My stepdaughter spends Christmas with her mom’s family, which means Christmas for my side of the family is just 8 adults, no kids. This means that in addition to lots of late nights boozing and late mornings sleeping, our Christmas shopping lists are different from a lot of my friends who make the holiday about their little ones.
This year we decided to high tech the shopping (well: “high tech”) and make Google Doc spreadsheets for each person. Each sheet has a desired item, a link if appropriate, and a column for who has purchased it. Everyone has access to these lists except the recipient. It’s working out well so far — things are added that we know people would like, and we can pick and choose from a host of things we might not considered. I like it. I like getting people gifts I know they’ll enjoy, and I like the community aspect of it. It’s been fun to collaborate with my sibling’s spouses about gifts and what is wanted.
Anyway, with regards to this, I asked Mike about my list, which prompted the following IM conversation:
me: How’s my list looking? need any ideas?
Mike: depends. do you want anything besides gift certificates to Lowes, a new cordless drill, and a radial arm saw?
me: … i do
Mike: really?
me: shocking, i know
Mike: feel free to send ideas, but I think you’ll really like the new drill.
InnerTeub 
I love that idea! My husband is so low tech that when my list included one thing that could only be purchased online he just blinked at me. “Can’t you pick something that I can get in a store?”
wait, should i return the radial arm saw??
Ha, i am really enjoying the Google Docs too. Just getting my mom to use a Google Doc is a present in itself.
Also, it has the benefit of forcing the spouse to be the caretaker of their significant other’s document. If it’s empty, they are the ones who need to beef it up. Kind of interesting i think.
This is a great idea. If I bought gifts for anyone other than my 6 nephews, I would totally do something like this. However, they tend to be the recipients of all of my christmas present money, and only 2 of them really understand computers….
So, THAT is brilliant. And the conversation is both hilarious and totally familiar …
Wait, you don’t want a new cordless drill?
As I told Liz, there is a reason the slogan is “Google docs is the reason for the season”