Be Careful What You Ask For

Over the past few years my husband and I have moved away from gift giving for every holiday.  If there is something we need, we buy it for ourselves.  We still make sure our girls pick something out for us since they enjoy the whole idea of giving something to us, but we don't do a lot of buying big ticket items for each other. 

Today I was thinking back on some past gift giving experiences which have led us to a more gift-free lifestyle.

Before children were even in the picture, we still needed things for our home. One Christmas I requested file cabinets. How romantic, right?  But not just any file cabinets. I wanted wooden ones.  In my mind, I envisioned beautiful antique file cabinets.  Except I never said the word antique.  

This is what I pictured.  And unfortunately, this below is what I got:

I think the picture makes them look nicer than they actually were.  I am not a big fan of particle board, which is what they were made out of.  
Upon opening my gift, I just nicely smiled and thanked my husband, who really thought he had bought me what I asked for.  I then had the file cabinets in my living room next to my computer for several years, all the while upset with the fact that through my own lack of truly explaining what I was looking for, I had ended up with something I detested.


Now as we talk (heatedly) about re-doing our kitchen we have the same type of problem. What I envision isn't even close to what my husband is picturing.  We usually are able to come to some form of compromise and after my husband hears compliments from other people about things I have purchased, he begins to like whatever the item may be a lot more.  

Thank goodness we both have input in our kitchen remodel project, and I won't end up with something like the long ago Christmas gift; I had to keep those darn file cabinets for a decade and got rid of them just last year!