I’m combining Rob’s birthday gift ideas with his Christmas gift ideas.

The most surprising success among Rob’s presents this year was this:

It’s just a green quilt! Not even  particularly awesome one! My mom and I were at Target the day before Christmas Eve to buy some Play-Doh to go with one of Henry’s gifts, and we walked through the children’s bedding aisle and they had this quilt at 50% off for $15 (the site says it’s not available in stores, but in a store is where I found it), and Rob’s favorite color is green and we could use a couple more spare blankets so I just bought it. Later I decided to wrap it so he’d have more to open: one of his gifts this year was a phone upgrade, so he didn’t have much to open. What I am trying to say here is that I would have bought the quilt anyway, so it wasn’t REALLY a present. But he snuggled up in it for the whole gift-opening session, and he’s snuggled up in it many times since, and he is practically making a Beloved Blankie out of it, so in short it was a fun and unexpected success.

 

Because one of his gifts was a phone upgrade, he needed a new phone case. That’s the sort of thing he might want to choose for himself, but so far he hasn’t been opinionated, and I wanted him to have something to put on the phone right away in case it took him a couple of years to care about a case. I found cases on eBay in the $2-4 range; I got him a solid green, a solid black, and this argyle one just for fun. I also bought him a Google Play card, which is a gift card for buying apps on an Android phone.

 

Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. This may be a little SPECIFIC to be a good gift idea, but I still like to see what people got as gifts even if it’s not an idea I can use for anyone I know, and perhaps you feel the same way, so I’m soldiering on. This book was Paul’s idea: Rob wanted to read this book (in English) because of his interest in math, but this year he’s ALSO gotten interested in Latin and is on the Latin team at school, so Paul’s idea was to combine those two ideas. It started as “How about if we get him a book in Latin?,” and led quickly from my ideas of Winnie Ille Pu and Harrius Potter and Hobbitus Ille to this book instead.

 

Prismacolor colored pencils. I don’t know if you’ll remember, but quite awhile ago Rob wanted to learn to draw anime and I asked for advice. Lots of people recommended Prismacolor, and there was a special manga colors set, even, so my parents bought him that. Anyway, he’s been using those on and off ever since, and this year mentioned he’d like another, bigger set: some of the frequent-use colors are getting used up, and also his set had 24 pencils so there were a lot of times he didn’t have a color he wanted. We got him the 72-color set, along with a sharpener.

 

Melodica. I had never seen one of these before. It was my brother’s idea: he’s interested in music and so is Rob, so he asked if Rob might want a fun/unusual musical instrument, and I thought it was a good idea, and this is what he chose. It’s like a mouth-powered keyboard. And, unlike his regular keyboard, it’s something he can carry around or bring to get-togethers with friends.

 

The Art of the Fugue and The Well-Tempered Clavier. Music books specified by Rob. Good thing, too, because there is no way I could have picked something out for him.

 

Archives Manuscript Book and The Big Book of Staff Paper. Also specifically mentioned by Rob. He wasn’t sure which he’d prefer, and I thought he’d like trying both to compare. But his favorite is a Piccadilly Music Journal, given to him by a female friend. (My brother tells me it is sexist to say “female friend” or “male friend” instead of “friend.” I think, however, that there are times when the adjective is not sexist but rather IMPORTANT EYEBROWS-UP INFORMATION, which is how I intend it here.) It really is a great book: hardcover and spiral-bound. I’m sure that is why he likes it so much.

 

$25 Kiva gift card. We get a monthly newsletter from William’s middle school, and one of the regular topics is how it’s common for middle school children to develop an interest in charitable pursuits, and how the middle school tries to support that interest with various projects and programs (recycling, collecting winter outerwear, collecting canned goods, etc.). I’ve definitely noticed that happening with William: he’s in 8th grade this year and has become increasingly interested in bringing things in for food drives and clothing drives and so forth. Recently William got very interested in my Kiva account, and started a Kiva account of his own. That’s what got Rob interested, and he added a Kiva gift card to his wish list so he could try it too. If you’ve never done Kiva, it’s a micro-loan thing: instead of giving money to people who need it, you loan the money to people who need it—and you get to choose WHICH loan to help fund. That person gradually pays the money back, and then you can choose a new loan to fund.