Here's what the family is getting for Xmas

I was ruthlessly woken up by a serious case of RLS in my damn arm, so this could go long.

(Yes, RLS is real and yes, you can feel it in your arms not just your legs. I've had this crap on and off literally for as long as I can remember - well before the commercials - so it's not my weak mind being influenced by advertising, big pharma and/or doctors, but thanks for the concern.)

Anyway...

I've bought my husband a bunch of stuff in the last month or so. I haven't bought him anything that I'm going to put under my parents' tree because I suck at keeping secrets and if it's something really neat, I always want him to have it as soon as I get it.



One of the first things I bought him this year is a beginner's electric guitar from Woot! that I figured was perfect - if he plays it, I'll upgrade him. If he doesn't, well, we're out less than $100. It's very shiney and a whole lot heavier than I expected. I've read a lot about it and most experienced players warn against buying this guitar even for a beginner. There are things I worry about when buying something like this and I am a firm adherent to the "you get what you pay for" model of shopping, but with something that's just as likely to end up in the corner with the RockBand drum kit, I wasn't going to spend real money. He has actually picked it up and played around with it. This week will be the real test, though. He's off and I won't be home Monday and Tuesday. I'll get my hopes up if he puts in the instructional DVD that the kit came with.

I also purchased a neat thing over at ThinkGeek. I was browsing their What's New page and they had their Spy Coins back in stock! I bought him the half dollar because he won't accidentally spend it and it will hold a micro SD card like his cell phone uses. He was almost as happy with this gift as with the guitar. I imagine it will end up with some of the military challenge coins he has, but he might carry it around for a while because it is very cool.

And then there's the full series box sets of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel that I bought for us. Sort of a shared gift! Yeah, that's the ticket! (thank you Amazon Gold Box! Both were half off! Now I never have to open one of those crappy DVD sets and have all the discs fall out again!)

My parents are a little harder to buy for and only partly because every year they say, "Don't buy us anything!". I try to keep down the amount I spend on them, but we still get them gifts. Giving may not be better than receiving, but it's at least equal and when we've gotten them something great, it feels good. I think we did really well this year, actually!


For my dad, I bought a Rawlings leather mouse pad from Everything Baseball. It's shaped like home plate. I know he'll love it and will probably use it at work. Dad thinks that baseball is the finest game ever played. As much as I'd have liked to get him some of the other Rawlings leather stuff - like the briefcase or the duffle bag, he'd have killed me for spending that much on him. I also got him a pen shaped like a baseball bat. It's a little cheap feeling, but it will look nice on his desk.

Mom was a little harder, but I do believe I nailed her gift, too. We recently went to see my sister up in Lubbock and she's got a little black and tan dachshund named Layla. This dog looks a lot like the first dog my parents had after they got married named Freida. Both of them treated that dog like it was another grandkid. It was funny to see them with her - they have never really been like that about my dogs (they're nice to them, of course) and weren't like that with my sister's other two dogs. It was pretty clear that they would love to have a little black and tan dachshund, but Mom has sworn off dogs because they both work and it's too much hassle to get someone to take care of a dog if they want to go out of town (that excuse is total BS because I watch one of my coworker's dogs when he goes out of town - of course I'd watch my parents' dog)... whatever.
So, I was looking through the Signals catalog that I got and found the perfect gift for my mom. A Steiff Black and Tan Dachshund! Mom's got other stuffed animals around the house, including a few Steiff, so this is about perfect. I wish I could get her a real puppy, but she'd seriously kill me. I'm hoping they'll get a dog when one of them retires, but it's not looking like that will be anytime soon, either.

My grandmother was both the easiest and most difficult to figure out. In the past, we could always buy her books because she reads like I do and doesn't get out to the book stores very much. We can't do that anymore because she's got advanced Macular Degeneration and can barely see the TV, let alone read. She has some books on tape, but her stereo is over by the TV and for some reason, she just doesn't like using the stereo. I think it's because there's too much crap involved to get what you want to play - you have to make sure you have the device selected and so on.

I'm going to get her a compact boom box that plays a single cassette or CD and that will sit on the end table next to her chair. I am going to get it tomorrow so I'll have time to paint the play and stop keys (if necessary). I would have bought one online, but I wanted to test out the buttons for myself and make sure they weren't going to be too hard to push down.

We tried to convince her that a big screen TV would be better than her 27", but she stubborn (and allowed to be stubborn - she'll be 90 in January). I'm doing what I can to alleviate her boredom because I know she's bored as hell. This is the best I could think of. She knows what CDs are, so I bought her the two most recent JD Robb audiobooks. They're unabridged, so she won't miss any of the book. She'd read them all up to that point. Heh, I'm just hoping Dad goes over to check on her one afternoon while the audiobook is reading her a sex scene :)

That's pretty much it. I got the niece a better camera like I promised I would last year if she didn't break the one I gave her. I got my sister some stuff that I've already given her and one other thing that I'll give her when they're here in January. She's the only person who might run across this, so I'm not going to spoil the surprise.

Ok, I'm going back to bed. The RLS in my arm has stopped making me want to stab myself in the bicep, so maybe I can go back to sleep for another two hours.

Today is going to be a long one at work (but at least it's a 2 day week!)