A Girl and Her Blog is showing the giftie she got and starting a new contest which has unfortunately already ended, but you can go see the giftie anyway!
Dream_To_Me is showing the giftie she got and starting a new contest.
The winner of the Kiss Up To Swistle Contest “Work It, Mom” drawing for the $25 Amazon.com gift card is CAQuincy! Yay! I’m emailing you right now! And by “right now” I mean “in a few minutes when I find your email address and compose an email”!
I’m afraid my best idea for stocking stuffers is useless at this point. What I do is, all year long I keep my eye on the party favors and small toys at Target. When they go on 75% off, I buy some. By Christmas, I always have a nice assortment of the kind of junky crap the kids love (miniature Magic 8 balls! tiny dartboards! little plastic slinkys! kazoos!) and I haven’t spent much money. Might have been nice if I’d mentioned this a little earlier, hm? Well, you can do it for next year.
Here are the food things I bought this year for William (2nd grade) and Rob (4th grade):
1. A couple of those 25-cent single-serving bags of chips each.
2. A Tootsie Roll bank—99 cents each.
3. A Lifesavers “book” (looks like a book, but contains rolls of Lifesavers instead of words)—$2 each on sale.
4. Pez dispenser and an package of refill Pez—99 cents each dispenser and each pack.
Then I toss in a mixed handful of whatever candy we happen to have on hand, which I would not like to talk about because it’s embarrassing to list what we “happen to have on hand.” But SOME years this has involved things SUCH AS: mini Twix, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup miniatures, York peppermint patties, Christmas M&Ms, and Hershey Nuggets. I’ll give Edward and Elizabeth the easier, less messy candy, and also chips, and probably Pez, but not the Tootsie Rolls or Lifesavers.
Another good way to fill up the stockings is to buy things you have to buy ANYWAY, but get the more-fun version. For example, my kids like those fruit/candy-scented shampoos (Suave and L’Oreal both make them), and so I can put a bottle in each stocking and not really have to count that as falling under the stocking budget. Also, you can get Band-Aids in Spider Man and Hello Kitty and Cars and so forth: I saw them on sale at Target this week for something like $1.50. They’re pleasing in the stocking, but then they go in the supply cabinet.
Socks are good for this, too, but I get the fun kind (that they can still wear to school, so no jingle bells and fake fur), not the sixpack-of-plain-white kind. And craft supplies are great: I’d buy those for them anyway, but they seem more special in the stocking. New box of crayons, a bag of pipe cleaners, a packet of pom-poms and a packet of jingle bells. They’re kind of expensive, but I would have bought them anyway.
For the three little kids (ages 3 years and 18 months), I bought these three packs of “chunky books” (all images from Amazon.com):
Baby Animals, First Words, Colors
Puppies, Farm, Kittens
Animals, Dinosaurs, Trucks
It’s $2.75 for each 3-pack of small board books (they’re about 3 inches square), and they’re on that “4-for-3” deal so if you get a fourth one (for a niece or nephew or friend or for the donation box), it’s free. They’re a little babyish for the 3-year-olds, but they’ll provide (1) short-lived enjoyment; (2) stocking-filling; and (3) books for the 18-month-old’s stash. (Some of these packs have long waits now. If you want all nine, the 9-pack is still available.)
The Puppies and Kittens are my least favorite in the group: each page just gives the NAME of a puppy or kitten. Not a breed, but a name. Like: Mittens, Fluffy, Rex, Fido. It’s hard to see how that would teach a baby useful new words. Those two books will go in Elizabeth and Edward’s stockings instead.
For Elizabeth, I have a couple packets of barrettes purchased on clearances. I’ll leave them on their cards, not only because they take up more space in the stocking that way, but also because they’ll never come OFF the card: she loves them but won’t wear them.
Target’s dollar section is hit-and-miss. Some of the things I find seem GREAT: last year I got those glittery-balls-on-springs-on-a-headband thing for everyone, and they were sold in 2-packs for just $1.00. I’ve also found good metal brain-teaser puzzles there, and I got Edward and Elizabeth each a coloring book (Snoopy for Edward; Hello Kitty for Elizabeth).
More gift ideas? I’M still in the mood.
I think DVD box sets look like Big Gifts. When I see one, I think “$50-$75”—and that’s particularly nice if it cost more like $20-30. DVD box sets are also an excellent way to force other people to try shows you like: my brother and sister-in-law told me MANY TIMES that I had to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but I didn’t think it was my kind of show even though kept saying, “You’d think it wouldn’t be your kind of show, and we thought the same thing, but we were wrong and so might you be!” Then they gave me season one on DVD and I felt like I had to watch it to be polite—and I LOVED it and ended up watching the ENTIRE SERIES.
Anyway. Box sets. Good plan, is what I’m saying. Especially TV series, in my opinion: a TV series is like a really long movie, so you have time to get attached and involved. Movies are like one-night stands.
(image from Amazon.com)
Let’s start with that first season of Buffy. I never had the SLIGHTEST INTEREST in watching this show: I don’t like scary stuff, I wasn’t interested in vampires, the guy playing the love interest was not my type, and it looked like a tacky show for teenagers. Instead, this is one of those shows that is like MAGIC: the script, the characters, everything. Yes, it is kind of about stabbing vampires—but it’s not REALLY. The action is there to keep your adrenaline up for the romance and friendships and amusing wisecracks.
(image from Amazon.com)
Firefly, the complete series, $31 down from $50. OMG WATCH IT WATCH IT WATCH IT WATCH IT. My sister-in-law practically forced me to watch it, and I was SO GLAD she did. She said it took her four or five episodes before she started to like it, but that once she fell in love, it was for keeps. It was the same for me: I started out thinking, “So this is like…a space western? With space whores?” and by the end I was telling everyone who would listen that NO, it wasn’t about the fringed leather, it was about the RELATIONSHIPS (with space whores.) SUCH a good show. WHY do they cancel all the GOOD TV SHOWS?
(image from Amazon.com)
Speaking of which, I want to talk to you about Wonderfalls. Why was I the ONLY ONE who watched this when it was on?? It is YOUR FAULT they canceled it!! If you didn’t watch it, I blame YOU, yes YOU PERSONALLY, that the entire series is one box set. There are so few shows where the wry, crabby Janeane Garofalo-type can say to the cute bartender, “Your ass is ringing” (it’s his cell phone in his back pocket) and then say, “Why do you even HAVE an ass if you’re not going to answer it?” Also: souvenir animals TALK TO HER. They tell her what to do. And she has to do it because they keep nagging her. WHY DIDN’T YOU WATCH IT, WHY OH WHY??
(image from Amazon.com)
And Sports Night! It was MY FAULT that it got canceled, because I never watched it while it was on. I thought it was about sports, but I don’t think I can be entirely blamed for that part of the situation. I watched it later, on DVD, and although I thought it was a pretty dumb show at first (trying too hard to be snappy and witty), soon I was laugh-sobbing my way through most of the episodes. Not one but TWO of my children are named after characters/actors on this show. I’ve talked about this before, and recently, so I won’t go on and on, but geez. This show. So good.
(image from Amazon.com)
I don’t know why this is marked down so much, but the first season of 30 Rock is $17.50 down from $50. Been trying to force someone to watch this? Now’s your chance.
(image from Amazon.com)
I know everyone’s watching the U.S. version now, but the original BBC version of The Office has spoiled me for it. I love Steve Carrell, but how can he be Ricky Gervais? And once you’ve gotten used to Tim and Dawn, how can you accept Jim and Pam? The scene where Tim finally tells Dawn how he feels had me SOBBING. Totally sobbing. So embarrassing.
(image from Amazon.com)
Probably everyone who wants Friends on DVD already has it. But if you know someone who doesn’t, you can get season one and season two for $15.50 each—so you could get BOTH seasons for $31 (I did not win a math medal for nothing).
(image from Amazon.com)
Gilmore Girls. I loved it even though it sometimes drove me crazy. At 75% off, it’s practically free: each season is normally $50, but is on sale for $15. You can get just season one, or if you really want to get someone hooked, get them season two also.
(image from Amazon.com)
Six Feet Under was a little too intense for me: I watched the entire series and LOVED it, but occasionally popped out the DVD and said, “That’s it. I’m not watching anymore. I can’t stand the tension!” But I always went back. One of the best series EVER. And the first season is $20 down from $60. Why are some of these SO CHEAP? And also, why are some of them SO EXPENSIVE to begin with?
This is going to be a LITTLE CONFUSING, because I have TWO reasons to persuade you to click through to another site today, and the two reasons can be combined, but I have very different reasons for the two reasons, if you follow me, and it is a little tricky to organize my thoughts when I am trying to be persuasive. Did I ever tell you about the temp job I took in sales when I was about 20? HA HA HA HA HA. I could not manage to (1) give away (2) free things (3) to people who wanted them.
Okay, okay. So, okay. The first thing is that I have a post up today at Milk and Cookies, which is the column Linda and I co-write for a site called “Work It, Mom.” Occasionally I tell you to click through a particular Milk and Cookies post (like if there’s a giveaway I want to let you in on), but usually I don’t: I figure you’re either reading it or you’re not, and product-related blogs aren’t everyone’s jar of coins.
But today I want to PUSH you a little, because I wrote a post on a subject we’ve been discussing here, which is gift ideas. The concept, like this post, is a little split and confused, but the basic idea is that these are gifts that (1) look big, helping to camouflage any cutbacks you may have made this year, and (2) are useful gifts for recipients who are ALSO trying to make cutbacks this year. YOU save money and THEY save money!
The second thing is that this site I write for has revamped their whole site. They want people to come visit it, hoping that people will like it better now. And as an incentive, they are dangling a $25 Amazon.com gift card on a stick. What you have to do—and pay attention now, because it is just a teeny bit tricky—is: (1) go visit “Work It, Mom”; (2) come back here (HERE, not THERE) and leave a comment saying something you like about the site (hey, how about “I just LURVE that Milk and Cookies column! It is teh fab! And the authors are so charming and lovable and I just want to SMOOCH them!”). You have until Friday the 5th, and then I’ll draw a winner in the evening sometime, assuming I remember, and if not I’ll do it on the weekend. I hope. …Maybe I’ll just write myself a note right now while I’m thinking about it.
Even though “Work It, Mom” is my boss, they’re not making me post this, and in fact they made it very easy for me to say no if I wanted to, and also I’m not getting anything out of it if you DO click through, so I won’t be all sad if you don’t. I’m doing it because I follow a lot of blogs and I know a ton of you are fretting about how to afford the holidays, and this seemed like a nice way to add $25 to one of us.
So to sum up: I have written a gift-ideas post elsewhere that I think it is worth the pain of clicking the mouse button for. And if you WANT TO, you can get a little chore done while you’re there: find something nice to say about the site (the colors are pretty! the banner is cool! I like the font! I like your earrings!) and type it here in this comment section, and that’ll enter you in the contest to win the Amazon.com gift card.
My mom said I should do a post on larger gifts that people could go in on together. She came from a family with four siblings, and she says people from bigger families are often looking for ways to reduce the sheer number of packages under the tree. But it soon came out that this whole idea was just because she wanted to talk more about her Roomba.
My mom and dad got a Roomba a while back, and they love it. And I don’t mean “they love their vacuum cleaner,” I mean they sent me MORE THAN ONE digital picture, of the Roomba, POSING. Not to show me how it looked in action, but just to show how cute it was. Like it was a new pet or a new baby. And they refer to it as “she.” My mom told me that the other day when the Roomba “climbed back into her perch,” she (and that “she” refers TO THE ROOMBA, not to my mother, and so does the “her” of “her perch”) “made her sad sound, meaning she needed attention.” And, continued my mother, “I checked her brushes and I went ‘EEEEEE!’ She needed a good cleaning!”
Well, okay. I mean, is anyone else thinking these people are good candidates for a lap dog or something?
But then this morning I saw that Amazon.com has the Roomba for an additional $110 off (it was already $90 off, and anything that can be reduced $90 and then reduced another $110 and still just be “on sale,” you KNOW you’re not going to like the price of it) (it’s STILL $250), until 10:00 a.m. U.S. pacific time or until they run out of them, whichever comes first. So, fine. I will tell you about the Roomba, even though I have NO INCENTIVE to do so. The person asking me to talk up the Roomba is MY MOTHER, not a wealthy corporation slipping me a couple of crisp Roombas under the table.
I have seen the Roomba in action, and it’s like a large, serious, bustling ladybug. It radiates an attitude of “SOME of us have WORK to do, so if you wouldn’t mind LIFTING YOUR FEET for a second—unless that would be TOO MUCH TO ASK.”
Seeing the prep work my mom did before using it, I realized I would probably never buy one. You have to get all the clutter off the floor, and if you want it to vacuum under things like endtables (where it can’t fit), you have to get those off the floor too. Since to me the WORST part of vacuuming is the prep work, the Roomba seems like it’s just doing the fun part, like when a certain SPOUSE thinks he should get POINTS for putting IN a load of laundry, when he doesn’t do the folding or the putting away.
But for my mom, who is one of those automatic decluttering people who will put your book away on the bookshelf while you are in the bathroom, it’s great. Her house is always decluttered anyway, and she hates getting out the vacuum cleaner and hates using the vacuum cleaner, so for her it’s perfect: she sets up the Roomba and goes and does something else, and when she comes back to the room (this time the “she” is my mother), the room is freshly vacuumed and the Roomba is back in her (the Roomba’s) perch, recharging herself and sending out self-satisfied rays of “THERE. THAT’S better. *sniff*”
So. There. My mom likes her Roomba. And she recommends it as a gift that siblings could all chip in on to give to a parent.
Hey, what do you do with holiday cards when you receive them? I put them up with poster putty around the wide doorway leading from our living room into our kitchen, so that I’ll see them a million times a day and can admire them from my favorite recliner. I look forward to the mail every day in December.
I did a post about Black Friday Book Deals on Friday, but they still seem to be at those deal prices today, so perhaps they are Black Friday WEEKEND Deals? Well, whatevs.
Today’s post is more gift books, but while yesterday’s was all about Awesome Deals, today’s is just Good Choices. Yeah, maybe I should have done them the other way around.
And when I say “Good Choices,” I guess I kind of mean “Good Choices If You Are Shopping for Swistle—or WERE Shopping for Swistle Back in Time, Because Now She Already Has These.”
…Let’s start over.
Today’s topic is books that might make good gifts. These are books that seem to me to hold at least some interest for a wide range of people, as opposed to, say, Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs, Sixth Edition, which, you know, for the right person would be GREAT, but for anyone else it’s…uh…that is, just saying, don’t put it on my wish list.
(image from Amazon.com)
Found: The Best Lost, Tossed, and Forgotten Items From Around the World ($10 down from $15) is one of the most mesmerizing books I have ever read. Even Paul’s sister, who doesn’t like to read, loved this book. It’s a bunch of…found stuff. Like notes. Shopping lists. Pieces of torn-up love letters. Photos. Crazy posted notices. Sketches. It will make you die of curiosity to know more, More, MORE about the people who wrote them or lost them. It will also make you look feverishly for scraps of paper on the ground. If you want a good gift for about $20, get it and also get Found II ($11 down from $14), the second volume.
(image from Amazon.com)
Speaking of dying to know more, PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives ($18 down from $27) will have you practically climbing the walls. People wrote secrets on postcards and mailed them in; the book is half artwork, half wall-climbing revelations. The book is large and heavy and hardcover, and looks impressive and fun and interesting. Like the Found books above, it’ll get passed around while the rest of the presents are being opened.
(image from Amazon.com)
What It Is, by Lynda Barry ($16.50 down from $25) is another large, impressive hardcover. Just about every square inch is COVERED with doodles, bits of writing, questions, instructions, writing assignments, helpful hints. This is the book/workbook version of a class Lynda Barry teaches on “writing the unthinkable.” It would be a great gift for anyone who likes to write or wants to write, but it would also work for anyone into self-analysis or dreams or art.
(image from Amazon.com)
Pretty Little Mistakes ($10 down from $15) is a choose-your-own-adventure book for grown-ups. And I do mean for grown-ups: don’t go giving this to your teenaged niece unless you want her parents smacking you into next winter for the, um, racy themes. At the end of each short section, you get to choose what “you” do next: do you help dig the grave, or do you run away? do you go home with the bartender or do you go back to your apartment alone? do you go to Brazil or do you go to Palm Beach? Each path leads to your death—either premature or at a ripe old age. It was some of the most fun I’d ever had reading a book, and I read it and read it and read it until I’d tried every single option. It’s a paperback, but a largish and pretty one with a fancy (cut-out in the center) cover.
Fair warning: my mom tried it and read one path and then wasn’t interested in trying another. She didn’t like the way the character made choices she (my mom) would NOT have made, and she didn’t like being told that “you” (she) did things. We agreed we would have preferred it if the book picked a name other than “you” for the character, something more along the lines of “Do you think Anne should go home with the bartender, or do you think she should go back to her place?”
(image from Amazon.com)
You know how everyone is constantly talking right now about spending less and cutting back? The ones who really mean it might enjoy a copy of The Complete Tightwad Gazette ($15.50 down from $23). I love love love this book and have read it again and again—as much for fun as for tips. It is packed to the gills with tips and sketches and recipes and explanations and tests and experiments and patterns and ideas, all on the theme of saving money. She takes it WAY farther than I would, but I just pick out the tips I actually want to use and enjoy reading the others for fun (people…MAKE underwear?). It’s a paperback, but it’s HUGE: almost a thousand pages, and in the big-paperback size (9ish x 7ish) not the romance-paperback size.
Caution: it’s a TEENSE risky to give someone any kind of self-improvement book. There can be the implication that you think they SHOULD CHANGE. Mothers-in-law probably should not buy this book for daughters-in-law. Probably no one should buy this book for people who spend noticeably more than they do.
(image from Amazon.com)
Along those same lines is Miss Manners’ Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior ($23 down from $35). It’s a great book: a nice fat impressive hardcover, and so funny and so smart and so fun to read her answers to all the “Dear Miss Manners” letters from readers. But…there is a slight risk that someone will think you are giving them a book on manners because they, er, NEED it. Mothers-in-law should definitely not buy this one for daughters-in-law, especially if mothers-in-law have harped on the subject of thank-you notes in the past.
Okay, so I am a little behind, and Black Friday is almost over. [Edit: I’m clicking through on Saturday and still finding the deals active.] But geez! I’d think TWO adults with five children would be easier than ONE adult with five children, but actually it is not turning out to be. We did get the tree up, though, and decorated (with children’s help, so it was an Excedrin Afternoon), and I put lights on a tree outside, and also I ate a lot of leftover pumpkin cheesecake, so I guess it was a productive day after all.
I like to give books as gifts for many reasons. Actually, I’m not going to waste time talking about those reasons, I’m just going to list some of the books that look like good gifts from the Amazon.com sale. Get $25 or more of them and the shipping is free.
(image from Amazon.com)
Castle, $8 down from $20. We have this ourselves, and I also have one on the gift shelf for the next birthday party one of the kids gets invited to. It’s an AMAZING pop-up book: I’m not even interested in knights and castles but I’ve looked through it several times.
(image from Amazon.com)
The Mitford Bedside Companion, $11 down from $27. My mom says she finds the Mitford books very soothing—good, happy, mild reading. I might get this for my mother-in-law, since she likes that kind of book.
(image from Amazon.com)
America at Home, $16 down from $40. Photography books make great gifts, and they’re fun to pass around during awkward family gatherings. Keeps the conversation going. This one looks like the heart-warming kind you could give to ANYONE.
(image from Amazon.com)
New York Vertigo, $16 down from $40, an EDGIER coffee table book than America at Home. Apparently this one will make you dizzy: the description says the photographer “scaled walls and scoured rooftops”—or something like that, I’ve lost the page and don’t feel like double-checking.
(image from Amazon.com)
Return to Fairyopolis, $8 down from $20. Ooooooooooooo, I want this myself. (If the child you’re buying it for hasn’t read Fairyopolis, you can get it for $13.50, so that’s both books for close to $20.)
(image from Amazon.com)
The Annotated Secret Garden, $14 down from $35. This would be great for anyone who loved The Secret Garden as a child. Paul has The Annotated Alice (same idea, but for Alice in Wonderland) and it’s a beautiful gift-book-looking book.
(image from Amazon.com)
Pirateology: Guidebook and Model Set, $7 down from $18. I wish my kids would get into these “ology” books, because they really appeal to me.
These deals are just for today, it looks like, so if you miss them—well, that’s what you get for spending QUALITY TIME with your FAMILY. [Edit: The deals are still working today, Saturday, in the morning.]
Do you realize it is, like, four weeks until the winter holidays? Ha ha, like I know anything about any winter holiday except the one we celebrate in our house (Secular Christmas). But they’re, um, at approximately the same time of year, right? And so all of us can unite in our common panicky feeling, because The Holiday is coming soon for all of us?
I find the panicky feeling MOSTLY pleasant, because I enjoy shopping and I enjoy buying gifts. I spend kind of a lot of time doing it, and feel disappointed when I’m done. I’m afraid this means a lot of SHOPPING TALK around here in the near future—but fortunately, only about four weeks of it! Because there are only about four weeks left! No, sorry, don’t panic!
I have several general suggestions to start with. I do almost all of my shopping at Amazon.com, so I’m afraid the tips are mostly SKEWED in that direction.
1. Visit or subscribe to Want Not. Mir keeps track of the deals and who’s got free shipping and who’s got coupons. I’ve gotten so many good buys because of her.
2. Put anything you’re considering buying at Amazon.com into your shopping cart (or the “saved items” area of the shopping cart). Whenever you go to your cart, it’ll let you know which things have gone up or down in price since the last time you went to your cart. This has gotten me some unexpected good deals: sometimes the price of something drops very low for a day or two and I never would have noticed if it hadn’t been in my cart.
3. A bunch of Amazon.com items (certain books! certain kitchen items! certain other assorted things! there is no way to predict it!) qualify for a “4-for-the-price-of-3” discount: mix-and-match any four of these items and you’ll get the cheapest one free. Well, that means you want to be a little careful not to order items costing $20, $20, $20, and $4, because you’ll get the $4 one free. Furthermore, if you are ordering EIGHT items that all qualify, you’ll get the cheapest TWO free: if you’ve got items costing $20, $20, $20, $20, $10, $10, $10, $10, you’ll get two $10 items free. But if you place two separate orders, one for the $20 items and one for the $10 items, you’ll get one $20 and one $10 free. So LOOK SHARP, people!
4. Many Amazon.com items qualify for free shipping if you have an order totaling more than $25. So, you know, don’t place a $22.47 order and pay $12 shipping on it. Depending on how much shopping I need to do, I might place an order every time I hit the $25 mark—or I might let it pile up so I don’t get stranded at the end with a small order that I can’t get to $25 without adding, say, four pounds of chocolate-covered dried cherries. Just for example.
5. Also, the free shipping option can be slowwwwwwwwww. Like, 2 weeks slow. So it’s a good idea to order early if, like me, you hate paying for shipping.
There. I had one more Amazon.com tip, but I’ve forgotten it. If I remember it, I’ll mention it in one of the next million shopping posts.
Also, this morning I got an email from The Land of Nod, which is Crate & Barrel’s kid store. They have a free shipping deal through Monday on all non-furniture items: use code RUDOLPH. A lot of their stuff is not in my price range ($30 for a “stocking stuffer”?), but I’m planning to sort through anyway. It’s hard to resist free shipping, and this personalized ornament would be a cute teacher gift, and even I like playing with these six puzzles in one puzzles. Here are the gifts under $10 and here are the gifts $10-25, and here are the gifts $25-50. (But watch out: you can buy this Melissa and Doug birthday cake toy from The Land of Nod for $24.95, or you can buy it from Amazon.com for $11.99.)