What are you giving for Christmas this year?

[Kguillemette 1,165]

Like the title says, what are you giving this year? This year with my wife in school full time, we are back to one income, so $$$ is a bit tight for christmas. We had to get a bit creative this year. It wound up being a 5 below year. We avoided toys and electronics for the kids and focused more on art/creative toys, imaginative playthings, board games, and books. It's okay, they have enough stuff anyway, plus grandma already was all over buying them nintendo switch games. The highlights this year-

 

Youngest(5)- Tag leap reader kit plus 10 books, hungry hungry hippos, Mrs potato head, Minnie mouse canvas kit,

Middle(6)- King dedede amiibo, toy story book collection, super mario world adventures(comic collection from nintendo power,) cappy plushie.(she's a daddy's girl, she loves nintendo characters and games!).

Oldest(8) - Microscope, magnet building tiles, how to draw comics book, the new dog man graphic novel, deluxe art kit.

 

 

Parents- had to get creative here, my dad had open heart surgery recently, so I am making a batch of low sodium chicken jambalaya for them with quinoa instead of rice. Lots of veggies, good stuff.

Grandmother- Yankee candle

Sister- Michael's gift card

Wife- nothing. She wants nothing, I want the same from her. We can buy ourselves presents this tax season.

 

How about you?

 

Silly me, they are also getting pet gerbils this year as well.

Edited December 22, 2019 by Kguillemette

[MeganJoanne 365]

My love to somebody. That's about the most and most important thing I can give.

[m308gunner 352]

Toys for the kids, luxury items for the wife, gift cards for the folks.

[acromite53 335]

At my grandparents house, I found a bunch of color slides from the 50s and 60s in a box. They were taken by my grandpa. So I've been scanning them and making prints. I'm giving him a large photo album of these pictures which haven't been seen for decades.

Edited December 23, 2019 by acromite53

[Alder 241]

Mom - A fitbit I won in a raffle at work

Dad - A dash cam

Brothers - An assortment of spicy foods

[zeppelin03 314]

Gave my girlfriend a Fruits Basket coffee mug. She loved the show and anime growing up.  We both enjoyed the new series that aired this year.  It went over really well. We get impatient and open stuff the day ahead of the family stuff starting.

[Link 1,810]

Mom asked for a certain welcome mat. Says “Ring bell, pull weeds until someone answers”. So, that. And she is a language nut and retired librarian, so I got her a book of short stories composed entirely of example sentences from dictionary definitions. 

Dad asked for an expanding garden hose, an extending grabber, and a candy thermometer. He gets those and also two new, high temp oven thermometers since the one he has isn’t reliable. Their oven has a big problem and it’s a whole thing. I would take care of it directly if I didn’t live hundreds of miles away.

Brother asked for wool socks from Duluth Trading. His wife is a comedian and also sells sunglasses on instagram. I got her one of those miniature lightboxes that you put letters on like a movie theater marquee. Their son, who is a toddler being raised as a big ham, might like that too. He’s getting a rubber chicken and a stomp rocket. 

Mrs Link is getting:

pill boxes that she needs (and she grabbed 6 of them when we were in the store together, I told her put 4 back, I got them for you last week ) 

a new tool box - she mentioned this in passing, and her tools are pretty unorganized. Got the red and black Craftsman portable 3-drawer deal. I gotta work on xmas day and would prefer to open presents after I get home. So this is the one I’ll let her open at breakfast so she has something to do while I’m gone. 

perfume that she asked for - it smells good

earplugs - we go to a lot of concerts. I got her some construction site ones a while ago, flanged type that reduce volume but not clarity. They were a linked pair, with a cable that goes behind your neck. Good for me, but she lost them because she left them around her neck and somehow lost them from there. (I lost mine by dropping the container out of my pocket on my way somewhere.) And I can’t find those any more. So I got her a case of the foam kind, unattached, with highest decibel reduction rating I could find (33). 

and - a pint glass with her school logo etched on it. Her graduating class each received a glass with printed logo. She dropped a shaker lid on hers and broke it, very disappointed. She’s very proud of finishing her degree and graduating with honors. I went to the school gift shop and they had no such thing. So I got one custom made. We were just talking about it tonight, as she brought it up when she again dropped the shaker top on her margarita glass (no break this time). I think that’s gonna go over the best, and it’s thick-walled so it should be pretty durable. 

[Rooster 124]

I bought a nice dash cam for my wife.  There's pretty much no reason not to have one now, so I pulled the trigger and got a semi-decent one that records in 1440p.