Gift ideas for ages 2-13 years

I wasn't going to write a post about Christmas gifts this year because I feel like no one got anything unexpected. I mean, don't misunderstand: it was a great Christmas. But sometimes I feel like I've found things that are kind of strange and tailored to my children's strange interests, and a post on them is helpful because one might not run across those things elsewhere. This year, the things I thought each child would like were basically the types of things any child their age would like, and in fact were the types of thing to appear on "hot gifts for 2015" lists and so forth.

However! Sebastian has been asking and asking me when I'm going to post about the Christmas presents, so I suppose if only for memory's sake, here we go. (Previous years' gift ideas are here, here, and here.)

We basically give one present per child, plus a few small necessities like socks or hair bands. Abe got the little robot BB-8 from Star Wars. He (BB-8) is really cute and fun and easy to control, and everyone likes him, including Nutmeg. Abe uses Sam's old phone as a controller. 

Sebastian got this quadcopter drone. There were so many choices and I know so little about drones that I thought I'd never figure out which one to get! But we've been really happy with this one. I looked for one that could be flown easily by beginners, and that could be flown indoors! We don't have tons of huge open spaces in our house, and I didn't want something that was always running into walls and breaking something, or breaking itself! But I also knew Seb would have to practice with it in the house before venturing out into a park or something where he might fly it onto a roof and lose it. This drone seems great on both counts. It's very sturdy and it has the propeller guards around it, so it won't hurt things when it crashes. It has a "headless mode" for flying, which I don't totally understand—something about it flying the way you are facing, rather than toward its usual "front"—but which is nice to have, Sebby assures me. And it's not so powerful that it's going to hurt anyone (and the propellers are plastic). Sebastian has gotten really good at flying it, faster than I thought he would. He can maneuver into all sorts of places! Sometimes we go over to the church and Seb flies it around the cultural hall while I practice the organ. Fun for all. :) I know this is going to be even more fun when the weather gets nice again and he can do more with it outside!

The other thing that's fun about this drone is that it has a video camera on it. It's pretty basic, I think, which is what I wanted (no use having some expensive camera that will just get lost or broken!) but it's really fun for Seb to get video of things from above. Again, I imagine this will be even more fun when he can do it outside.

The batteries run out really fast (as they do on most drones, apparently) so we got some extra so he can have more flying time at once, and so there can always be some charging. Extra batteries and propellers for this drone are here and here.

And here is a short video of Seb flying the drone.

[While we're on the subject of Christmas presents, Sam got me this arc lamp for our room and I love it.]

It's strange how much deliberation Daisy's present caused me. I think it's because I never really played with dolls as a little girl, so I had some sort of residual feeling that they were "dumb" (or at least not as good as stuffed animals). As I say, strange, because we do have other little baby dolls and we've liked them, and I have always loved looking at the American Girl Doll catalogs and exclaiming over all the darling clothes and tiny little accessories. But somehow it had never translated into me thinking one of my girls would actually like to have a doll. Anyway, this year I was thinking about how much Daisy loves matching things and tiny things, and it occurred to me that she would LOVE to have a little doll that she could dress up to match herself. So I started looking at dolls.

And of course, like anything, once you start getting into it, you realize that there are TONS of options, and TONS of opinions, and people who know way more about this than you ever even knew existed, and it gets a bit overwhelming. The number of blogs and websites devoted to American Girl stuff alone is kind of boggling. And I didn't want to start a huge collection or spend a ton of money, so I just wanted to pick any old thing and call it good, but I found (to my chagrin) that I DID start to have opinions about which dolls were cuter. And the cheapest kind (the Target ones)—I just didn't like! Unfortunately. I felt like I would be alarmed to see their faces staring at me from out of the darkness.

Without getting into all the boring details about rooted hair vs. wigged hair and so forth, suffice it to say that I finally, after way more research than I ever intended to do, decided that one of these Gotz dolls would be best for Daisy (and I think they have the sweetest, cutest faces too!). They are 18" tall, the same size as the American Girl dolls, and in fact use the same exact body AG used in the early years, I think. So they can wear all the same clothes and use the same accessories as AG. The trouble is, they're European-made, so you have to order them from a site like this one. (Pottery Barn Kids also has a line of Gotz dolls—but they're expensive!) OR—you can watch eBay. And used ones show up there quite often! And for really good prices! Like this and this and this. It was fun to wait and watch for a good one, like a treasure hunt! I learned that you can make a Gotz doll's hair nice and silky again by washing it with a little baby shampoo—or, if it seems really dry and damaged, by soaking it in fabric softener like this. Magic Eraser can get little marks off of the doll's limbs, and then she can look just as good as new! I was so happy about that.

Daisy LOVES her doll. She named her Rosie. She LOVES dressing her up and matching her, just as I knew she would. So even though getting a little girl a doll for Christmas is just about the most obvious present ever, I felt so pleased with myself for thinking of it and finding such a cute doll! :) It was super fun to shop for some doll clothes, too. Ebay and Etsy have SO MANY cute things. It's this whole world I never knew about!

Junie likes everything Daisy likes, but I wasn't sure she'd be ready to take care of a doll with hair yet, so I found her this Gotz baby doll, also on eBay for $10. (Like this one.) I think these baby dolls are so cute! They are 15", the same size as the American Girl Bitty Baby dolls, so you can find lots of clothes for them on eBay too.

Junie named her doll Violet, and she loves her.

AND! I didn't know I would love crocheting for dolls so much. Little tiny dresses and hats go so fast, and are so fun to make! You can see the hats I made for the girls and their dolls here.

And then little Goldie couldn't be left out, of course! I got her a tiny 12" baby doll, this kind. She is adorable. Her name is Fern. (Yes, all of these dolls have names I would happily give daughters. Rosie and Violet were natural choices for the older girls' dolls because whenever they used to play that they were babies, I would call them Baby Rosie and Baby Violet. And when I asked Goldie what her doll's name was, she said something that sounded like "FUN", which I interpreted as Fern whether it was or not because that name is adorable!)

What did little baby Teddy get, you ask? Nothing, that's what. Well, a couple little stuffed toys. He did play with the wrapping paper quite a bit, though! :)

And that was our Christmas this year!

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Gift ideas, ages 18 months–12 years

I have become accustomed to posting about our kids' Christmas presents after Christmas. It may not be as helpful to anyone else (although, when you can save stuff to your Amazon wish lists anytime, why not?) but I like it. So, if your kids are anything like my own funny little goblins, here are some ideas for you.

For three-year-old Junie, we got this little orange chair (except it was half price at the time…not sure I would pay $50 for it). She likes orange and she always wants to sit by us while we're having school, but there's no more room on the couch, so I thought she'd like having her own little portable seat. And she does like it, but I think Marigold (18-months) likes it even more. Maybe Goldie finds it more of a novelty to have a chair her very own size? Anyway, I kind of wish I'd gotten one for her too. There is much scrambling and scrabbling for position between them when Junie goes to sit down. I suppose Goldie will get the chair in a year or so, when Junie grows out of it, anyway.

Junie loves pigs, so she also got this little Pocket Piggies book, which is adorable. The pigs are teeny-tiny!

Goldie is still The Baby Who Has Everything, so she didn't get much. But she did get this little blue elephant, which is so soft and cute. She likes it the same way she likes everything soft and huggable—I don't know that she's gotten specially attached to it yet, though. But we always love the Jellycat animals. This one is one of our favorite stuffed bunnies ever.

Oh, twelve-year-olds! They are so awesome. And yet not easy to shop for. Luckily Abe likes puzzles of all kinds, and that's pretty much what he got from everybody this year. We signed him up for a four-session skiing thing with some of his friends in January, so that was his main present. But he also got this strange curvy puzzle cube to add to his collection. Of course he spent all day watching tutorials on how to solve it, although I said, "Wouldn't you like to NOT know how to solve it for awhile?" Nope. :) I also have it on Abe's authority that this cube is a good one to get for someone who has mastered the basic Rubik's Cubes and wants something more challenging.

Abe also got a book on HTML, which he is having fun working through and making a website. I suppose he is doing that with online software somehow? but I know nothing about the details. It didn't seem hard for Sam and him to set it up, though.

Malachi is amassing quite a collection of these Audubon birds from his Grandma (he got a couple more this year) and he loves them. They are really soft and they give authentic bird calls. I wanted to get a little nest for them like this one I saw a couple years ago, but it's apparently discontinued or something; I couldn't find one anywhere. So I used some faux fur to make one. I didn't know what I was doing. It's basically a circle of fur and a circle of felt sewed together with a circle of cardboard between them for stability. Then a little ridge of fur sewed around the edge. Anyway, the birds look cute in it.

Like every kid, Ky loves Legos, but what he really loves are the little Lego guys. He'll usually build a set of Legos and then just want to walk the little men around and have them do things. And there are never enough little men! (Minifigures. I think that's what they really call them.) So I knew he would love this set of ALL Lego people. They are SO cute! With all their little tiny accessories! Malachi loves them SO much.

In searching for another book, I found this one about the elements, which I got for Sam, but we ALL love it. It is fascinating! It has pictures and information about each element on the periodic table, and it's just amazing to read about what kinds of things we can use each element for. Especially the lesser-known ones! And it's written in a very readable, approachable style. Now that we've read it we want to buy this book on molecules also.

If you have a boy like my Seb, he will probably love this book called Cool Stuff and How it Works. Because it's from 2005 (10 years ago? What?!) and it's about technology, I was afraid it might be out of date, but it isn't. It shows stuff Seb loves, like cameras and jet engines, but also stuff that he said "I hadn't even wondered about yet!", like electronic tennis rackets and bionic limbs and voice recognition systems. 

A while ago Seb saved up and bought a used digital camera, which he loved SO much, but it was really old and stopped working about a month and a half later. He even tried buying a new battery for it, but we couldn't get it working again. He was a little bit sad, but then he decided it would be more fun to take it apart anyway, and thus had been well worth his $20. :) Since then, he's been saving up for a new one, but since a new one will cost a lot more than $20, he had resigned himself to waiting for a long time. We were quite impressed with his persistence (and with how carefully he had treated his other camera)! So, when we saw this one in his favorite color for $60 on Amazon (!) we decided just to get it for him. It is TINY! Smaller than his hand. And he loves it. I haven't looked at the picture quality that much, but since for him it's way more about fiddling with the settings, making videos, and figuring out how every part works, it doesn't really matter. 

Daisy loves her tiny Book of Mormon so much that as soon as I saw they had made all the standard works available in Pocket-Size versions, I knew we had to get them for her. They are tiny and adorable. Also, unlike her previous one, they have all the pictures in them! Hooray!

Daisy also got this penguin game, which is fun, and (the biggest selling point): she and Junie or she and Malachi can play it all by themselves! I love that. It's sort of like memory game? You peek under the penguins to find the different colored eggs. Really simple and cute.

One more thing the kids got that has been surprisingly well-received is these little babies. I love these little soft pocket-size dolls and I'd been thinking of ordering a few of them. The artist gave me a great deal for getting a bunch at once, so I asked her to send one in everyone's favorite color. I thought they were too babyish for the older kids but I just gave them anyway, and everyone seems to like how they all go together, or something. It has been pretty cute to watch Abe and Seb and Ky playing Babies with the little girls. They'll have the babies all lined up and make dinner for them, or they'll pretend they're Magic Babies and fly them around like airplanes, or they'll swaddle them up individually in tiny blankets and carry them around in their pockets. So sweet!

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Steam Train to Garibaldi

I was excited to see there was a steam train that ran through Rockaway Beach, because the kids have always wanted to see a working steam locomotive! I wanted them to ride it so much that I specifically made sure we were staying through a weekend because the train only runs on Saturdays and Sundays (this time of year, anyway). It's a pretty short train ride, it just goes down the coast for a few miles and then back up, about an hour and a half total. But it's beautiful and even if it hadn't been, we were riding a train! Automatic fun.

We made sure to get there early so we could look the train over and see all the pistons and cylinders up close. We heard the train whistle from our cottage as the train came by, and I've never seen the kids get their shoes on and ready to go so fast! They were so excited.

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Good food near Tillamook and Rockaway Beach

Sam and I went to Portland (without kids) several years ago, and while in the area we drove out to Tillamook to see the cheese factory and get ice cream. The ice cream was so spectacular that we've talked about it ever since, so of course we were excited to come back with the kids. We had the opportunity to taste a lot more flavors this time (16, in fact, since we visited the ice cream shop on two different days) and they were, without exception, totally delicious.

Everywhere we went, there were huge swaths of wild daisies and buttercups growing along the roadsides. They were so pretty, and I always wanted to stop for a closer look, but as we were usually driving on highway, we couldn't. Finally we saw this little hillside near a restaurant we stopped at, so of course Daisy and I went over to enjoy them!

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The Book of Aim Zing

I have a friend, Jena, from high school. (I also have a friend, Ginna, from high school, and my kids refer to them as "Tornado Jena" and "New Mexico Ginna" to keep them straight. I'm sorry you have to be "Tornado Jena," Jena.) Jena is one of those people whom everyone loves. I sort of wanted to resent her when she joined the cross-country team our senior year (she was one of those adorable, sporty soccer players) and instantly became one of the best runners on the team. But I couldn't. She was just too sweet, and funny, and fun. I had an AP Psychology class with her, among others, and I have nothing but good memories of that. Then we lost track of each other for a few years. And then somehow got in touch again, and suddenly we were writing long emails back and forth, exchanging favorite book ideas and parenting ideas and (later) homeschooling ideas, and it was like no time had passed. I'm so grateful to have friends like that!

That's a lengthy and sort of unnecessary introduction, because what I want to talk about isn't Jena herself, but this goal book she made. But I feel like in some ways, I have to start with Jena herself, because she is IN the book. It's fun and colorful and happy, just like she is. It's amazing, just like she is. Aim . . . zing. Ha!

Okay, so, here's the short version: Jena loves to draw and doodle and make lists, and every year she makes a goal book for herself. You can read her own words about it here (I love the way she writes). She uses it as calendar, planner, quote book, goal book, kids'-cute-sayings-book---everything. Every year it evolves. This year, she made it in downloadable format, and customizeable so that anyone can use it. It can be arranged in any conceivable way, for any conceivable use. And it is ADORABLE. Doodles and boxes and circles and clouds, all intended to make organizing your life easier and more fun.

I was intrigued when I read her posts (here and here) about how she uses her book. She breaks her goals into pieces---weekly goals, monthly goals, yearly goals---and looks at them throughout the year. She writes down quotes to memorize. She keeps lists and sorts things into categories. Her book is a work of art! I admit that, seeing how she used it, I wanted to try it myself, but I was a little reluctant, because I am NOT a goal-book type of person. I don't make New Years Resolutions. (Not in a militant, "I WILL NOT make them!" sort of way---I just . . . don't.) I don't like writing down goals. I do like spreadsheets. I do like being organized . . . but sometimes I don't like being organized. I love my iPad. I also love colorful pens and post-it notes. Unpredictable, that's me! :)

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Gift ideas, ages 0-11 years

I can't post these before Christmas, as my kids are avid readers of my blog (and some of the only ones who comment these days . . . hi, Abe!), but I found I really liked having a record of what kinds of things we got for the kids last year, so I'm doing this again. I hope it's useful.

Have I mentioned on this blog how much of a Rubik's Cube whiz Abe has become? He learned how to do the cube from his cousin Andy, and now you rarely see him without one in his hands. He can do it with his eyes closed . . . at least for a few of the steps! It's quite amazing. For his birthday in October, we got him the speed cube, which is way more fun to use, apparently. Easier to turn and so forth. But he couldn't fit it in his pocket for on-the-go cubing (I know!), so for Christmas I got him the cute tiny version so he can take it everywhere with him. He also got this triangle version, which I hoped would keep him challenged for more than . . . an hour . . . but I hoped in vain. He looked up a tutorial online and had it down by lunchtime. He still likes it, though, he says. (Although he is the soul of politeness, so he would say that even if he didn't.)

Abe would also like to show you how magically his shirt changes color in the sun. Abracadabra!

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Some gift ideas (ages 1-10 years)

I really love planning and choosing Christmas and birthday presents for my family, and I really love reading "gift guides" and other people's posts about their presents. However, I don't usually suppose that writing such a post of my own would be very useful, since I feel like my children are so . . . unique. :) Maybe we all feel that way about our children/families? Surely, I've thought, there aren't a ton of kids who like sprinklers as much as Sebby? But then, my little nephew seems to. And I know other kids like carwashes too, as proven by the fact that I found basic instructions for our carwash online. So I've started to think that maybe a gift idea post would be helpful to someone, if only to spark related ideas. And it's the perfect time of year for it, right? :) But on the upside, I do feel more confident talking about these presents after having seen how the kids responded to them.

So here you go. Our basic plan for gifts is this: each child gets 1-2 presents for his or her birthday, and 2-4 presents for Christmas. I shop for mostly everything online. And Sam is in charge of little things for the stockings. I don't worry about spending the same amount for every child or anything. I just find about three things I think they'll like (loosely, we do the "read/wear/play with" thing, but we're not wedded to it) and that's that.

Abraham (age 10) got this cash register. Sam thought it was too young of a toy (and indeed, the recommended ages are quite a bit younger) but Abe loves money---counting money, playing store and hotel, making signs about how much things cost etc.---so I knew he'd love it. And he does.

He also got a set of these construction magnets which we bought about seven years ago at a toy store going-out-of-business sale and have been saving until someone seemed responsible enough for them.

Seb (age 7) got this monkey puppet, which we all are in LOVE with. It has the cutest, most expressive little face---and the softest fur. Seb named it Oo-oo.

Sebastian's also currently obsessed with aerial trams, so he got this tram which was the ONLY toy one I could find anywhere. (And I couldn't find ANY books about trams at all!) It's not exactly a kid's toy (seems pretty fragile) but I knew he'd love it and it really runs along a string! Seb has been sleeping with it, he loves it so much. It takes patience to set it up, but this boy has patience.

Malachi (age 5) got these wings (he thinks he's a birdie, as you recall),

and these bunnies with this playset. He really loves playing with tiny animals---anytime we go to a toy store, he runs right over to the little animal playsets. We have a bunch of Schleich animals which he (and all the others) LOVE, but for some reason he just also really loves these bunnies when we've seen them. (Maybe he likes that they have clothes?) I wasn't sure these would keep his interest for long, but so far so good. Of course, this is a boy that will spend hours---really---flying a spoon around the house pretending it's a rocket, so he's easily entertained, I guess. I love to hear him narrating their little adventures as he hops the bunnies around. He doesn't really use the sandbox for them much---mostly he builds things for them (like roller-coaster rides) with blocks, and has them play on those.

Daisy (age 3) got the similar butterfly wings (they are a little big for her arms, but she doesn't mind) and this penguin book. I don't usually buy pop-up books (they always get ruined) but this one got good reviews, and she looooves it. Sam and I love reading it, too---it's really quite hilarious. So far Daisy has been really delicate and careful with it---the thing I'm worried about is Junie getting it. To guard against this, we have a rule that it always has to be put away on the higher bookshelf, but this rule is not being perfectly followed yet. :)  Maybe after a few dozen more times of Daisy having the book taken away for a day or two . . . ?

Her one joy in life

Junie (age 20 months) got this baby, which my friend said her daughter loved. Junie didn't really take to it right at first, but then she got sick a few days after Christmas, and started clinging to it like crazy. Now she cries plaintively for "Baaay-bee!" in the middle of the night, and she hugs it up under her chin, and she makes me kiss it for her every three minutes, so I think she is becoming attached. :)

Junie also got these touchable bubbles, which are pretty cool. I was worried about getting them, because the reviews are so mixed (some people say they work great; others say they don't work AT ALL), but we tried them out and they're fun! They didn't last for days like some reviewers said, but they do land unpopped on the floor and you can pick them up, or catch them midair. And when you do pop them, they just leave a sort of thin film that then rubs away---they aren't messy at all, and I can't imagine them staining anything, although we stayed on the kitchen floor just in case. Junie loves them.

I also made shirts for everyone again this year. (Can't believe it's been three years since I did it before! They all still wear their old shirts all the time, but they are getting too small and threadbare!) I would never attempt this if I didn't have Sam to design the animals for me. Here are his designs.

I always get so annoyed with Sam's illustration clients that make unreasonable demands at the last minute, but it turns out I'm no better than they are. ("Wow, that toucan looks great! Now could you just change him into a puffin for me?") Luckily Sam is patient and proficient (a winning combination) so he always comes through with something perfect. 

To make shirts, I just cut out and piece together the designs from different fabric scraps (I had some cute furs this year), simplifying where needed; then attach iron-on pellon, and zig-zag stitch around them onto T-shirts. Then sew on buttons, etc., for eyes. 

The "group present" this year was this little play tent. I found the instructions here. It's really, really easy to make. I used an old fitted sheet and made panels on the side (just to make it cuter) from some pieced-together flannel scraps. It's not fancy, but I knew it would be used for all kinds of adventures (even the older boys haven't grown out of pretend-play).

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