochet! Busybee - I like the idea of adding both the cookies and cakepops. Red -They did that at a shower for my friend recently and I thought it was a great idea and am going to mention to please consider a book instead of a card in the invitation. I would rather spend money on a book that benefits the child than a card that, most times, is thrown away. Maybe that's a common thing to do now but I never heard or thought to do that until the recent shower so thanks for mentioning it. I'm a visual person so I think I'll do some creative mock ups. I believe I'll have a much easier time deciding what I want to do if I can see it. Thanks and I'll report back!

Mine should be there by now. I was afraid to wait too long to mail it. Our mail service is sometimes slow getting to us, I didn't want that to happen getting to him. Hope he has a very special birthday Bump.

This is a very old thread (more than a decade!), but I have read every comment because I was just invited to a gift card shower and am very turned off. Unfortunately, it is my brother’s fiance’s shower, so I cannot just send my regrets as I would in another case. (My mother is also mortified and when she heard it would be this type, she shortened her list of close friends to invite.) i have a few thoughts: I have come to question the ritual of showers now in many circumstances. The history of bridal showers comes from a couple of centuries ago when townspeople would send off young brides with small things to start their households. It has evolved into more formal parties over the years and it seems the expectation of how much should be given has increased significantly from even 20 years ago. The purpose of a shower is to help a couple start their home. Now that the majority of couples are getting married when they have already established themselves, are combining households, or are getting married for the second time, they often don’t need many household items. I need to preface the rest of my post and say I actually love attending showers. I love an intimate shower and take great care and thought in showering a bride. My husband and I have three children and do not have a lot of extra money, but I take great pride in still doing my best to choose a meaningful gift (typically off of a registry, but choose one of the items that is something I also love or reminds me of our relationship), wrap it beautifully, and come genuinely happy for the bride and ready to celebrate. I struggle with “trends” like an unwrapping assembly line, where the shower is so large that a bridesmaid unwraps the gift I wrapped with special paper and ribbon and pass it to the bride to make it faster, instead of her seeing the special touches I made because I love her. I struggle with a gift card shower where I feel like my budget is on display. Even if the bride isn’t announcing dollar amounts, I’m sure the friend taking notes for her thank you cards is, and I feel like I have to come up with more. I am happy to give a gift small in physical size or send the gift to the bride and wrap a printed photo of it so she can be surprised and announce to other interested guests. If someone is invited to a shower, they should be close enough to the guest of honor to know if they are traveling or moving, and most guests will take that into consideration without being told. i am happy to spend my money and take the time to shower someone I love or the spouse to be of someone I love, but no one likes to feel like they are being used for a gift and most people don’t have lots of extra money sitting around. Please also take intonconsideration that I will also be giving you cash for your wedding, potentially traveling to get there any staying in a hotel, paying for a babysitter, maybe new clothes, possibly going to/paying for a Bachelorette Party. If you don’t need anything, please don’t ask for my cash just because you think you should have a shower. i am editing to add: If you had a gift card shower and think your guests loved it or thought it was fine because they didn’t say anything to you, it’s because they won’t. Graceful guests do understand that the party is about the bride and would not want to burden her with stress as she is planning her wedding.