Yeah, yeah, yeah, I left it until the last minute.
So Christmas is at my house this year. I know my brothers will show up with something for me and Mr. Athena, so I want to be prepared.
I have two brothers. One, who may or may not be coming, has a wife and two step-kids, 14 & 16.
I’m closer to my other brother and his wife. They have 3 kids, all are college aged, but they all live with them.
I’m thinking something gift-bagish. Previous years I’ve gotten them nice steaks, coffee & mugs, and bird feeders/bird seed.
I’m sorta muddling on some sort of eco-home pack, but beyond those nifty compact fluorescent lightbulbs, I don’t know what I’d put in it.
So… any ideas? Remember we live in the middle of nowhere, I have no Lowe’s or Barnes & Noble or Whole Foods to run out to. It has to be easily ordered (preferably from Amazon) or something I can get locally.
Sorry, I’m looking for a gift bag for the families as a whole. It doesn’t have to be really geared towards the kids - I’ll probably get something additional for the younger kids, and the college-aged kids are all old enough to understand that they don’t get stuff geared exactly towards them anymore. That’s why stuff like gourmet coffee works… everyone can have a cup.
What Twickster said. We have a WalMart and a Target and a Pier One. Other than that, assume we don’t have the usual chain stores. Especially if they’re interesting. The more interesting the store, the farther it is from where I live.
Wait a minute. This is two brothers? Your title suggests one brother with two families. (Brother’s as opposed to brothers’)
Are they in the UP? Maybe you could do for each family what I did for my friends: I got them a home energy audit for their leaky energy-inefficient house.
There are Canadian rebates and grants for both the audits and the following retrofits to make things more efficient. Perhaps there are similar grants in Michigan.
Man, I’m making no sense today. My apologies. For various reasons, my sleep schedule is off and it’s apparently made me unable to post coherently.
Two brothers, two families. Two gifts, but I’m thinking they’ll be the same. That is, two identical gift bags/whatevers, one for each family. crosses fingers in hopes that I make sense
They both have netflix like things already. But that’s a good idea! Damn brothers, buying all the good toys instead of letting me give them it myself.
I don’t think the energy thing would go over well, since they are both carpenters and built their own homes. Kinda a bit too much like criticizing their work, if you know what I mean.
Also, I want to spend maybe $40-$50 each, but I’d go higher for the perfect gift.
Is there some recently released movie that you know they’d enjoy? Or a collection of classics? Throw in a DVD or two, popcorn, Twizzlers, etc., and you’re there.
This probably won’t help you much, but I heard an opinion piece on NPR the other day where the guy was complaining about the number of gift cards he had on his desk and couldn’t remember how much was on each. Also the fact that gift cards encourage you to overspend (if you have a $50 gift card, then you need to spend a little over $50 to get full value.) His solution? Instead of giving a gift card, just put cash in an envelope.
Give them both the same amount of case. Or, to make it more interesting, make the amounts slightly differen. One gets $47.32, and the other gets $49.83. Make up a story to go with it ( love you $2.51 more than your brother.)
Target has nice, boxed versions of games like Monopoly, Risk, etc. Why not get your brothers’ families a couple of those? That way it’s something the whole family can enjoy. If not one of those, there are a lot of good board games and card games out there. I particularly recommend Skullduggery, Gemlock, and Toppo if you can find them. Wizard’s also pretty popular in my family. I’ve also seen all sorts of radio-controlled helicopters, etc. around this year.
They’re your brothers. You were kids once together. Why not give them something they can play with?
I just talked to my husband - he called me for some reason - he said get them an outdoor deep fryer for Turkeys and some good oil. Maybe some marinade/spices too.
I don’t know - I love him but he can be kind of an idiot sometimes…
