Saturday, December 15, 2007

Suggestions PUH-LEASE!!!!!

I have two nephews (well, I have more nephews, but I am talking about these two right now) who basically have everything they have ever wanted and then some. Both teens- one is low teens, the other is high teens-and I have absolutely NO CLUE as to what to get them for Xmas!!!! I have sent them cheques to buy "x" (whatever the popular thing might be) and the cheques never get cashed. So, I thought gift certificates. But for WHAT?????? And if I wanted to send then a real thing, what would you suggest? Help me, out there- I need suggestions!!!! (Or else I might have to resort to some squirrelly weirdo knitted thing that will definitely make me lose status as "cool aunt" for ever!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Onto other things- Berroco has published the cutest set of wee sweaters to make and hang up as tree decorations-I just adore them!!!!! The patterns are free for all 12 of the sweaters- made out of a dk weight(maybe sport weight??? although it doesn't matter much) and the instructions for the wee coat hangers are also there. http://www.berroco.com/knitbits/knitbits_218_H.html
Maybe when I am sitting in front of my tree on Christmas day(my mother is cooking the turkey at her house), I might start one or two to put away for next year. We'll see.
Speaking of tree- we haven't put up our Christmas Tree YET-we are terribly worried Mr. Bear will have some issues with it and take it down (or chew on some part of it) when we are out of the house. And you know, it is really hard to feel Christmassy when you don't have the tree up. So, it seems the tree won't go up until this Friday (when we can be at home to watch it. And Bear)
Annie has started to rally- good thing, too, since she has a speaking part in the "Seasonal Concert" on Tuesday. I have an issue or two with this concert. It seems the organizers have included Jewish songs and Arabic songs and a couple of other religions/cultures- but NO Christmas songs! One teacher was quoted as saying- "The Board doesn't allow us to do Christmas concerts." Well, the way I see it, if they are excluding the religious beliefs of 98% of our school population, in favour of the 2%-what's up with that????? But no, I kept my mouth shut, and painted the set (the principal and organizers always assume that I will paint the set (about14 feet high, by 32 feet across) for the "Seasonal Concert" with limited help from anyone-and no time during the school day to do it-and this year, they wanted the scene from Polar Express when the train comes down the kid's street-but no Christmas Trees, please.) So it is almost done- I need about an hour or so just to do the final touch ups.

Oh man- Bear just came in from outside with a dirty face. The damn dog has been eating poop again.

Can you feel the stress??????????????????????????????????????

Added later- I have found an outlet for my stress- Sober Santa- http://www.addictinggames.com/sobersanta.html I'm not kidding! Try it!

Oops- I almost forgot to add the finished items to this post!

First- a before and after shot of a hat made from two colours of Manos wool-I LOVE the brown shade- it is brown and black with a hot shot of red-will go with both of my coats!!!!! Check out the size of the "before" hat- Holy Cow! It was a chair cover! (same chair in both shots, by the way)


And next-a "Shape it" scarf (Sally Melville) made out of Lion Brand's Moonlight Mohair. I really like this stuff- soft, glitzy, interesting colours- I used 2 skeins- I thought I would need three, but I didn't want to make the ends of the scarf too bulky- then you feel like the scarf is taking over. Anyhow, this is for Annie's teacher-she is a lovely, lovely woman- who is often "chilly", so I thought this would be a good idea. The shape of it gets the top of your back (like between your shoulder blades), while it also sits on your shoulders and doesn't slide around. So that much is done for Xmas!
(The hat, by the way, is for me- after the "garbage" fiasco of a few weeks ago)

6 comments:

Carol said...

Hmm, maybe if you give the teens gift cards or plain cash? Maybe a cheque is too many steps...go to the bank, try to cash it, get told by the bank that there will be a 5 day hold on it, get the money, and then spend it. A gift card at Best Buy can be used right off the bat,though.

I agree about the whole Christmas/Eid/Solstice thing. Give me a break. All or none. End of discussion.

Come to think of it, you could really put a cat among the pigeons by claiming you were a Wiccan and demand a Solstice fire representation....

Anonymous said...

No brilliant ideas - I'm struggling with ideas for my BIL - makes good money, buys himself whatever he wants the moment he sees it, and although I like him very much and we get along well, we don't have much in common, so I don't have some quirky brilliant idea to pull out of the hat.

Our school seems to have come to a reasonably happy medium with the Christmas thing - it is kept pretty inclusive, but Christmas is in there along with Hanukah, Kwanzaa, etc. (this week's special spelling words are reindeer and menorah!) and they do a nice job of putting together a "let's all pull together for world peace" theme at the concert.

froggiemeanie said...

Books? Gift card from Chapters? It's sort of nice to encourage literacy in that age group that is usually oh so into electronics. If they use them online they can still get DVDs or CDs too.

Diane said...

I go with the book idea. Let's face it, winter's are long and perfect for reading. See if you can find out what they're interested in and get appropriate books.

Our only tree incident this year is that one of the cats has decided to remove 2 ornaments. I guess they were in his way.

Diane said...

Gypsy here--Bear no eat tree, or nothin' else neither.
It pretty 'n' Sandy Claws bring treats iffn' you good!

Anonymous said...

Hey Deb. If they have hi-speed internet, itunes gift card is good. That way they get good quality music one tune at a time from apple.com, the legal way ;) You can get the cards at Best Buy i think, or online.
My nephews like gift certificates/cards from places like Tim Hortons and fast food joints, 'cause it's easy, and of course Cineplex Odeon is always a winner (which are cheap at CAA if you are a member).
If the older one has a car, something to "pimp the ride" is cool.
I'm running out of ideas....let me work on it :)