Gift Ideas for the Panicky Shopper: 2013

Yes, this is a gift guide of sorts, for those that need a little more inspiration. I'm surfacing from the blogging dead to help out people who, like me, are starting to feel a little overwhelmed with the holiday shopping season. With only 19 shopping days left before Christmas, perhaps you, as I am, are struggling with rounding out your gift lists.

The suggestions below are all things you can buy, wrap, and give. I'm fully in support of handmade or labor intensive gifts like making candles, photo books, and mason jars of goodies, but let's be honest - that's all a lot of work that I don't have time to do. The two hours I have between kid bedtime and my bedtime every night is already taken up by internet surfing, wine drinking, and TV watching, and handmade gifts just doesn't make the list.

Disclaimer #1: This is not comprehensive, cutting edge, or even slightly organized. It's just a collection of things that I've seen during my holiday shopping ventures this year that caught MY eye, and maybe they'll catch yours, too.

Disclaimer #2: This is not a sponsored post, and I have no affiliation with any of the products or stores mentioned here.

You may find inspiration in past gift posts I've done, too, though I can't verify whether the items themselves are still available: Spotlight on Paper Source, Gift Ideas for Guys


Kids

I read somewhere that there is no "big new toy" this year, which means parents are reverting to the classics that have lasted generations. Probably a bunch of bunk, but I will say that I've seen a LOT of Barbies at Target lately, for what that's worth. In the same vein, another classic standby is good ol' LEGOs. It can be confusing figuring out which sets your little LEGO fanatic already has, what with the many, many ones there are to choose from (Star Wars, Harry Potter, LEGO City, Ninjago, LEGO Friends, just to name a few). Instead, how about a set of basic, classic LEGOs to foster a little creativity?:

LEGO Ultimate Building Set - 405 Pieces ($29.99 on Amazon)

 

You could pair it with a book for inspiration, like the LEGO Play Book or the LEGO Idea Book (each is $12.83 on Amazon right now).

 

 A unique building set geared toward encouraging girls to love engineering is Goldie Blox, sets of books and accompanying construction sets that feature Goldie, a kid inventor. I've put in a request for this one for Lucy with the in-laws, I think it looks great!

Goldie Blox and the Spinning Machine ($29.99 on Amazon)

If you're buying for a child in elementary school, odds are they would love a Rainbow loom. And if they have one already, a bag of loom bands would make a great stocking stuffer.

Rainbow Loom ($17.59)

To keep those different colored little bands at their fingertips, consider getting them an organizer like this one:

Rainbow Loom Storage Case with adjustable compartments ($16.99)

Or a How-To book on some of the different designs, like The Loomatic's Interactive Guide to the Rainbow Loom ($18.99)

This year I found a lot of great inspiration from the Hearthsong website (sorry for some of the teeny photos, I had trouble pulling larger ones off the website):

The Woodland Fairy Houses are ridiculously adorable ($26.98 for a house and two fairies). The website claims these are for ages 3 and up, but I think 2 year olds would love this, too.

The On-the-Go Animals and Portable Home are similar to the fairy houses, and also ridiculously cute ($26.98)

The Super Finger Flashlights are a hit with any kid ($14.98 for a set of 8)

There are some great gifts for older kids, like a Unicycle ($89.98)

or a Dressmaking Workshop ($44.97)

Lucy has her eye on these wonderful-looking Monarch butterfly wings ($15.98 each)

Moving on from Hearthsong, here is a great Hair Chalk set ($22)that your dress-up afficionado will love (bonus, it can also be used for those random school "Crazy Hair" days)

Do your kids love rocks as much as mine? We have an army of them out on our stoop, since I won't let the kids bring them in the house. For fellow rock lovers, consider this Crystal Mining Kit (currently $9.80):

Take it a step further with this Model T Kit Rock Tumbler ($102.99) and turn those random rocks into treasures:

For the crafty child, this American Girl Crafts Bears Sew and Stuff kit ($12.16, ages 8 and up) looks great (there are owl and raccoon versions, too):

For the wee littles, consider this neat scooter that doubles as a ride-on toy until your little one is big enough to figure out how to scoot - perfect for kids as young as 12 months (don't forget a helmet, too!).

Micro Mini 3-in1 ($114)

Gadgets
Major electronic and gaming system items are some obvious choices for holiday gifts, and I'm in no position to recommend which ones are best. However, there are a few neat, small gadgets I want to list here that might make nice gifts for the tech-lover in your life.

The Holga iPhone Lens ($30 at Photojojo) attaches to iPhones and provides 9 different filters (including a macro lens) for those of us who find ourselves relying on our smart phones for most of the photos we take (guilty of this myself, lately!). Fits the iPhone 5/5S and 4/4S, but doesn't specifically state whether it will work for the 5C (frowny face for me!).

Une Bobine ($25 at Photojojo) is a unique phone charger that can also act as a tripod:

Firebox's Grippy Pad ($11.49) will magically keep your phone or iPad or whatever you want propped up on your dashboard (I want this!)

Women
I am loving everything on the Fossil website. Why have I never shopped there before?

Everyone needs a pair of aviator sunglasses ($48).

This fox change purse ($48) is adorable, and feeds into my love of the "What does the Fox Say?" YouTube video sensation (don't judge).

A chic tortoise bangle ($68) would complement any outfit.

A wonderful scarf ($48) and hat ($38)

With matching color block tech gloves ($38) so you can use your smart phone to your heart's delight in the blustery winter air.

And let's not forget what Fossil is best known for - it's wonderful watches and wallets and bags. It was difficult to pick just one or two to post here, so I encourage you to go and browse - guaranteed that you will find something perfect for someone on your gift list. But here are a couple that caught my eye:

Decker Chronograph Stainless Rose Watch ($125)

Sidney small zip pouch ($75)

Moving beyond Fossil, I'm a firm believer in anything from Kate Spade, like this Opening Night Wrap Necklace (a splurge at $128)

Or the "As Good As Gold" Bangle Bracelet ($42, and comes in several other colors/finishes)

This Essie Nail Color 2013 Holiday Gift Set ($14.99) is currently unavailable online, but the colors are perfect, and you may have luck finding one at a Target near you.

Men

Kick it old school style with these Tetris shaped fridge magnets ($5.99, unfortunately out of stock right now, but hopefully back soon; can also be found here and here for a little higher price)

The LL Bean Fleece Lined Flannel shirt ($59.99), with which we gifted most of the adult men we know last year, is still hands-down the best gift suggestion I have for the men in your life. It's awesome, trust me.

They even make a hoodie version now ($44.95), which might be great for your much-loved, too-cool-for-school teenage hooligan:

A FitBit would be a great gift for men or women - it's a pedometer and so much more (I have one and really like it!). I think men are more apt to go for the wrist-worn versions. Of the two available, I'd recommend the FitBit Force ($129.95) because you can view your stats on the wristband itself.

My dad is raving about the Automatic Smart Driving Assistant ($99.99), which has gotten great reviews. It plugs into your car and sends your smart phone information, like your gas mileage, what the malfunction code means when one pops up on your dash, and where you parked at the mall. I can't find an image file that I can pull down for this post, but it looks like a little gadget. Apple stores are apparently selling them, too.

The Drop and Catch Bottle Opener ($60, but the website is offering $10 off with the coupon code holiday right now) is a great idea

I've raved about the Thermos Stainless King Leak-Proof Travel Tumbler (currently on sale for $18.99) before - hands down the best travel coffee mug I've found. Get it - the coffee drinkers in your life need this.

To pamper your guy, try the Art of Shaving's 4 Elements of the Perfect Shave kit ($60 for the mid size version; they also have a smaller one for $25 and a full size version for $100 or so). You can buy it from many other sites, too, including Macy's, Sephora, and Amazon.

Host/Hostess
I generally don't like to recommend Anthropologie gifts, because I think their products are ridiculously overpriced. However, I've had my eye on their Poppy Ring Brownie Dish ($36) for over a year now, and the price is actually pretty good.

The Threshold Gold Cocktail Shaker ($14.99) is gorgeous and would be perfect paired with a nice bottle of liquor and/or matching tumblers (or was it stemless wine glasses?) that I can't find on the Target website, but did see in my local Target store.

Christmas with the Rat Pack ($7.00) would be a great addition to any host's music collection.

Alright, I'm stopping there, because I need to get back to my own shopping. Speaking of which, what are you buying? Any good ideas for me to use? I'll be getting some of the stuff on this list for my unsuspecting family and friends, but am on the look out for more. Share in the comments!

Final Christmas Rundown: Kids' Gifts and Cookies

Kid Gifts

I'm not feeling any inspiration for a post describing the kids' Christmas gifts. THEY seem excited enough about them, thankfully, but I'm just sort of "meh." I guess because I'm not 6? Anyway, the short version is that they got toys, and they like them. I would recommend them to others for purchase, if pressed to comment on that. I know that Finn and Lucy will play with these toys for about 3 more days, and then abandon them in favor of whining at me that they "have no toys" and "want to watch T.V." But so far, they've been pleasantly "into" these toys.

In brief, Lucy got a lot (A LOT) of Disney princess stuff (Santa brought no less than 3 costumes, among other things), and Finn got a new race track (a Nano Speed Turbo set, which is new for us, but I refused to have Santa bring a Hot Wheels set because they are all designed to stick to a wall) and an Imaginext Space Shuttle. They were happy enough for kids that kept finding new things to add to their Christmas Wish Lists as little as two days before Christmas (as if) - I was sure there would be disappointment, but neither one of them brought up anything they wish they had received instead.

There were also other random small things, like new Magic Tree House books, jewelry, Monster Trucks, etc.

OH! I almost forgot that there is ONE kid gift I am excited about. We bought our very first (and hopefully only, for a long time) family gaming system - a Wii. It was our gift to the kids (and ourselves). We got the original one, not that new confusing one they've been advertising lately (WiiU?). We have a Sports and Sports Resort game pack, and we also picked up Just Dance 4. We've all been having a lot of fun with it, more than I thought we would. Lucy's attention for playing is still only about about 2.5 minutes, but Finn can already do a lot of things independently/intuitively, so I'm sure she'll catch on in the next year or so.

Oh oh! I also meant to mention a couple of things we got for nieces/nephews that I would really REALLY recommend. The first is the Richard Scarry Busy Town board game:

I like it so much that I inadvertently got it for my sister Kristin's kids both this year and last year - luckily I had a sneaking suspicion that I had done this, checked (and confirmed), and was able to turn around and give it to my sister Stacey's daughter instead. Busy Town for everyone! It is a cute game that is way less frustrating for kids (and parents) than Chutes and Ladders or Candyland (no going ALL the way back to the beginning for anyone).

I also found a couple of non-traditional "Princess as the strong heroine" books that I gave to my nieces Penny and JoJo, and now I'm thinking they may need to be a birthday gift for Lucy. They are MUCH better/more interesting than the drivel Disney puts out. One book is called The Apple Pip Princess, and the other is The Paper Bag Princess.

Finally, my newest niece, Alexa, is just a year old (ALMOST! A few days and counting!), and she is preceded by two much older brothers. Her house is sadly bereft of girly things. To help her start the battle against the hockey equipment and Nerf guns, we gave her this hilariously adorable Little People Wonder Woman toy:

Is that not one of the cutest things you've ever seen for a 1-year-old?

She also got a Hello Kitty hoodie, because every girl should have one of those.

Cookies

Since I'm ready to be done with writing about Christmas, I'm going to mash my Christmas cookie report-out onto the bottom of this post. I went nuts on Pinterest, pinning about a dozen different cookie and candy recipes with the intention of making them all. Reality set in, and I had to scale back my plans a bit. But I still managed to make about 6 different types of cookies. They were all good (hard to beat the butter-sugar-flour-vanilla combination), but some were definite keepers. I'm just going to post a link to the original recipe for each one rather than including the recipes themselves here (credit where credit due, yo), but I will make a note if I substantially changed anything.

Roll Out Sugar Cookies: This is my second year making these (pictures from last year are here). They are delicious, and fun for the kids to decorate. For frosting, I just used the recipe on the Dominos confectioner's sugar box. I made a double batch and then used Wilton gel food coloring to make a bunch of different colors. I will definitely continue making these.

Chocolate Roll Out Sugar Cookies: This was my first time making these. The dough was really hard to work with (I chilled it for the required amount of time, but it almost seemed TOO long, because I had a tough time rolling it out), but the cookies tasted awesome, so I'll probably make these again. These were decorated at the same time we did the regular roll out sugar cookies.

Soft Almond Sugar Cookies: These are not roll out cookies; instead, they are formed into balls and then rolled in Turbinado sugar. They were so soft and yummy - another definite keeper.

Chocolate Chunk Peppermint Pudding Cookies: These were SO GOOD. This is a recipe where I had to make some substitutions. I couldn't find Devil's Food pudding, so I used regular chocolate pudding. I also searched high and low for the Andes Peppermint Crunch Baking Chips the recipe called for, but could not find them anywhere. So instead, I bought a few bars of Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Peppermint bark and chopped them up. They worked great, and the cookies turned out to be one of my favorites.

Thumbprint Cookies: I think these were my absolute favorite cookies. I made them with strawberry preserves, apricot preserves, and lemon curd. They were awesome. I may need to double the batch next year.

Deep Dark Chocolate Cookies: These were almost too rich for me. I guess I prefer a little flour in my cookie (they are flourless, which is great for the gluten-free crowd). Not sure I'll make again.

Peppermint Kiss Sugar Cookies: I think I prefer the version of these cookies that are made with peanut butter cookies and regular Hershey's Kisses. Too minty for me, but the kids loved them. I'm on the fence about making them again.

So there you have it - a rundown on the 6 - no wait, 7 - God, I have a problem - batches of Christmas cookies I made this past year.

These pictures were taken when I was only 3 cookie types in to the baking process. Also, what does it say about me that I wrote much of this post while watching the latest Biggest Loser episode?

I may need an intervention next year.

Gift List - Grown Ups

The excitement of the holidays is over  for another 11 months - so sad! But before *I* move on, I thought I would share some of the details of our holiday preparations, in the event they help you (and me) next time around. I'll start by sharing the gifts we (me and M., since I made him do some of the shopping) got the adults in our lives, which might seem like a very "stuff" centric/materialistic post, but I've never been one to shy away from the reality that our Christmas is very heavy on the "stuff" aspect of things. Family, food, and a smidge of religion, too, but clearly STUFF. Hopefully I'll follow up with additional posts on what we gifted to the kid crowd and the gads of Pinterest-inspired cookies I made. No promises, of course (you should know that by now!).

The Siblings

First up is the under-30 crowd, otherwise known as my brother and his girlfriend. My siblings and I don't normally exchange gifts, but this year I decided to do small gifts "from Finn and Lucy" for each of them anyway (AND my brother also decided to get gifts for my sisters and I, which led to one of my favorite gifts of the season - my very first, but probably not last, infinity scarf that I heart with a passion. I call this Christmas "the year of the infinity scarf," subtitle "and also beermaking"). I didn't get gifts for my brothers-in-law (sorry, guys!), but since this was our first Christmas with my brother's girlfriend, and she was very far from her own family (they live in Columbia, as in the country, and not one of the many US cities), I got her a small gift, too.

For Andrew (my brother): This T-shirt from Skreened that I found hilarious and irresistible

Am I the only one who finds the teeny arms of the T Rex to be absurdly mockable? No, I'm sure I'm not.

He also received a set of mustache bottle clings/reusable labels that you can use to mark beer bottles and whatnot, capitalizing on the recent mustache craze. I cannot for the life of me find a link to an image online, but I bought them from the dollar section at Target.

For Christel (his girlfriend): I picked out an infinity scarf from Kohls with a colorful chevron pattern that is apparently no longer available, though I did manage to track down an inactive link with a photo of it here.  A little birdie (my brother) told me that she is a fan of watches, so I also got a cute (*I* think) fashion watch that picks up one of the colors in the scarf (the watch is also no longer available, but I managed to find yet another dud of a link):

Onto the over 30 crowd. I couldn't resist giving my sister Stacey this adorable bracelet from Banana Republic (you should note that pretty much all the gifts I gave the women in our families I either already owned, or secretly wanted for myself. Including this bracelet):

At the time it was available in black, red, or camel, and I got it in red. Seems only the camel color is available now, but still VERY cute.

Kristin was gifted... An Infinity Scarf!! See? The Christmas of the Infinity Scarf. I got hers at Kohls, and the internet is unable to yield me any photos or links to this item. SO while I cannot show you what it looks like, I can tell you that it was a somewhat gauzy/crinkly dark green scarf with threads of gold running through it. Which may not make it sound lovely, but it is (and work appropriate in all but the most formal of environments).

My sister-in-law received the same red bow bracelet I gave Stacey, along with a "Cozy Colorblock Scarf" from the Gap:

This scarf is, of course, no longer available - seems to be a theme here. But whether or not you can actually purchase the same exact scarves I have, the take home message should be clear. Scarf = Great Gift. Infinity, regular, doesn't matter. Buy scarves, people.

Finally, rounding out our siblings, M. picked out a fleece-lined flannel from L.L. Bean for his brother - the perfect layering shirt for ass-cold Wisconsin (spoiler alert: he got one for his dad, too. And I bought him one, since he so clearly pined for it):

This is the one M. bought his brother, and that I unknowingly also bought him. His dad received a red/navy one that is, of course, no longer available. But red is an important color in Wisconsin (go Badgers!), so good thing it was available at the time - my father-in-law's wardrobe is about 96% red, so this way he can coordinate the shirt with other items he already owns :-). Clearly we will need a flannel photo shoot the next time these three get together.

The (Rest of the) Parents

My siblings and I always go in together on group gifts for our parents, because they literally are "the people who already own everything." Seriously - they don't know how to deny themselves anything, so any time we come up with a great gift idea, it usually turns out that they already own it. Since we struggle so much, we've stuck to coming up with just one gift that works from all four of us. So far, no complaints....

My mom hinted (OK, we asked) that she'd like some hand hooked pillows made by a very specific artist to complement the rustic decor of the lakehouse my parents have up in Maine. A lakehouse that heavily features, among other Maine/wilderness themes, moose. These pillows are NOT cheap. $80+ bucks a pop, which I would never spend on throw pillows for myself. But these were not for me, they were for my mom, and they were a Christmas gift, and they are incredibly cute and fun, and really, that's what Christmas gifts should be. Fun things we would never think of getting ourselves. We got her two, one with an image of a moose (of course), and one with an Adirondack chair. These pillows are so wonderful that we had a really hard time just picking two, and would have loved to buy the whole lot. Eh, maybe next year, right?:

My dad received the new Amazon Paperwhite Kindle - the man who has every device imaginable (TWO iPads! TWO!) had managed to kill his Kindle, and had nothing to take with him into the hot tub to read (talk about first world problems, I suppose... but definitely wouldn't want to accidentally drop the iPad in there!).:

You already know about the fleecy flannel shirt my father-in-law was gifted, which just leaves my mother-in-law. I waffled back and forth a lot about what we should get her - clothing? kitchen stuff? A scarf?? In the end, I decided to go with an immersion blender, since I'm so in love with the one M. got me for our anniversary:

To go with it, we got some handled soup bowls from Sur La Table (in red, of course),:

and I scoured Pinterest to copy out a few recipes that we enclosed in a Christmas card (um, not pictured, because I don't remember EXACTLY which recipes I sent. But they all sounded fabulous) that heavily featured use of an immersion blender.

Finally, we sent a gift basket to my maternal grandparents who live down in Florida. Christmas isn't the same without them, but the trip from Florida to Massachusetts is just not practical for them anymore. So we Skyped and called and sighed and felt more than a little sad they weren't with us, and we gave them a Dean and Deluca gift basket to help make their own holiday feasts and entertaining a bit easier. The exact basket is no longer available (it was called "Fresh from the Country"), but it featured things like their babka bread, jams, some cured meat, etc. Nothing they had to bake or mix themselves, and I'm told the bread was very, very tasty! So no link or picture for you, but all the other gift baskets they still have look just as lovely.

So that's the rundown of the adult shopping we did for Christmas (aside from the gifts we got each other). I think we did pretty well (and best of all, the last gift was purchased by mid-December!). Maybe they'll help you next year when you are trying to come up with gifts for everyone on YOUR list.