I'm just really looking forward to Christmas ok
I had a great weekend and an awful Sunday night and Monday. Basically I had an unexpected financial bite that wiped out my Christmas savings. :C
At first I was all "bloo bloo bloo what about my Christmas cards" but I think I'll manage to do it. Mpix (which dimethirwen recommended) is $.42 per card, and a first class stamp is $.44 in the US (and similar in Canada), so we'll call the total cost roughly $1 per card, when you add in the shipping cost for the cards to get mailed to me. So hopefully I can keep the whole shebang under $75. I can pinch pennies somewhere to do that.
Anyway, my parents very generously said that if I need to borrow money to get Christmas gifts I can do that. I hope I won't have to. Homemade gifts once again! EVERYONE GETS COOKIES.
Anyway. I thought I'd make up a little list in case anyone who wants to get me/us a gift and wants an idea can look at it. Although I'm fine with homemade cookies too! HOMEMADE COOKIE SWAP OH YEAH.
One thing I'm going to put outside of the cut simply because it's just so cute!
Squee! We got that out from the library and it is SO CUTE. And there are two more books so far in the series. Little Pip is even a girl! (There are quite a number of children's book Pips, since it's an easy name to sound out, but most of them are boys.) And since we often call OUR Pip "Little Pip" it is perfect!
The target audience for the book is a little older than our Pip so this isn't a must have gift for this Christmas, but I definitely at some point want to own copies of all three. The books are by Karma Wilson, and one book has come out every year since 2008, so hopefully there will be more of them. One of them is a "you're getting a younger sibling whether you like it or not, kid, so learn to love it" book, which we won't need until #2 is on the way, whenever that is.
I like to do one of these lists because I like to ~surprise~ people and directly asking spoils the surprise, so I often resort to stalking their blogs or Facebooks or whatever looking for indications that they need this or that. Basically I'm doing unto others as I would like done unto me, haha. People who want to look at it can look at it but no one is forced to.
Gift ideas in many price ranges and no particular order.
FOR US:
FOR PIP, NOMINALLY (Pip won't "enjoy" them per se):
FOR PIP, LEGITIMATELY (just remember no small choking hazard kinds of things)
This is a bit early so I might link this again in late November, but we'll be having my family's Christmas gift giving in November while we're visiting, so I thought it might be nice to put this up for them.
At first I was all "bloo bloo bloo what about my Christmas cards" but I think I'll manage to do it. Mpix (which dimethirwen recommended) is $.42 per card, and a first class stamp is $.44 in the US (and similar in Canada), so we'll call the total cost roughly $1 per card, when you add in the shipping cost for the cards to get mailed to me. So hopefully I can keep the whole shebang under $75. I can pinch pennies somewhere to do that.
Anyway, my parents very generously said that if I need to borrow money to get Christmas gifts I can do that. I hope I won't have to. Homemade gifts once again! EVERYONE GETS COOKIES.
Anyway. I thought I'd make up a little list in case anyone who wants to get me/us a gift and wants an idea can look at it. Although I'm fine with homemade cookies too! HOMEMADE COOKIE SWAP OH YEAH.
One thing I'm going to put outside of the cut simply because it's just so cute!
Squee! We got that out from the library and it is SO CUTE. And there are two more books so far in the series. Little Pip is even a girl! (There are quite a number of children's book Pips, since it's an easy name to sound out, but most of them are boys.) And since we often call OUR Pip "Little Pip" it is perfect!
The target audience for the book is a little older than our Pip so this isn't a must have gift for this Christmas, but I definitely at some point want to own copies of all three. The books are by Karma Wilson, and one book has come out every year since 2008, so hopefully there will be more of them. One of them is a "you're getting a younger sibling whether you like it or not, kid, so learn to love it" book, which we won't need until #2 is on the way, whenever that is.
I like to do one of these lists because I like to ~surprise~ people and directly asking spoils the surprise, so I often resort to stalking their blogs or Facebooks or whatever looking for indications that they need this or that. Basically I'm doing unto others as I would like done unto me, haha. People who want to look at it can look at it but no one is forced to.
Gift ideas in many price ranges and no particular order.
FOR US:
- a mandolin (the slicer, not the musical instrument, although that would be pretty cool)
- a good knife (we already have serviceable aka crappy ones, but it would be really nice to have an actual good quality knife)
- an air purifier for the baby's room (to pull double duty as a white noise machine)
- socks. both Gordon and I need socks. Gordon needs black ones specifically. I have too many Christmas themed socks. I wear Christmas themed socks all year because that's what I have that match, because I always get socks for Christmas.
- nice ladies hats or scarves (I can never have too many of either)
- small trash cans (ie the kind you have in a bedroom or office and can line with a plastic grocery bag)
- a good quality, fast reading thermometer, of the kind that go in an adult's mouth or a baby's armpit. the one we have takes too long to give a temperature and I can't keep Pip from wriggling around and ruining it.
- stackable laundry baskets
FOR PIP, NOMINALLY (Pip won't "enjoy" them per se):
- a toy box or toy organizer
- long-sleeved onesies and warm pants in size 6-12 mo Edit: Due to Pippa's growth rate, you'd probably better make your present no smaller than 12-18 mo
- 6-12 mo sized shoes (Edit: probably again better to just jump straight to 12-18 mo)
- 6-12 mo sized 12-18 mo warm pajamas, nightgowns, or sleep sacks/wearable blankets
- toddler mittens
- suction-cup bottom bowls
- learning cups--not spill-proof or "sippy" cups! sippy cups are essentially bottles in disguise, because you have to suck on them. they don't help a kid to learn to drink from a cup
- meal-time bibs, especially wipe-clean ones such as the plastic "pelican" bibs
- baby's first Christmas crap, like an ornament with her name on it, and stuff like that. I am a sap, I admit it.
FOR PIP, LEGITIMATELY (just remember no small choking hazard kinds of things)
- fun, well-written bath-safe books (the one we have is rather stupid)
- construction, stacking, sorting toys (especially good quality blocks)
- high chair toys (they have suction cups on the bottoms)
- toys on wheels (animals, cars)
- balls (of the large, roll back and forth on the floor with Mama variety)
- board books and cloth books, especially ones with flaps or textures (Edit: We now have quite a few of these, so this is lower priority, but they're the kind of thing that you can have multiples of)
This is a bit early so I might link this again in late November, but we'll be having my family's Christmas gift giving in November while we're visiting, so I thought it might be nice to put this up for them.