And let’s talk about what I got for Christmas, and/or what’s still on my list.

(image from Amazon.com)

Orla Kiely mug. This mug makes my head spin with love. I felt really silly asking for a $17 ($13 plus $4 shipping) mug, but I really, really wanted it, so it made a perfect gift idea: something I wanted very much but would have had trouble buying for myself. Paul bought it for me. I’ve used it every single day since, I think, except for the few days after Christmas when I was still using my Christmas mugs before packing them away. It’s a smallish mug, 8 ounces.

(image from Amazon.com)

Sienna Sky fox earrings. When I went browsing for fox earrings, I was not expecting to find ones SO MUCH like my hopes.

(image from Amazon.com)

Texts from Jane Eyre. I saw this on Shelf Love, and immediately added it to my wish list. Paul was peeved because he’d already had this idea himself. Then it arrived and he remembered he’d ALREADY bought it, back when he had the idea. So my sister-in-law also got a copy of this book this year, from Paul.

(image from Kiva.org)

Kiva gift cards. I love these. And I love having more and more of them, because then the little bits that get paid back add up more quickly and I can make another loan sooner. The very first few times I made a loan, I was completely overwhelmed by the options: I kept determining I WOULD make a loan, then I’d browse loans for awhile and give up. Finally I decided that what I would have to do is browse the loans and try to choose almost impulsively, lending the money to the first person who appealed to me. I’ve mostly had success with that plan. It also helps to use the filtering options: I am just never ever going to want to make a loan to, for example, someone in the U.S. who wants to use it to pay for a wedding.

(image from https://www.etsy.com/shop/marmarModern)

MarMar Modern Reversible Enamel Earrings. So pretty.

(image from Amazon.com)

Jewel “Let It Snow” album. Her Joy Christmas album has been my favorite for years (I remember listening to it while wrapping presents in Elizabeth’s room when Elizabeth’s room still had a crib in it), so I’m interested to see if I’ll like this one as much.

(image from Amazon.com)

Bloom County: The Complete Library. I have a ton of paperback Bloom County books, but the collections are frustrating: a lot of duplication and omissions. After hearing me complain about this, Paul bought me the first hardcover volume of the complete collection for Valentine’s Day, and the second one for my birthday. I want the third volume, and after that I’m not sure: I liked earlier Bloom County better than later Bloom County.

(image from https://www.etsy.com/shop/LyndseyGreen)

Lyndsey Green fox tote bag. This shop has a ton of cute wildlife stuff, if you are into foxes or bunnies or wolves or badgers or porcupines or owls or bears or binturongs or etc.

(image from RiflePaperCo.com)

I’ve tapered off some on my Postcrossing hobby, but I always get re-interested at Christmas when I can send holiday postcards with holiday stamps. I found these Rifle Paper Co. ones on clearance in a gift shop last year, and sent them out this year. I also had We Wish You a Crazy Christmas and Animals at Christmas.

(image from Topatoco.com)

Dinosaur Comics books. The book versions of this comic, which I love.

(image from Sees.com)

See’s chocolates. So yummy. In the cold weather See’s sometimes does a shipping deal: $5 flat-rate shipping or free on orders of $55 or more. They’re doing one of those deals right now and I am expecting a box THIS VERY DAY.

(image from Amazon.com)

Cute sneaks.

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:

(image from Target.com)

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.

(image from eBay.com)

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.

(image from Amazon.com)

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.

(image from Amazon.com)

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.

(image from Amazon.com)

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.

(image from Amazon.com)

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.

(image from Amazon.com)

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.

(image from Kiva.org)

$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.

We’ve always sent Paul’s sister Beth a Christmas gift, but now that Paul and Beth’s parents have both died, I feel more of a responsibility about it; she’s not married, she doesn’t have children, she lives far away from all family. I aim for a “Christmas in a box” feel, planning as if our box will be the only Christmas she gets (which is probably not the case, but it gives me the mindset I’m looking for). We used to spend on her about what we spent on my brother; now we spend approximately what we spend on my brother AND his family. Well…*does math*…brother + wife + one kid, something like that.

I remember when I was a child, I liked when the day after Christmas I had something new to wear, something to eat, something to read, and something to do. (If those rhymed I think I’d be suggesting an alternative for that something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read poem, which, like the something old/new/borrowed/blue poem, seems to me to have too much overlap.) So I look for that kind of assortment. I’d like to be able to do a better job than “things I know about her from Facebook,” but that’s what I’m working with. (Paul claims he doesn’t know her any better than that: he left home at 17 and never lived there again, and she was only 13 then; they’re not close, or even really in touch at all.) I know she likes cats and tattoos and coffee. I know she exercises a lot and is a vegetarian. Everything is still pretty much a shot in the dark: just because she likes something doesn’t mean she wants related products; if she DOES want related products, she might already have them. But again, we have to work with what we’ve got, so here’s what I did this year:

(image from Amazon.com)

Pen & Ink: Tattoos & the Stories Behind Them. I first discovered this at our library; it put me back in the mood to think seriously about a tattoo. I thought it was really good: a fun general interest book for almost anyone, but specifically nice for someone interested in tattoos, which she is. Each page is a drawing of someone’s tattoo with their story of why they chose it.

(image from Amazon.com)

Cat earrings. This is going to be one of those “Well, actually it was Wednesday at 2:00, not Tuesday at 1:00” explanations, where you will be clenching your teeth and wondering why on EARTH it MATTERS, but I keep nervously picturing her finding this post and thinking I got it wrong, so I will give the whole story. The earrings I WANTED to get her are the ones pictured above. She is single but interested in dating, and she likes cats, and she likes silver, so I thought they had a pleasing overall look. But I waited too long and they went out of stock, so I got her these instead: also silver, also cats, but no romance (unless those two cats are checking each other out across your face). But now the ones I DID get her are OUT of stock, and the ones I WANTED to get her are back IN stock, so I’m using THOSE for the post: they’re the ones I WOULD have suggested if I’d written the post during the decision-making process, instead of getting overwhelmed and writing about it in January.

The salt-tasting book, the same one I bought for the Yankee Swap. I kind of bought this for everyone this year: Beth, my parents, my brother and sister-in-law.

(image from Amazon.com)

See’s Reindeer Box. I did not buy this from Amazon; I bought this from See’s. But, oddly, See’s doesn’t have it on their site (that’s not the odd part) but Amazon does (that’s the odd part). This is a great candy box because it has a nice assortment (chocolate Santas, chocolate balls, candy-cane sticks, lollipops) and the box itself is surprisingly large (notice from the photo above that the picture on the box far exceeds the size of the candy-holding portion of the box). Plus, the reindeer is cute and festive and seems like the sort of thing my grandparents would have given me, and I’m going for a family vibe.

(image from Amazon.com)

Anna’s Ginger Thins. I didn’t buy these from Amazon for $11.50 but instead from the cookie section of my grocery store for I think $2-4. These seem festive to me. My grandparents used to get a Dutch version shaped like Santas, and so did Paul’s grandparents. Our grocery store has the Dutch ones (shaped like windmills instead of Santas), but they’re the store-brand and so visually they don’t hold up to the Anna’s: they look like Cheap Grocery Store Cookies instead of Gift Cookies. It’s a difficult decision. Maybe I should look harder next year for the Dutch Santas. Or maybe I can take the store-brand windmill cookies out of their package and put them in a pretty bag with a ribbon.

(image from Amazon.com)

Fancy Christmas teas. I found these at HomeGoods for $6.99. Festive and fancy: each teabag is in a little pyramid-shaped box. For some reason.

(image from Amazon.com)

Cat oven mitt and pot holder. These don’t look quite like the ones I found at HomeGoods, but they’re close.

(image from Amazon.com)

Starbucks cocoa. Again, bought not on Amazon for a silly price; the HomeGoods price of $6.99 seemed plenty high enough.

Other things we considered:

(image from Amazon.com)

Cat-a-day calendar. Some people are calendar people and some people are not, and also I didn’t want to overdo the cat thing.

(image from Amazon.com)

Pusheen book. I wish I’d gotten it for her LAST year; THIS year I was thinking she probably already has it.

(image from Amazon.com)

Charley Harper Cattitude note cards. Some people use stationery and some don’t, and I suspect she doesn’t; also, not wanting to overdo the cat thing.

Henry was a challenge to buy for this year. He had a list, but it was unusually full of There Is No Way We Are Buying You That ideas (itch powder, cleats for no reason, a giant globe because his friend has one and he likes to spin it). One repeat request from last year was “pizza out with parent,” which we did again this year. That’s fun and yummy for ME, too: I love pizza, and it’s fun to go with just one kid. Both years he’s redeemed the coupon at the very earliest possible meal (lunch on December 26th), and it’s a nice vacation thing to do.

(image from Amazon.com)

Another list item was Nerf gun. I’d sent Henry’s list to my parents, and my mother reported that my dad had immediately chosen that idea. She further reported that he’d been going to order two (“He needs TWO!”) and then at the last minute ordered THREE plus ALSO a refill pack of darts, and also was considering adding the idea to his own wish list. So “Gift Ideas for a 7-Year-Old Boy or Your Dad.” (Or my friend Surely’s co-workers.) This is a toy that has been in HEAVY use since Christmas. Yesterday evening there was a chorus of surprised screaming; it turned out that the three littles were playing, and Elizabeth had successfully ambushed her brothers. There are darts everywhere: I found one nestled in the branches of the Christmas tree, and several came through the laundry.

(image from Amazon.com)

Another list item was “squirt gun,” so my brother and sister-in-law bought him a Super Soaker. He’s been allowed to fire it into the tub for now, and is looking forward to summer.

(image from Amazon.com)

Electric blanket. Last year he was SO JEALOUS when Edward got an electric blanket and he didn’t. Electric blankets went on clearance after Christmas, so I waited until they were 50% off and then I bought one for him and set it aside. I’d thought about giving it to him for his birthday, but May is not the right time of year to fully appreciate an electric blanket, so I saved it for Christmas. (The picture shows two controllers, but the twin-size has one controller.)

(image from Amazon.com)

Christmas Craft Fun Play-Doh Set. The week before Christmas, I was looking at the list I’d kept of what we were giving the kids, and I noticed that Henry’s list had LESS—not only in total cost (which is sometimes relevant and sometimes not) but also in STUFFness. The day before Christmas Eve, I went out shopping with my mom hoping that something would seem like The Right Thing. This seemed good: cute Play-Doh projects that didn’t look too difficult. I also bought a 4-pack of basic Play-Doh (red/blue/yellow/white) because the tubs it came with seemed skimpy.

(image from Amazon.com)

Jar of gumballs. This is not the one I bought him. The one I bought him had fewer gumballs but they were assorted sizes, which I thought he’d like. This was one of his favorite Christmas presents.

(image from landsend.com)

Lands’ End Octopus shirt. He saw this while I was shopping for the space-themed shirts for Edward, and went nuts for it. He’d also wondered if there could be anything as delightful as a shirt that was red AND black, so I bought him this one from Kohl’s and another one (not on the site anymore) on a good sale. I think it’s weird/neat when kids want something I would never ordinarily buy for them. I hadn’t realized red and black together weren’t my taste until he asked for that. I remember when I was little my mom’s style was dresses and corduroy jumpers and turtlenecks, and my style was pants and pink velour; this helped me buy the red and black shirts.

(image from Amazon.com)

Garfield book, a different one than Edward’s.

I’m extra stressed about flu this year. I read about the strains in the flu shot not being the right ones this time, and I thought, “Well…it’s okay. I mean, the flu is pretty awful but usually survivable unless, like, you have a compromised immune system.” Which is when I remembered that a compromised immune system is what Edward has now. Which is when I smacked my hands together briskly and remembered there is no point getting upset about things that COULD happen but HAVE NOT. Then I went on Facebook and saw most of my local friends have one illness or another going through their families, so then I sealed up the doors with deadbolts and duct tape and no one is going back to school or work.

Let’s talk about what Edward got for Christmas. He had one million ideas, which was good, but he kept changing them, and there were a lot of things I didn’t think he’d actually want/like, and also a lot of them were not sensible: for example, a video game so old it could only be bought used, and for over $100. So…no. One game he wanted had the worst reviews I’d ever seen for a game, but at least it was cheap ($12):

(image from Amazon.com)

Paul says Spore is in fact famously bad, a game that had huge build-up and no follow-through, and also is glitchy and incompatible with a lot of computers, and the company has abandoned it and no longer fixes things or does updates. So I was not going to buy this game, and I told Edward all about the problems and complaints, in the hopes that he would not want it anymore. But then about a week before Christmas, Edward said there were three things he wanted most for Christmas—and one of them was Spore. Well, FINE. We did indeed have a very hard time getting it to even run on my computer, and my dad had to bring over two different external disc drives before we could find a combination that didn’t spit out the disc. And it is indeed a very glitchy game, and luckily Edward has a bunch of other stuff to play with so he doesn’t play it often.

(image from Amazon.com)

Garfield Fat Cat 3-pack Volume 3. I like to get a fun book for each kid, and my favorite is if I can find books that several/all of the kids will want to read, so they can pass them around and I feel like I got double or triple or quintuple value out of it. We have a couple of Garfield books that Rob bought with a gift card back when he was about 9, and they are TATTERED with re-reading, so I got another one to add to the rotation.

(image from Amazon.com)

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare. Edward had a lot of video games on his list, and this was one of the most available and reasonably-priced ones ($22); also, Paul wanted to play it.

(image from landsend.com)

It’s out of stock in his size now, but I got him this Lands’ End space-themed shirt. I also got him the midnight navy solar system one, which is now out of stock for boys but still in stock for girls (I wanted Elizabeth to want it, but she didn’t). I’d told the kids about that little want/need/wear/read gift-buying poem, and they were intrigued, and I liked the way it took some of the pressure off to make every gift a Big Wow Exciting one. So although I didn’t follow that poem, I did use it to prepare them to expect at least one clothing gift, which ended up being fun all around. I think knowing they would get one clothing gift made it a fun thing—like, Henry immediately got very excited about the idea of getting a red and black shirt if only such a marvelous combination existed, and Elizabeth said she really wanted a new sweater, and so forth. I think if there hadn’t been the concept of a Clothing Gift slot to fill, they wouldn’t have been excited about the clothes.

(image from Amazon.com)

An MP3 player is another of the three things Edward said he MOST wanted for Christmas—and coincidentally, was another of the things I wasn’t going to get him until he said that. I thought he was too young for it and wouldn’t use it, and that he’d lose it and/or put it through the laundry. And I might be right, but so far he really likes it. I suspected he wouldn’t like the earbud things that came with it, so I also bought him these headphones, which went on a lightning deal for something like $7 shortly before Christmas. I might get him a songs gift card for his birthday; in the meantime he has a few of my songs and a TON of Rob’s. (My music is apparently derpy. Rob’s is awesome.)

(image from Amazon.com)

Edward has wanted a Minecraft Papercraft set for ages, but I thought he’d find it frustrating. I was completely wrong: my brother and sister-in-law bought the deluxe set for him for Christmas, and he spent the next few days carefully and patiently putting it together. Quietly. All by himself. It was delightful. Also, the pieces were a LOT bigger and nicer than I’d expected. For some reason I was imagining they’d be cubes about an inch on each side, and that’s true of the blocks that make up the characters; but the wood/stone/ground blocks are more like 2.5 inches each side. The tree at its widest point is over 7 inches.

(image from Amazon.com)

Our library has a puppet theater and puppets, and Edward loves them, particularly this hedgehog one. He asked the librarian where they’d gotten it, and she said from a library-supplies catalog. I looked online to see if by any chance I could find it, and hooray, Amazon had it. My parents bought it for him for Christmas, along with the mini owl (which today is showing as over $35 but was not at the time—all the puppets were in the $7-14 range, I think), the little cat, the bee, and the emperor penguin.