If you buy books or other stuff through any of the links on our site (here or in posts), you'll help us out and we get a cut from Amazon. As Amazon Associates we earn from qualifying purchases.
First Generation American asks:
Do you have a favorite brand of sheets?
I do not! When we need new sheets I tend to go to Overstock.com (not an affiliate) and buy something with a high thread count in Egyptian cotton. I have to be extra careful that the threadcount doesn’t include twisted multi-threads because that doesn’t make for a smoother sheet and I am like the proverbial princess with the pea when it comes to bedding.
So…. this year DH’s family departed deeply from tradition and decided to draw lots for Christmas. We pulled DH’s sister, hir oldest girl, and both preemie twins. All Amazon links are affiliate links.
DH’s sister‘s Amazon wishlist usually, in the past, pre-preemies, has had things for hir work as a teacher which I love buying because it feels like we’re donating to the school, and random trinkets for herself (like jewelry or cosmetics). DH, from what I can tell, randomly picks stuff off her list until he gets to $50. This year is very different. Hir list has more necessities and fewer luxuries. Clothing, bathroom supplies, kitchen supplies, and so on, with notes about how they need to replace things that have been lost or are worn out. So… with the twins and maternity leave (such as it is) we suspect they’re short on cash whereas they’d been doing well before. [Update: The actual drain on their budget is that they’ve put both older kids in face-to-face schooling at a private school since the public schools are all remote except for special education.] I have made an executive decision to pick the silverware option and we will be getting her silverware from liberty flatware, probably the Annapolis pattern (Update: NOT this one– in person it looks like somewhat higher quality versions of cafeteria spoons), unless they end up being too big (we’ve ordered a sample). (Looking through I really really want the American Garden pattern for ourselves, but we already have a full set of the Martha Washington which is also nicer quality. There’s just something about flowers on kitchen stuff that is very nostalgic for me. But the Martha Washington pattern is also nostalgic! And we don’t need a second set of flatware. Nor do we need their adorable Christmas flatware.) Update: DH ended up getting a full set in the flame pattern. They are a bit bigger than what we have, but DH’s sister’s family is also much bigger (not just in numbers!) than I am so they can handle European-sized silverware.
There are about a bazillion baby sitter skipper and other baby related items on the list for niece (at $20/each too!), and a bunch of make-up kits (she’s in kindergarten)… we got *one* of the barbie sets (we chose veterinarian) and then got most of the books, which are from the If you give a Mouse a Cookie series and the Llama Llama series, both of which are great sets of kids books. I’m disappointed we don’t have the oldest kid, because he’s the same age as our youngest and there’s a lot of really good fun science/engineering/etc. stuff on his wishlist. DH’s family is still unconsciously into gender roles. I did sneak in The Most Magnificent Thing.
We asked about the twins and were told that they “don’t need anything” which we think is code for “we have enough clothes/toys etc, please give us gift cards.” At least that’s how we’re going to take it. So we got a couple of cute Target giftcards with little Christmas puppies on them.
Then we had to decide whether or not to give gifts to DH’s parents despite the names drawing that they breached. Cabela’s was having an interesting gift card sale where you got the card at a discount so long as it only got used after Christmas. So we got FIL one of those. For MIL, DH and the kids are making a Christmas themed shadow box kit that incorporates all 8 grandkids. DH is hoping for packages with names or tiny tree ornaments, but I think two rows of 4 named stockings would be cute. We’re going to let the kids choose based on their paperworking skills. We’re also sending a copy of an instapot cookbook that MIL had on her amazon wishlist but then went out of stock before she could get a copy– we happened to buy a copy after we finished the wonderful Indian food instapot book we had and when we got it were like, we will never use this because we already make these new American things without the instapot, so… it’s kind of like regifting? (We got ourselves a different Urvashi Pitre instapot book instead— she is THE BEST.)
DH got his relative a bunch of different kinds of pens for people with arthritis because he’s been complaining about how hard it is to write when things get bad. We didn’t send them earlier because he switched doctors and got on a medication that was helping, but this seemed like a good time.
My mom is getting a Barnes and Noble books gift card.
My sister has asked for a big cast iron skillet. So she will get that, and some flaxseed oil because it is miraculous at seasoning a pan. If you have an iron skillet and have to keep re-seasoning it, get some organic flaxseed oil and use this method.
For our own kids… their amazon wishlists are full of books they’ve read from the library that they want their own copies of. It’s hard to know what to get for DC1 who will be turning 14 right after Christmas. Last year the theramin kit (and arduino) and lockpick sets went over really well and got a lot of use during the Spring and summer along with a subscription to an adobe video editing software. But school has started for real again and zie has no time for hobbies that aren’t directly related to school work. We’d been kicking around the idea of a unicycle for a while and finally got one. Maybe zie needs a fancy computer chair? But we asked and zie said no. We’ll have to come up with something for hir birthday, even if it’s just a giftcard to one of the magic websites [update: we have settled on cold hard cash]. DC1 has a number of smaller things on hir amazon wishlist, like villainous expansions, and US classic historical novels, but we already get enough complaints from people about there not being enough on there that I figure we’ll have to wait until people have finished their shopping (though it’s hard because my family often puts off shopping past the last minute).
In addition to books, DC2 wants various balls. We’ve already got a basketball and a four square ball (which when I was growing up we just called a “school ball”… or a “kick ball”– you know, one of those big rubber balls that don’t hurt too much when used inappropriately at recess). But DC2 wants a volleyball and a soccer ball and so on. Zie will also be getting more sketch pads. For hir “big” present, zie has asked for a scooter.
For stocking stuffers, DC2 wants a fidget spinner that spins, and DC1 needs something with a hinge that zie can break without upsetting other people in the family (see, for example, the ipad holder that used to have a little protective thing over the plug area until DC1 worried it off). I went with a smaller number (1 each) of expensive items that aren’t full of “this came broken/leaves sparkly bits on my fingers/etc.” reviews rather than a larger number of cheaper fidget toys with such reviews. Hopefully we will get the right items…
Have you been getting interesting things for friends and family?
This year all sets of in-laws have provided updated and lengthy Amazon wishlists (note: all amazon links in our posts are sponsored). Yay DH’s family!! Amazon wishlists decrease DH’s holiday-related stress so much.
MIL: Last time we were at the in-laws, we made a cake for a child’s birthday and discovered that MIL has sub-par dry cup measures. We are rectifying that this year. From hir amazon wishlist, we bought a cell phone holder that goes in a cup holder, an onion chopper, a Grandma I love you book that we will encourage the grandkids to fill out on Christmas morning, a doormat with her favorite football team’s logo, and a keychain that says grandma.
The kids are making a lighthouse (not sponsored) and a mini-helmet for her favorite football team using DH’s new 3D printer.
FIL: A gift certificate to Cabela’s
BIL1: Divinity Original Sin 2 and some other cooperative games from steam games.
SIL1: Arkham Horror the Card Game, The Circle Undone Expansion
Nephew 1: Apparently nephew 1 is really into Shiba Inu dogs this year? So, this bathmat and this backpack.
Niece 1: We again renewed her subscription to the Braille of the Month book club. Even though she’s older now, she’s still really been enjoying it. (The nonprofit provides the books at less than cost, so we also gave them a donation– what a great program.)
SIL2: SIL is a teacher and fills her list with things for her classroom, so it’s really a pleasure to shop her wishlist– it feels a lot like donating to education! Someone swooped in and got the stuff our kids have tested out in the past (except 1 thing), but there was still plenty of you know, cardstock. We also got paint brushes, magnetic letters, and these phonics rods that DC1 loved as a toddler.
BIL2: We never know what to get for him, so we generally just give an amazon gift card. This year is no exception.
Nephew 2: I was so excited when I saw his wishlist this year because it was full of books that DC2 loved… but then someone swooped in and got them all (except 1) before Thanksgiving. But there were still interesting things on there. Apparently the book of facts we got last year was a hit because there were several more books of facts on hir list, including 5000 Awesome facts 3 and the big book of why (that both our kids loved). We also got the National Geographic Animal Encyclopedia and a crystal growing kit.
Niece 2: The pre-Thanksgiving swooper left a bunch of cool stuff so we got Llama llama jingle bells, If you give a cat a cupcake, some highly rated super cute socks, and a toy doctors kit.
My mom: Barnes and Noble gift card. The B&N in her town went out of business, followed by the local bookstore, but there’s a B&N in a 30 min drive.
My sister: She’s started cooking more on a somewhat regular basis, particularly for her subordinates (she got promoted after an impressive feat of engineering and is now managing a group and has decided to lean in a bit to the understanding maternal boss stereotype–I don’t cook for my students, but I think we both have iron fist/velvet glove management styles modeled after some of the nuns at the high school our mom went to). Anyway, as she’s been doing this cooking it’s become abundantly clear that she is missing tools. So we got her a set of nice Pyrex measuring cups , a tube cake pan, and some pyrex 6oz custard cups. One of the cats we foisted on her has a peeing problem that multiple trips to the vet hasn’t fixed (also she can’t get Prozac into him via pill or gel or hidden treat), so some Angry Orange that was the only thing that has been able to get out the smell from when his sister peed on our couch 3+ years ago. The Angry Orange is a bonus.
The kids are making her a couple of small ballet tchotchkes with DH’s new 3D printer.
DC1: That lockpick training kit set I linked to earlier (technically this will be a birthday present). A theremin arduino kit (including separately purchased arduino, because obviously two raspberry pis are not enough). We opted to wait on a unicycle or new bike until zie has grown a bit more. Currently zie is my height and using my bike when kicked out of the house to exercise.
DC2: DC2 had a long list of small not-that-expensive items (Calpurnia Tate books, Gotham Academy books, Garfield comics, rain jacket, swimsuit). The swooper (who I suspect is my MIL given the amount purchased, but it could be multiple people working separately) made a really large dent in that list. I added some calligraphy pens as that’s an art area zie doesn’t have any supplies for (yet). Zie will be getting a full-sized bookcase from us to replace the overfull half-size which will return to a hallway, but we’ll also need to get something for hir stocking. I suppose we could always get a second arduino so DC1’s doesn’t feel outnumbered by pis! (Kidding!)
Are you getting anything interesting for folks this year?
The best purchase we have been enjoying has been TSA Pre. I didn’t appreciate how much I would appreciate it. Similarly, I continue to be delighted to take toll-roads with a toll tag for the city nearest us.
Having a battery that can fuel a phone or laptop during travel has been really great. I’ve also been able to occasionally help out fellow travelers. We have bought several Anker products (amazon link) and have been very happy with all of them.
This kit to make a music box (not sponsored) is probably the coolest kid’s present this year. Even after the music box has been created, it provides hours of fun choosing different songs.
DH wants to give a shoutout to this guy who organizes boxes of electronic components (I guess the actual organization is done in China, according to the box, also, not sponsored). DH is in love with a box of resistors. It brilliantly stores resistors on labeled sheets of paper in little plastic bags in a little box. If DH hadn’t stumbled on it online, he would have done what all of his former labs have done and bought a fishing tackle box or cabinet and sorted them that way. This is much more compact and it’s much faster to find things.
This backpack from Tom Bihn (not sponsored) has made traveling much easier. I’ve stopped taking my own bag and use DH’s backpack instead.
Last year I suggested that DH buy me some bras, figuring he’d get something to his taste (Sorry! The TMI was only in my brain though :/.). Instead he went to a department store and got boring but very supportive bras in my size that cost quite a bit more than the kind I used to pick up for myself at Target. Things I would think of as Grandma-style or for women with larger busts than what I have. And… it turns out that’s what people (my shopping buddy, my sister… though to be fair, I WENT bra shopping with my shopping buddy and did not get this kind even with the lady at the bra store measuring me and hard selling) have been meaning when they’ve been telling me I need better bras for my clothing to fit better. So… lesson learned. Pay more for better bras and better bras aren’t ones that look fancier, but ones that have more coverage. And how is it that DH is better at buying women’s underwear than I am?
While we’re on the subject of women’s clothing, I got some amazing tights from Target online. The brand is A New Day (not sponsored) and all of the tights I got from them have been crazy amazing, from the plain black, to the patterned, to the super soft super warm fleece lined tights that are warmer than a lot of pants. No tears yet! 100% recommend (and we don’t get any kickbacks from Target!)
What things have you loved this past year? What purchases have made your life easier or better?
My sister said she wanted a chef’s knife and a paring knife, so after some conversation, we got her a santoku (Shun), a paring knife, and an electric knife sharpener. This post of ours really helped me! I don’t know what DC1 is going to give her this year, but DC2 has been working really hard on a 4 plate pixel hobby with 8 ballet dancers on it (DC1 gave my sister a pixel hobby with a pair of ballet slippers on it at about the same age).
Sadly, the bookstore in my mom’s town just went out of business (as did the Barnes and Noble a few years back), so either I get her a giftcard to someplace half an hour or more away, or she gets an Amazon giftcard. Aha! I realized that she’ll be staying at my sister’s around Christmas, so I can get her a card she can use at the half price books near my sister’s place.
For everyone else it has been harder!
MIL: She started an amazon list this year! Woooo! When DH found that out (on the phone on Thanksgiving while trying to pump her for any hint of what she could possibly want) his stress level visibly dropped 75%. We popped through and got a bunch of “Nana” related merch (I guess replacing her previous Green Bay Packers theme?) as well as a number of hard-boiled mystery novels. (My mom runs more towards cozy mysteries, DH’s prefers the tougher stuff.)
FIL: Now that FIL is retired, he’s spending more time hunting. Plus he’s making sure there’s plenty of game on the plot of land he inherited from his parents. So in addition to the Cabela’s giftcard we usually send him, we’re also sending a highly rated game cookbook.
BIL1: DH is waiting for a game to go on sale so he can get a copy for his brother and his cousin both. (I assume we’ll also be sending a check to the cousin, but I don’t know for how much yet.)
SIL1: It is always a pleasure to shop for SIL1 because she has an up-to-date amazon wish list! And she puts cool things on it! And she has great taste in books! This year I’m adding the Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal and KJ Charles’ regency series.
Cousins 1 and 2: The younger has been learning braille, so we got her a subscription to the children’s braille book of the month club. (It is pretty heavily subsidized, so we added on a donation. What a great program.) This is the first time we’ve known what to get hir! For the older we’re getting the dragonbox complete math pack and big numbers which is too new to be in their complete math pack. (Usually we also buy books for their oldest, but he’s already got most of what our DC1 likes.)
BIL2 and SIL2: This one was hard this year. The past few years there’s been a good excuse to just write a check (a new house purchase, saving for a house, babies, paying off wedding debt, etc.) but this year none of that has been recent or immediate. When DH tried to pump SIL2 for information on the phone, she was non-committal and said she’d update her amazon wishlist, which she always says and rarely does. DH suggested not exchanging gifts among the adults with her nuclear family, but apparently she demurred. I wish he’d just asked her straight up about checks vs. giftcards, but he didn’t. We do have a bunch of $5 off amazon luxury beauty products and she does have a $20 foundation from 2014 on her list– we could get her that and the pair of $14 earrings from 2014 but that’s literally all that is on her list right now, other than a bunch of size 0-3 month onesies and diapers that will probably not fit either her rising 3 year old or her 5 year old. [Update: We got her the foundation and the earrings, and then a little over a week later she actually did update her list so we got her one of the books on teaching she wanted and now we are 100% done with holiday shopping other than that one game that DH is taking care of and stocking stuffers. Yay.]
Cousins 3 and 4: SIL did ok us buying books again for her kids (given how many toys everyone gets from the grandparents). For the older one (about the same age as our DC2), we got Magic Treehouse and Magic School Bus books and the Magic School Bus chemistry kit. For the younger one, ladybug girl, the Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes, Elephant and Piggie books, and Beautiful Oops.
For someone who likes art and lives in Milwaukee…
What are you getting for peeps this year?
(besides books, though KJ Charles rocks!)
I love this teapot I got for my Birthday last year. It is so easy to use and to clean, and it makes the right amount of tea for when you want, you know, a pot instead of just a mug.
Although you should probably not gift this to anyone, this home laser hair removal thing has been fantastic. I barely need to pluck my chin anymore at all (with the exception of a few white hairs that laser won’t get) and it’s been a few weeks since I’ve done even a touch-up with the laser.
I still really like my moleskin weekly planner, even though everyone else has switched to Google Calendar.
This Solo travel bag I got myself has been perfect for overnight travel without having to take a roller-bag. For those who cannot part with the roller-bag, one of my colleagues swears by these packing cubes and will be getting them for almost everyone on her list this year.
This amazing lamp was everything I wanted and more!
DH loves this little pocket pen. It is pretty clever.
Our in-laws love this ice cream scoop we got them, although it is not dishwasher safe.
#2 enjoys watching her DH play the latest Assassin’s Creed game.
Here’s a previous post on little things that just work. I still get a lot of pleasure from using a high quality pencil sharpener.
What stuff has been “sparking joy” for you over the past year?
Wow, this review has been a long time coming.
We received this book free from Wandering Scientist in exchange for, um, her being awesome, I guess? (If it was in exchange for an unbiased review, we really should have gotten this post out the door a LOT sooner.)
Petunia, The Girl Who Was Not a Princess is a fun book with great illustrations. It’s about a girl who isn’t into the princess thing and doesn’t, to paraphrase John Green, understand princess-loving girls complexly. A princess-lover moves in next door, and it turns out that the new girl is just as complex as Petunia is herself, as are all the other neighborhood princesses (and princes) and they are able to have a lot of fun together.
Books in this genre of girls’ books come in two flavors. There’s the type that tries really hard to be a feminist book and completely and totally fails because they shame a subset of women (ex. princesses) or provide the message that misogyny is normal in a way that shouldn’t yet be crossing a toddler’s mind. Petunia is the other type– the kind that doesn’t shame even the youngest of choice feminists. Especially terrific are Holly Liminton’s illustrations, which take great care to include a diverse cast of characters doing fun things.
Of course, this book isn’t for mommy– it’s for DC2. So what is really important is the toddler test: Does DC2 enjoy it? Does zie request it? Yes and yes. Zie also gets really excited whenever I’m looking at Wandering Scientist’s webpage and zie sees the cover on the page, “I have that book!” (Usually followed by the sound of pounding feet to get said book, and then a demand to have it read.) That’s still true after a year of ownership.
So if you’re holiday shopping take a look at this one. Additionally, you cannot go wrong with Nelson’s other children’s book, The Zebra said Shhh.
Overview:
I’ve assumed we want two smartphones with at least some 3G or 4G data.
Smartphones default to wifi, so when we have wifi access any data should not count towards plan limits.
[ed: With our flip phones and no data we currently spend $84/mo including fees and taxes because people keep texting us. Without the texting it would be more like $78/mo.]
Considering two extremes…
We can get as low as $50/month plus fees & taxes for 6GB data each using Republic Wireless on the Sprint network (i.e., same network we use now).
If we go for the best network, we’d be paying Verizon $90/month plus fees & taxes for 1GB data each per month.
Details:
This website has pretty good overviews. Here’s some more info about coverage. Also here.
Verizon has the best network in general.
AT&T seems to be second-best network in general.
If we bring our own phones, then Verizon has a 1GB “prepaid” plan for $45/month.
So that would run us $90/month plus taxes & fees for two lines.
Verizon’s contract plan (in which they subsidize the phone cost and we’re locked-in for 2 years) would run $120 / month for two lines and 2GB shared.
AT&T has a similar setup for Bring-Your-Own-Device of $90/month for two lines ($25/mo/phone plus $40/mo for 3GB), and it would be $120/month on a 2 year contract with subsidized phones.
T-mobile doesn’t have contracts, though one can pay off a device over 2 years like with a contract. They would be $80/mo for two lines with 1GB each. Interestingly, once you hit that limit you can still get data, it’s just really slow, whereas almost everyone else charges you an additional $15 for the overage or just cuts you off.
Sprint’s prepaid is $70/mo for two lines with 1GB each.
It’s unclear if Sprint’s family/contract plan has any options, but it looks like it would be $90/month for the first year, then $120/month after that.
Another factor is that Sprint has a discount on our account of 15% because of our university connection.
Then there are the MVNOs, which are services that use another company’s network.
Republic Wireless. Uses the Sprint network. No contracts. Extremely limited in phone selection. Calls automatically switch to wifi whenever possible. A flat rate depending on whether we want wifi + cellular talk & text ($10/mo per line), wifi + cellular talk & text + 3G data ($25/mo per line) or wifi + cellular talk & text + 4G data ($40/mo per line). So we could both switch to this now and pay $20 per month (plus tax & fees) instead of our current Sprint bill which would effectively give us smartphones around wifi and dumbphones away from wifi. The call quality might even be better since it’ll default to wifi instead of the poor reception we get indoors. The plans can be changed up to twice a month, and they prorate the bill.
Ting. Depending on the phones we use, Ting will use either the Sprint or T-mobile networks. It doesn’t offer unlimited talk or text, unlike everyone else, but charges each aspect based on buckets at the end of each month (and then an incremental cost past the last bucket). Ting has the potential to be the cheapest plan, but we would have to keep an eye on minutes, texts, and data, to make sure we didn’t bump up into the next bucket. For example, 500 minutes, 100 texts, and 0.5GB would be $36/mo, but add another minute and another 0.001GB and it’d be $52/mo. If we go over 2GB data the bill goes up quickly. Based on our history, we’d be paying $33 – 62 / month depending on data usage.
Cricket Wireless. Uses AT&T network. $70/month for two lines with 2.5GB of high-speed data, then throttled data after that.
Freedompop. I don’t trust them. Their website broke when I was trying to view their plans, and they required an email just to see their plans. Then, they prevented me from using a mailinator email account, which is ridiculous because the majority of people that use mailinator (to avoid exactly what Freedompop was attempting to force me to do) know that there are many domain names that forward directly to mailinator, so I just used the forwarding domain name that was prominently displayed on the mailinator webpage at the time.
Project Fi is invite only.
Review:
Republic Wireless is interesting in that it’s a low flat rate with the catch is that we can’t go over 6GB of data used away from wifi. I doubt we would since we spend the majority of our time with wifi access.
Ting is not as appealing, even though it could save us up to $17/mo over Republic Wireless, because I don’t want to have to keep a sharp eye on usage. I think we’d end up around $45/mo, but then be anxious about using data during trips.
Verizon’s network sounds great. The bill would not be so much more than we’re paying now for dumbphones. In the end, I think we just don’t use our phones enough to make the extra cost over Republic Wireless or Ting worthwhile. Maybe once we have smartphones that will change, but who knows.
Ed: None of these are affiliate links. #2 would like to put in a plug for Credo Mobile, because they have a social justice bent.
What will we do? My best guess is nothing. We will continue to put this decision off even as other plans that offer more than our current plan get less expensive. My best guess is that eventually one or both of our phones will break and we’ll go through this process again and actually make the switch at that time.
What do you all use?
Rented life asks:
I need to buy an MP3 player (not iPod). What do I get?
Because my DH has recently gone through the mp3 player replacement process, I have asked him.
He settled on a SanDisk Sansa Clip
It’s great for audiobooks. If you’re an audiophile, he says it’s probably not high enough quality to get the nuances of the music you’re listening to. He says it will play the higher quality formats but not well. But if you’re more of a box wine drinker with your music tastes, you should be fine.
He says this is a satisficing sort of quest. If you’re looking for something cheaper, then maybe this
DH also wants to recommend these ear foam tips for putting over your ear buds. He says they’re totally worth the price even though they wear out every six months or so. They block more outside noise and they seem to make the sound coming from the mp3 player clearer than other earbud tips he has tried. But, he notes, you have to get the right size, so get the multi-pack first to determine the right size.
That’s all we got. Grumpy Nation, what’s your favorite mp3 player and why? What hasn’t worked for you?
Grumpy Rumblings (of the formerly untenured) 