f13.net

I've see it as a 2 pronged problem - Sometimes you have someone that you want to get (or feel obligated to get) something for, but do not have a good idea. Sometimes your family demands a list of items from you, and you have no idea what to tell them. If you are so inclined, go ahead and list an item(s), a short description, a apprx. price, and why you want it/why you got it for someone. For example:

~$50 bucks - Dozen Titlist Pro V1 golf balls. This is my goto gift for my uncles, whom are all avid golfers. While I do not believe that any of my uncle's are good enough golfers for the ball they play to make a difference, I know that they think they are. Its nice to see them getting used the round or 2 I manage to play with them for the year.

~$5-10 bucks - Colored Golf Tees. My old goto gift for uncles, when I was younger. Every golfer knows that you have to use the right color tee for the shot your are trying to pull off. Red for power, Blue for draw, Green for straight, Black for wildcard.

~$20 bucks - Fuzzy Bear paw slippers. I received these as a gift a few years ago and where them every cold day. Its a simple thing that I get a lot of use out of, and it was a cool gift to open/take a picture of.

It's a music year for the most part from me.  I got my nephew an ocarina, his wife is getting castanets, their little girl some boomsticks and maracas for the little boy.  They can form a family band!  I'm sure mommy and daddy will frown at me.  Some cozy music note socks and gorgeous arm warmers for my friend who is a cellist.  Other nephew gets new sax mouthpiece, bass strings, an ocarina also, and some glass picks.  My sister gets a guitar string bracelet.  Some bass strings and a build your own ukelele kit for my brother in law.  I'm buying earplugs for myself.

Earrings and pajamas.  Not sure what to get the woman who should own stock in Paypal.  I let her pick out the pajamas last night.  Other wifey ideas are welcome.

The boy doesn't play with anything we buy him.  Lego?  Science kit?  Robots?  Nope; paper towel rolls and Minecraft.  I think I'll get him a Pathfinder set, though, since he's interested in pen-and-paper games at the moment; meaning, yesterday afternoon.

I bought some computer parts so I could build a ESX machine for work-ish purposes, but the wife hijacked them and will give them to me at the solstice.  /deadinside  Along with both new games that are worth a shit this season, plus a couple that aren't.  Maybe I don't complain enough.

The wife is fairly fond of trying out new cosmetics and the like, so I splurged a bit and went with a Glossybox subscription for her.  The kids are getting some various things such as hexbugs and the like, but usually we're crap at choosing presents for them and the grandparents always win.

I had the holiday shopping down for the family back in late September.  There's something to be said for giving themed ornaments each year.  Niece gets snowmen (and this is her last year now that she's 18).   Nephew 1 was finished two years ago (he's 20 now) and he used to get angels.  Nephew 2 gets nutcrackers.  Nephew 3 gets Christmas trees and nephew 4 gets vehicles.  I give them an ornament a year until the year they turn 18 and then stop.  I usually give my brothers an ornament as well (older bro = Santas, middle bro = bells, youngest bro = globes) but it can also depend on if I feel as if I like them this year.  I think this year, I don't like them.  I'm giving my mom an ugly frog this year (long story, it's a joke gift) and the in-laws are getting a visit from us this year.  Although, the in-laws visit is kind of "required" and I'm glad we're going.

I'm all done but then I don't do much.  Mostly just one little something each.  I used to give nothing to everyone but the past couple of years I've had the urge to give things to my nephews.  Kids always get a little something.  Mostly I get silly or adorable stuff that's not expensive because I'm always mostly broke.  Getting noisy stuff always makes me happy.  I don't know if it's because the babies get so happy or because the parents get so annoyed.  Either way, it's festive!  One year I stuffed my nephew's stocking with those scratchy lottery tickets and atheist propaganda.  It was awesome.  I usually stick everything in little xmas stockings so I don't have to wrap them.  :)  It all works.

After just winding up the last season of Parks and Rec I was thinking of getting the wife some Lagavulin 16.

Is it your favourite or her favourite? 

Here's a good idea: http://www.amazon.com/Weber-6434-Professional-Grade-Vegetable-Basket/dp/B000WEIJUW/ref=zg_mg_13299251_9

It's a grilling basket for veggies that you can use for outdoor grilling. It's only $20 and would be good for any dude with a grill.

And if you run out of time, there's always this option:

Thirty minute delivery from Amazon. 

Five pounds is a lot if it drops out of the sky and smushes your head... and don't tell me it won't happen. (http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/1/5164340/delivery-drones-are-coming-jeff-bezos-previews-half-hour-shipping)

What will happen is that someone will shoot down your package and get your shit.

There's an Onion story in this. It probably involves North Korea.

Amazon will have full fledged predator drones flying at a higher elevation to protect their shipment drones, so long as you are a prime customer.

I wont say I am not interested in trying it as it is supposed to be a pretty good Scotch but she likes Scotch and I prefer Bourbon.

It's very peaty, along the lines of Laphroaig.

If one likes that sort of thing, then that's good (Lagavulin is one of my two favorites.  The other is Balvenie, which tastes nothing whatsoever like it).

If not, it's not something to spring on someone unsuspecting...

We have had a few peaty Scotches before (including Laphroaig) and Balvenie Doublewood is her favorite Scotch.  I am pretty sure she has expressed an interest in developing a further taste for the peaty stuff but our days of snapping up a variety of $50 a bottle boozes to sample ended about the time we had a kid.

My sister has requested 3D Dinosaur Cookie Cutters (http://www.thegreatgiftcompany.com/misc_categories/gift_ideas/boys_2-8/3d_dinosaur_cookie_cutters.htm), so she'll be getting those. Probably all the Oatmeal books too, and some other small fun gifts.

Mother just wants some enlargements of a couple of nice photos I've taken, framed, for her to hang on the wall.

Not sure about other people yet.

Some suggestions for the rest of y'all:

Cookery books: Pitt Cue Co. The Cookbook (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pitt-Cue-Co-The-Cookbook/dp/1845337565/), Hawksmoor at Home (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hawksmoor-Home-Breakfasts-Puddings-Cocktails/), Polpo: A Venetian Cookbok (of sorts) (http://www.amazon.co.uk/POLPO-Venetian-Cookbook-Of-Sorts/dp/1408816792/). All three put out by three of my favourite restaurants in London, all three are great. Even if you're not a mad cook, they look beautiful and have wonderful photography.

Gin: Monkey 47 (http://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/P-14553.aspx) (Impressively good German gin), Few (http://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/P-18455.aspx) (tried this recently, loved it. First time I've had a blindingly good American gin), Sipsmith's (http://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/P-11584.aspx) (it's a local gin for me, and I love it).

I'd also be pretty happy if anyone got me this:

(http://i.imgur.com/d0ufGLB.jpg) (http://imgur.com/d0ufGLB)

Evolving Darwin Playset (https://www.neatoshop.com/product/Evolving-Darwin-Playset)

That 3d dinosaur cookie set is bad ass.

If anyone has suggestions for someone who's just getting started into sewing, I'd love some ideas!

Want to get my Dad a good heated blanket. The ones I've found are either 3 hour throw blankets or low-rated overnight ones (ratings based on how you can feel the wires or they don't last long). Any thoughts?

No idea for the wife. We usually handle our kids and relatives first and then surprise each other at the last minute even though we both swore we'd just put it all into buying for the kids. 15 years of doing that. It's tradition.

http://www.amazon.com/Gingher-8-Inch-Knife-Dressmakers-Shears/dp/B000UU6SR4/ref=sr_1_1?s=arts-crafts&ie=UTF8&qid=1386043438&sr=1-1&keywords=sewing+gifts

Fabric shears.

My sister owns a sewing shop over here and makes up wee starter kits that go like hot cakes.  She runs classes for both adults and kids and these things fly off the shelf ?  Want me to get the contents off her or something ?

It's probably a more useful suggestion than the Janome 3000.

Seconded. I grew up with a mom who sewed. One was not allowed to touch the shears. Woe to anyone (including dad) who dared to cut paper with the shears.

In a couple years, she'll be asking for this:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Darts-crafts&field-keywords=serger&rh=n%3A2617941011%2Ck%3Aserger (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Darts-crafts&field-keywords=serger&rh=n%3A2617941011%2Ck%3Aserger)

The theme for my extended family this year is BBQ gifts. The limit is $25, and it could be related to spices, sauces, etc. Anybody have favorites there?

Wife hates everything.  I'm terrible at gifts.  I don't know what she likes but I do know what she hates.  I'm swirling down a drain of darkness.  Snowy, pepperminty darkness.  Somewhere, a crow caws "hooo hoo hooo".

Time to get a new wife for Christmas.

Omaha Steak subscription. Sharper Image gift certificate. "A Theory of Fun" by Raph Koster.

Omaha steak?  No.

Burgers' Smokehouse bacon steak, YES.

Penzeys always seem well received.  

If you do not want to pick out assortments yourself you can go for a gift box.

http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/c-Gift_Boxes.html?id=XRv9PBb5



For friends again this year I am hosting a party at a local restaurant.  It always goes over well.  Giving a full set of Cards Against Humanity to another group of friends.  We are horrible people indeed.    

These are fun if you have to give to nieces and nephews:

http://www.amazon.com/Bongo-4639-Balance-Board/dp/B000TTHVYA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386088283&sr=8-1&keywords=bongo+board

There are cheaper versions.

Also, if you have some coin, the Razor electric vehicles are awesome.

www.razor.com

For adult stuff, I don;t have any good ideas not already mentioned.

Give her peppermint spoons for her hot cocoa and money.

And are you sure that wasn't the white winged dove?

That would be great!


I have no idea what a Serger does, but they look awesome!

Sergers stitch the edges of woven cloth so if does not unravel. They also cut the fabric that is beyond the stitch. If you look at the front pockets on most jeans, the stitches around the edges are serged.

I gave up on useful or relevant presents years ago, and just impulse shop. Seems to work well, things like 'Platypus in a can' (stuffed animal in a soup tin) are always a hit.

If I'm really stuck, I just send them stuff from Despair.com Everyone needs a pessimist's glass to go with that scotch.

Thankfully, most of the people on my shopping lists are beer geeks, so worse case scenario, grab a Mikkeller and go.

(http://www.bundyology.com/nomaam2.jpg)

Just make sure she sticks to sewing and doesn't get into quilting, because if she does, then in a few years, she'll be asking for one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/Quilter-Tin-Lizzie-Stitch-Regulator/dp/B003QBHC2Y/ref=sr_1_6?s=arts-crafts&ie=UTF8&qid=1386107311&sr=1-6&keywords=long+arm+quilting+machine

-----------------

Gifts for my family have been delivered as of the Thanksgiving visit, so I'm all good for them.  The husband is pissing me off though because we don't usually get each other anything and he's going "Oh, I guess you haven't gotten any of the hints I've dropped.  I'll have to make them more obvious then." and I'm saying just fucking tell me what you want.  If he doesn't, then nothing for him.  Screw it.  After 20+ years, I'm not going to start playing guessing games now for Christmas.

There's always this:

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-UN85S9-85-Inch-Ultra-120Hz/product-reviews/B00CMEN95U


Protip hint: check the price, read the reviews.

After going through 4 or 5 different grill baskets  (ranging in price from $5-$40) I have found that the ceramic coated ones seem to be the best (scratch proof nonstick that can handle high heat), they go for $10-$15.  I also love my ridiculously oversize spatula as it allows me to completely do away with the fish basket (pain to clean) and flip an entire side of salmon w/o breaking it.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=cubic+zirconium+earings (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=cubic+zirconium+earings)  Just don't tell her they are fakes!

I'm thinking of doing this for my team (oo and maybe my brothers) for Christmas: http://www.somethingstore.com/

Oh, she doesn't like diamonds.  Or stud earrings.  I did get her some dangly red ones, antiqueish looking which she does like.

I get the idea you believe I'm incorrect. :oh_i_see:

Next week I'm going to see if I can get some bath bombs from Lush at the mall.  The fucking mall.

A couple of years ago I bought my sister one of the bigger Lush xmas boxes.  She LOVED it, especially the bath bombs.  I also got my nephew the Glögg shower gel which he really likes and this year I found it again in the retro section for more money this year.  I did get it and it's since been sold out.  My brother in law got one of those wrapped Mr. Claus or whatever it was but I think my sister used it all up.  This year I also bought my nephew's wife the Joy to the World gift set because her name is Joy.  It was just delivered and it smells lovely.  I want to open it right now!  Oh well.  I love Lush.  It's just very pricey.  They make awesome stocking stuffers.  You should stuff a stocking with Lush and give it to her!  And money.

(Better yet, MAKE her a stocking!  We love that sort of shit.)

Maybe individual items from Lush smell good but when they are all put together at once, like in their store, it creates a vile smelling nightmare in the zone surrounding its mall location.  I either try to avoid the whole area or rush past it.  One of the malls I go to has a Lush right next to a Kernals popcorn store, the clash of odours probably qualifies as a public hazard.

I've never been inside a store.  I always buy them online.  The box I have right now smells lovely.

Love love Lush products, but the store is over the top and smells, more or less, like bubblegum.

I think this is the root of your problem.

I really wish my family would stop trying to get my son creative gifts he won't give a shit about.  

"Would he like a Darth Vader chair?"  
"He's 4.  He doesn't care about furniture, and he never sits down."

It's as bad my wife putting a Tie Fighter pillow on his list.  It's a decorative pillow.  He won't even sleep on the damn thing.

He loves toy cars.  Just get him toy cars.  HOW HARD IS THIS?

The amount of griping over what we're spending is reaching epic proportions of absurdity.  Yes, gripe over $20 for my nephews when we just went out for nearly every meal over the weekend.  :roll:

I've been using gas tank economics lately, basically I end up justifying any purchase under $60 by just saying to myself it costs less than a tank of gas.  After Christmas I think I'll have a long Jack Handyesque talk with myself in a mirror and maybe regain some common sense.

I just spent $1200 using that reasoning. 

I love toy cars, too.  Have everyone chip in and buy him one of those Anki Drive starter kits and an iPad.  Then you can steal it when he falls asleep.  It doesn't matter if he's only four.  You're not four.  You won't regret it. 

Or one of these:

(http://i.imgur.com/NPrH6la.jpg)

 I saw one in an ToyRUs advert and it's looks like too much fun!  :)

Heh, we got him the Thomas branded train table a couple years ago. He got a lot of use out of it.  They're mostly over that stuff at age 4, at least my kid is by now.

That's a hell of a gas tank.

Or 24 affordable items.

I'm re-gifting my old used vid. and tabletop games this year.  I'm broke.   :oh_i_see:
That said, some of this stuff has pretty significant sentimental value and will hopefully be appreciated (my nephew is now reading, writing, and adding well [and is obsessed with games]... so I'm handing him and my brother down my complete Descent collection.)

My other brother is now old enough to play a teen-rated game... so he gets my Dark Souls.

Last time I tried a 'sentimental' gift I got the "wtf" look (w/o a hint of jokiness) from my gf. [edit - Angry post]

So what are you giving her this xmas then?

What do I get for my 19 year old daughter that already gets everything from her rich MD mother?

I'm doing some serious soul searching this year.

iPad Mini with Retina Display?

If it's iAnything, she has it.  Her mom bought her a bunch of iCrap and a brand new Subaru for her birthday...

I think I may have found a few ideas.  Uncommongoods and thinkgeek are great sites.

A trip to Europe with you.

A new set of Arkham Horror dice?

Ask her?  My family has a policy: if you want something reasonable but don't say anything to anyone about it when asked point blank, you have no reason to complain.  Personally I haven't asked for anything in years now and don't really get anything and really don't care.  I'm just happy to spend time with my family despite all of our shortcomings.

Amazon gift cards.

An IRA account.


(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/it/thumb/5/5b/Dick_in_a_Box.png/800px-Dick_in_a_Box.png)

As someone with a serious mismatch of parents, I can tell you flat out that no material thing is even remotely relevant. At least not in the long term.

Some shared activity you can do together? Are girls over the 'parents, don't be seen with them' stage at 19?

You're giving her dicks in a box?

It's always a winner.

Even though my sister always says not to buy her anything, I still get her a tiny something for holidays because she's such a good person and has helped me so much the past few years.  She does wildlife rescue and all her pets (except the parrot) are rescued.  The love of her life is her beautiful rescued pit bull, Loki.  So I got her this:

(http://i.imgur.com/c7LE55X.jpg)

Ten percent of the stuff they sell goes to a pit bull rescue.  I swear, if Loki was a sugar skull, she'd look exactly like this... right down to the happy smile.  It's small, maybe the size of a penny.  They're on Etsy, btw, and not expensive.

My wife had this flat-ish flashlight that she loved because she could easily hold it next to the barrel of her Glock.  She doesn't want a mounted light, so I was trying to think how to search for flat Maglite-like lights.  Most of them seem to be novelty-grade.

Dammit, I had these in my amazon cart yesterday for $40 and now they're sold out from that vendor and over $60 from another vendor. And the reason I didn't nab them at the lower price? I wanted to show my fiancee my stupid joke comment to my dad in the gift card  :oh_i_see:

Nebu, continue the soul search and seek something not monetary, but meaningful in other ways.

It's camera year. I get a new camera, everyone gets a new camera. My mom gets my old camera because it works with the canon photo printer she loves (that I got her years ago). Fiancee gets an ELPH for her purse. For work I got one of the young girls (late teens), so she gets a gas card.

I picked up one of these a few months back, works fairly well as long as the can isn't nearing empty. Might make a good gift for a guy who'd like to shave with hot shaving cream.

http://www.amazon.com/Conair-Heated-Shaving-Cream-Dispenser/dp/B001M1JC6O

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51lwI-zTzqL.jpg)

What do you need to spend these days to get into a tablet with reasonable functionality, wifi access, and software options.  I was thinking about a Kindle Fire, but have my concerns about the limited software choices.

Thanks.

I share your concerns with the Kindle. Great device, walled garden sucks. My fiancee can do about half the things she wants to on it and uses her laptop 95% of the time.

I struggle to see tablets as anything but toys.

I asked that same question.  The Nexus 7 comes highly recommended at about ~$200.  Lenovo ones also reviews well, but I wonder how much of that is "It's good for the cost" bump. 

I'm more in the market for a 10" tablet, but wonder if the Samsung Note 10.1 is overkill for what we're going to use it for, and it's slightly out of my budget at closer to $300, but man do the reviews ever appeal to the graduate student in me!   

Microsoft Surface.  It's a mini PC for all the good and bad that comes with that classification.  Tho they're sold out everywhere from what i hear.   I took it to my conference 2 weeks ago and it was better than having the laptop in conferences and 10x better than a tablet because I could run more than apps.   (and it was a good thing i took it because my laptop monitor died.. fucker)

Nexus 7. Amazon app store is still very limited.

Nook HD/HD+ - full Google Play store now (so no more walled garden) plus it's got some nice features like separate user accounts, 1920x1280 resolution, and microsd slots.  The 32GB one is ~$179 (I was checking earlier for myself) and it's supposed to be pretty easy to hold for a 9" tablet.  No camera though and just wifi access, which is fine with me.  I currently have a Nook Tablet and it works great for reading, checking stuff online, and watching video, and this is the old model with a walled garden.

I just bought a Nexus 7 32gb from Office Depot for $229.  I think it's still on sale for a couple days.
The 16 gb is $180 as well atm.

Thanks for all of the input folks!

From what I understand, the regular Surface is limited to a Microsoft store for apps.  The Pro isn't, but is really, really expensive since it's basically a laptop in a tablet shell.

That is what the gf and I were told by the guy at Microcenter 2 weeks ago. Surface 2 if we needed to install work related programs (which she does payroll and other stuff).

The Surface and Surface 2 use an ARM CPU instead of an x86 chip and therefore regular Windows 8-compatible apps will not run on them -- apps have to be specially compiled to run on Windows RT to work on the Surface and Surface 2. The Surface Pro has an Intel x86 chip so it can run any Windows 8-compatible app.

Right. Thanks for clarifying. The two tablets on display were the Surface and the Surface Pro 2. I know little about tablets and just logged it in my brain as 1 vs 2. I did see the i5 chip listed on the Pro 2 which is where we were leaning on purchasing after the holiday. Then the owners of the store promptly got her a 17" Lenovo for "work-related" stuff.

I've been using a Coby 10-inch from Amazon for the last year and a half, and got a couple of 7-inch versions for my daughters.  It takes some technical skill to put the Google Play market on it.  It comes with GetJar, which not only suck but interferes with any other app market you put on it (but if you can figure out putting Google Play on it, you can strip out GetJar).

At $155 for the 10 inch, it makes a good cheap couchsurfing option.

--Dave

 :heart:
A thousand thanks for that idea!

Found this site for ugly sweaters (http://www.lapolicegear.com/lapg-christmas-sweaters.html) in case anyone needs it.

$30 is almost worth it for a gag gift.

Interestingly, that is where I last looked for tactical flashlights.

You have a pressing need for tactical flashlights?

For his wife's gun :awesome_for_real:

We can rephrase and try the question again if that will help.  :awesome_for_real:

Holiday shopping done.  Just waiting on a delivery.   I should probably get my wife another small item, but we just got a new microwave and need to get a full set of rather expensive tires.   :|

You missed the thing about my wife's flat-ish flashlight going bad due to battery leakage.  It was metal and she could hold it against her Glock very easily.  So... Trippy is correct.  But not a pressing need, no, unless you consider Jesus' Gift Day is fast approaching.

I want to know where this one came from:

(http://i.imgur.com/4t9g9Ek.jpg)

I hear it only keeps you lukewarm, though.

 :facepalm:

If you know someone who likes DOTA 2, TI3 Items are back in stock on the steam store. Specifically, the Mircoplushies are back at 10 bucks again.

http://store.valvesoftware.com/product.php?i=ADT009 (http://store.valvesoftware.com/product.php?i=ADT009)

They come with a lockless luckbox, which seems to still be going for at least 20 bucks on the steam market.

I bought one. I figure I can sell the item back on the market for around what i cost and get a free plush in the process.

In an interesting juxtaposition:

-Got my savant-like 6-yr old computer genius nephew his first computer (scrapped and wiped my mom's old one, threw xp, a typing tutor and some other stuff on there).  He will also be getting my entire 'Descent' boardgame collection.  The kid already types quickly, eschews consoles, knows his way around Steam (little fucker challenged me in Solforge), and aspires to mod minecraft.  I caught him embedding a minecraft video into MIT Scratch the other day.   So yah.  :ye_gods:
-Got my glue-sniffing, 3rd generation oye' non-english speaking,  overweight inlaw niece a giant German chocolate snowman.  Woo her with candy and simple shapes; always works.

Got this in the mail the other day. Got a plush Warlock thing, sold the lockbox on the Steam market for $22 takehome to me.

So $14 including shipping netted me $22 in steam credit and a free plush. Not a bad deal.