HIT: The Snapfish calendar I made for each of our kids featuring “A Year In The Life Of Charlie” - our corgi beagle!!!
Also, the Snapfish book we made for my 82 year old mom of our trip to France this summer. I kept seeing her picking it up and looking at the pics over and over! <3
Miss - the sous vide thing I got for DH. I think he’ll like it after he tries it, but at this point he is skeptical that it will ever cook anything that he’d want to eat. (Though he is coming around a little… just told me he got out some ribs to try with it.)
Hit - the elaborate, hand-made Zelda costume my sis made for her 22-year old cosplayer daughter. Merited a “Best. Mom. Ever!” on FB.
Hit: I got my mom a smart TV so that she can watch her shows on a TV rather than on her tablet. She was so happy she cried.
Miss: My sister got my father a selfie stick. Why? I have absolutely no idea. And then the darned thing didn’t even work.
Follow-up bonus miss that became a hit: I bought my sister a new Fitbit that she asked for. Turns out her boss already got her one (which she didn’t tell me) so I am now the proud owner of my first fitbit lol.
We brought a grab bag that was VERY popular last night. It was an amazon Teddy bear with a box of dark chocolate covered Mac but candies. The two moms of toddlers were the most earnest in swapping for it and one of them eventually prevailed. Not sure if its for mom or tyke, tho certainly the parents will eat the chocolates.
D got minecraft for 11year old nephew plus code book boxed set–HIT! Nieces also got code book set + bananagrams–i think it was a hit. Gave D cheesecake factory gcard with 2 extra slices–big hit because she was feeling blue.
S gave D a board fame about German castles because she’s a German history buff, BIG hit!
Oh yes, one belated thought gift–York dark chocolate covered mints were marked down to $1.29 today, so bought H a bag and he’s in heaven!
D loves the Costco black cross body bag that was on coupon for $30. She’s also fond of JCrew wool cardigan.
Miss: D1 understood none of us are into lots of Xmas candy. She was the stocking elf and just got a few pieces for each. Then the others went nuts, as if this last minute idea was so great. I have so nuch that I’m taking it to work and leaving it for the boss’s candy bowl.
Hit: going to dinner Xmas Eve. And D2 cried over a wedding album/planner.
I got my husband a gas patio heater…thought he would like it for when we get out of the hot tub in the winter, but he wants to return it.
He got me an All clad slow cooker…I am looking forward to using it , but probably won’t have time until after the 1st of the year…still in hectic holiday swing time here
My 12 year old daughter works every other day with an audiologist, who is simply wonderful to my daughter. So I got a nice fleece throw as a thank you. I almost forgot I had it, but my daughter reminded me at the last minute, I grabbed the wrapped gift, threw on a gift tag, and sent her to school.
You can see where this is going, right??
When the teacher opened up the gift, it turned out to be the TsumTsum (stuffed animal pillow) from the Disney Store that my daughter had had her eye on.
The teacher has grandkids, so I imagine it wasn’t a wasted gift. But I’m sure the dinner conversation that night with her husband was amusing.
And, yes, I think I’ll be emailing in a letter of explanation, just so she doesn’t think I’ve been hitting the egg nog too hard.
A real hit: when I teach Precalc, I sometimes put my graphing calculator on the projector so my kids can see which keys I’m hitting. The problem is that I’m a bit vertically challenged, and have to stand on my tip toes to see what’s on the screen.
iRoller: a gadget for cleaning touch screens. It may just be my imagination, but my Surface seems much more more responsive to the touch. Haven’t needed to use the stylus all day.
Finances are tight this year, so we decided to have a Ned Flanders-style “Imagination Christmas.” Well, almost. HIT: I bought my son a Virtual Reality Headset for his LG phone, which was cheap. I wanted to buy him the iPhone Cardboard, but his phone doesn’t fit in that. He spent Christmas day hanging out on stage (virtually) at a Paul McCartney concert.
MISS: I bought my daughter the same thing, but because she has an iPhone, I could get her a cardboard knock off for $2. But she had to put it together herself, and the directions were super complicated, and the thing was ridiculously terrible. We still don’t know if it works.
The fun part about the MISS was that we had so much fun joking about how crappy this gift was. My daughter said it only would’ve been better if we ALL got one, and assembled them together, complaining and sharing extra parts.
My son’s MISS: he bought DH George Harrison’s “Concert For Bangladesh” DVD, but he’s had it for years. His HIT: I got kneepads,which I always wanted for painting, cleaning and gardening projects.
Another MISS: American Science&Surplus sold me a “Magic Egg,” which went in DS’s stocking. As far as we can tell, it does absolutely nothing. Another MISS that we had so much fun laughing about.
Hits: one daughter’s “presence” is my present; cliche but true. Other daughter couldn’t come home but had an article published a few days before Christmas. No misses.
Like rosered55, my son’s unexpected presence to my area, to attend a HS friend’s wedding, was the big hit.
Misses: the 7 gifts I bought for cousin’s grandkids. She suggested that 5 were into baking, and I could buy them starter sets, so, I drove 1 1/2 hours to Ikea, the. To several dollar stores, BB&B, Targets, and put together 5 baskets with aprons, rolling pins, measuring cups and spoons, pot holders, dish rags, sprinkles, wood spoons, spatulas, serving pieces, etc, in the child’s favorite color, and I got no feedback. As of last night, the kids hadn’t opened their baskets. Bah humbug.
Aw, @bookworm, that’s kind of sad. Maybe, if they were “into baking” they already had that? Even if so, it was a sweet thought that deserved thanks. And, can you ever have too many measuring spoons and spatulas and … ? I say not.
Another surprise visitor who made Christmas special. My nephew arrived from CT to surprise everyone, including his father. This group of cousins has always been very close, and the 5 were all together again (three are 19, two are 22). They had a great time together going shopping, playing games, eating Chinese food.
A hit for my daughter was her Cake Boss mixing bowls, so I too like the idea of the baking starter kit.
A hit for me is a new Dooney and Burke purse from my kids. I’m sure they paid too much for it but I do love it.
“Experience” gifts were the hit here. DH and I gave D1 and her husband a gift certificate to Broadway Across America…and they gave us the same (though a lower value lol) We gave S and GF gift certificate to EscapeRoom (though DH never has any idea what we are giving our kids) and then I open a gift certificate from DH to, you guessed it, EscapeRoom! I guess someone was listening when I said I don’t want stuff! Another hit was D3 planted a tree in my honor with National Arbor Foundation.
A miss? My mom who is always too warm and never wears turtlenecks buys me, who is more than a few pounds overweight and ALWAYS too warm, a turtleneck with a sweater to go over it.
D2 and her husband did give me “stuff” but since it was a Shutterfly book of pics from their wedding earlier this month I was very happy with it!
These kids are 10 and Under, so I know the items are their “firsts”. Just not valued by the parents and the kids not excited to go thru their baskets. Funny, cuz I asked each mom for the kids fav color, and got coordinating items. Just too much work for no response.
I volunteer with a group that helps foster kids. Next year, my focus will be more on them.
