<p>Fendergirl, they do get kind of “Pilly” after a while! We love ours though! </p>
<p>We thought about “Kindles” for the 4 of them, after asking a few questions, we concluded that none of them would like a Kindle! Usually they do tell us something at Thanksgiving, but nothing this time! Things are tight for us, too, so we will have to look around for the bargains as usual. Somehow, they are older now & it isn’t about the presents anymore, it is about being together on that day & having a great meal, some cheap champagne, wine, beer etc & being festive! </p>
<p>Our dog gets everyone in the family pajamas every year. We always open them Christmas Eve. I had to be sure to find ones without any red in them for my son since at his school (UCLA) wearing the color red is frowned upon.</p>
<p>Nrdsb4 - I’m not sure which model - we bought it for him three years ago. The most impt feature IMO is that the GPS states street names, not just distance. You don’t need all the bells and whistles that come with higher priced models.</p>
<p>Nrdsb4: Both of my sons drive to and from college. One has a 3-4 hour drive and the other has a 6-7 hour drive. They both have the Garmin Nuvi 255W. It’s easy to use and hasn’t failed them yet.</p>
<p>Love the idea of travel guides- both Ds are headed for short trips abroad, through school. It’s now a tradition to get them (avail at auto club) those 4-packs of discount tickets to the mall’s first-run movie theater. When they’re home on breaks- and poor- they’re glad to have these. And, they always love the inexpensive Pashmina scarves in some color they don’t have ($8 here.)
Btw, yes- we also have the family tradition of new pj’s on Xmas eve.</p>
Go on youtube, search for “noise cancelling shootout” and watch the video by a user named “thebittertrewth”. It’s very interesting.</p>
<p>I got my S a pair of Sennheiser PXC-350’s a while ago, they were around $170 IIRC, don’t remember where on the interwebs I got them. Bose makes a good one also, but it is twice the price. The rest in that test didn’t seem to work that well.</p>
<p>lookingforward, We used to always do the PJs on Xmas Eve. Our tradition was that the “elves” would put the packages on the doorstep, ring the bell and run away. That was the sign that it was time for bed. Unfortunately, my Ss just sleep in tees and boxers.</p>
<p>For those of you who’ve given “big” gifts in the past (computer, TV or a trip), do you continue to give such presents once your kids have graduated and are on their own? Is there an age, or circumstance, at which you scale down the gifts?
If some years you give a big gift and other years you spend far less, do you mention in advance when your budget is smaller?</p>
<p>How much effort, if any, do you put into keeping the gifts “equal” between siblings (whether in actual cost or retail value)? If you’ve given one child a large sum during the year for something like a car repair or snow tires, do you take that into consideration when buying gifts? Do you look for another way to equalize the distributions at other times of the year? Do you assume that over time things will even out, or perhaps not even give it any thought?</p>
<p>If your D or S is engaged, living w/ someone or married, how does that influence your gift purchases? Do you give joint presents? If you give individual gifts, do you spend as much on the SO as on your offspring? Does it matter if they’re married or not (as far as the gift distribution)?</p>
<p>FWIW, our kids do not appear to pay any attention to these issues other than to tease me about how much effort I put into being “fair” when they were little. In contrast, dh & I have siblings who keep close track of who gets what and some can be very bitter about any perceived slight. A couple of siblings are now completely estranged, largely over bad feelings about favoritism, so we tend to be somewhat sensitive about the issue.</p>
<p>One more pitch for buying electronics like GPS at Costco because of their GREAT return policy. We’ve had GPs die on us & brother. Both of us took them back to Costco for full refunds–no Qs asked. I ONLY buy things from Costco when I am concerned about possibly having to get a refund or the item breaking. Costco was having great deals on GPS. I have been happy with the Magellan I bought there & know others who have liked their Garmins from there.</p>
<p>I just try to have a nice selection of gifts for each S to open. Often there is one major gift and a few smaller ones; sometimes there are a several mid-priced gifts. S2 has an expensive hobby and is always lusting after new equipment. S1 lives simply and is always tough to shop for. I often remind myself that he went to a private college which cost several times what S2’s in-state public does. I think everyone is usually happy with the gifts they receive and no one thinks too much about what things cost.</p>
<p>Nrdsb4 - we just bought my son the garmin nuvi 260W ready for his long drive to his new job (he just left a couple of hours ago and we are a bit sniffly). I started off looking at higher priced ones but he nixes the one with traffic updates, said he would never use it, then nixed the one with bluetooth for the same reason. He was thrilled to get the GPS, didn’t want any bells or whistles. I paid $89 through amazon - no tax and free shipping.</p>
<p>Thanks for the tips on noise-cancelling headphones!</p>
<p>Silpat–We try to even things out between the children, but we don’t stress over it. It would be impossible to make things precisely equal. For example, if we found the big item for one child on sale, it would seem odd for the other child to get fewer gifts as a result.</p>
<p>We budget the same amount for each kid. If the totals wind up being off by more than a few dollars, one kid gets a gift card somewhere to even it up.</p>
<p>When I was in my 20’s, I used to get random checks in the mail from my father. Whenever he gave one of my siblings money or bought them something (they lived close by so he saw them more), he’d send me a check to keep things even. I never cared one way or the other, but I liked getting mail from him. :)</p>
<p>swimcatsmom: congrats to your S that’s big news. that move has to be the toughest transition of all…hugs to you.</p>
<p>great deal on the gps too…also, for gps shoppers, keep an eye open in your local supermarket circulars. we picked up the garmin nuvi 1300 for $79 last weekend.</p>
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