Here be adventures

I don't know if any of you have seen the JC Penney jewellery ad where the dude gets his wife a dual-bag vacuum cleaner for Christmas and she throws him into the doghouse... but Dan and I saw it the other day and we were both like, um, okay? What exactly constitutes a romantic gift? The first thing we did was exchange glances and laugh because of what Dan got me for Christmas.

He said he could never get the hang of so-called romantic gifts.

Most women want jewellery or flowers or lingerie or a night out at a fancy restaurant and consider that romantic.

But I asked Dan for a jump rope for Christmas. That's what he got me. That's why we were laughing.

I guess that's one thing that makes us a little bit wacky. We really are pretty practical. I'd rather have a jump rope and get a bit of exercise that will benefit me in the long run rather than flowers that will wilt (although he did once buy me a handful of yellow tulips, and that was nice) or lingerie that will never survive a night in bed (much less the washing machine). He wouldn't get me jewellery anyway, and we're both indifferent to restaurants 99% of the time.

So to me it's more romantic to get a jump rope, because it's something I actually wanted and the fact that he gets me what I ask for rather than some silly trifle means something to me.

I guess I just don't get the concept of "romantic gifts". Are we just totally weird? What do you or would you think of as a romantic gift?