What are you *GIVING* this year?

[MacTech]

Our family has never really been big on the whole gift-giving thing, we find that spending time with the family is more important, we tend to forego the "big fancy gift" thing that the media merchandizers want to ram down our unwilling throats, we instead give small, inexpensive, well thought out gifts instead

this year, i'm giving;

Mom; some nice loose-leaf white tea and a "teastick" infuser, whole-leaf tea is so much better than bagged teas, Mom loves her tea, but insists on using tea bags, with the teastick, she'll get a much better cup of tea

Dad; Home Depot gift card (he loves to garden and do home-improvement projects) and a MiniMagLED 3AA LED flashlight, with the unstable power we have here in coastal Maine, having a flashlight handy is always the right thing to do, all of Dad's flashlights are ancient incandescent clunkers, 5 cell Everready plastic crap and such, he keeps the SureFire G2 i gave him last year in the car for emergencies, the MiniMagLED 3AA will outperform all his big D-cell lights, and do it in a lighter, easier to carry light

Lori (Sis); Bodum French Press coffeemaker, natural raw cane sugar, and Black Bear Tanzanian Peaberry coffee, Lori's a caffiene addict (with two kids, she *has* to be... ) and Tanz. Peaberry has a great combo of mild, smooth flavour, and double the caffiene of a normal coffee bean, naturally, the French Press makes an *awesome* cup of coffee, coffee from a FP tastes *nothing* like the coffee from a drip-brewer, it's light-years better, i think she'll enjoy this one

Al (Brother in law); Mini MagLED 3AA (everyone needs a good flashlight) and a Victorinox Soldier (that i sharpened to Scary Sharp on my Sharpmaker), i *was* going to get him a Spydie, but he works at the local Hannaford grocery store and they don't permit "Spydie-like" knives, he said my Dodo would be frowned upon there, i figured *no one* should get bent out of shape over a SAK, and everyone needs a good knife too....

Sage (Niece); one of those "Magnadoodle" drawing tablets filled with the iron filings and magnetic pen, she's a budding artist, yet too young (3) for the traditional "Etch-A-Sketch", besides, the EAS has a glass window, not a good thing for a 3 year old, the Magna has a plastic window, i also got her the traditional "Play-Doh Fun Factory" for hours of squishy fun....

Logan (Nephew); a Magnetic Rod and Ball-bearing building set, he loves building things (and taking them apart), and a Jenga game, both will satisfy his urge to build and destroy things....

[4077th]

Those magnetic rod and ball bearing building sets are neat. I don't know much about toys but I bought one of these for my nephew. It was a hot item in the toy section, I'll tell you that. I had to keep moving out of other people's way while I took my time selecting which set to get. I'm curious to see this building set in action!

[cgjones]

I got my girlfriend a vegan cookbook. And I'll be getting her a pink Delica when they come out.

[clovisc]

parents -- four smallish opinel kitchen/steak knives, one 8" spyderco kitchen knife

sister -- money, already spent on some fancy-pants ipod case

sister's boyfriend -- opinel knife

my friends and i mutually agree we're too poor to give much of anything, except good company and conversation to each-other.

[denn]

probably the usual as always.......product and technical advice, mental support, practical help, quality time, and of course plenty of annoying moodswings and curse words

i don't really like changes :)

denn

[Falch]

gave my father a crkt peck that i engraved with his name and my brother a ss cara cara CE engraved with his name.
my mother i gave some good wine and som other stuff.

[Tank]

I kinda splurged on my wife this year. We have talked for some time about getting her a new car. So christmas came three weeks early. Got her a 2006 Toyota 4Runner :eek: Needless to say she is a happy camper.

[vampyrewolf]

lets see....

Mom: Jimd artwork, old house/country scene

Dad: Armageddon's Children (Terry Brooks)

Brie (sister): Kodak 2.2meg pixel digi, dock, cards, batt pack... and my old comp... upgraded both and she didn't have either yet

Mike (may as well be her fiance): Jimd artwork, wolf... vnox driver (and a quarter taped to it, lets see if he knows yet)

Audessa (aka 'bug', my niece): furby and a watch

and my uncle gets a $25 home depot card... he's like me, just buys what he wants and makes it impossible to shop for.

[SoCal Operator]

Friends:
"Right to be Hostile" the first Boondocks anthology
A Leatherman Micra
A strobe light
Art supplies
A Sharpmaker
A copy of "World War Z"
Bagels

Parents:
My constant love and support, along with help preparing for thier wedding anniversary in Paris.

[Jordan]

It was a tight year for me, so I have given pretty much everybody a book. I got my mom an Umberto Eco novel called The Island of the Day Before, my dad a little humor book by a local journalist, my sister Al Franken's Lies and the Lieing Liars that Tell Them, my friends received a Fred Saberhagen book (if any of you are sci-fi nuts, I highly recommend his Beserker series), a copy of Dune, and a Micheal Shermer book (another author I highly recommend, particularly his book Why People Believe Wierd Things). I think everyone will be pretty happy.