One of my sisters-in-law loves cats and cat-related things, and I have been searching for a cat-related gift for her, so I have cat gifts ON THE BRAIN.

Chuvora Sterling Silver Cat Silhouette Earrings (photo from Amazon.com). I think these are pretty, without being too Cat Lady.

Black Cat Print Set by Kerry Beary on Etsy (photo from the shop). This is more than I want to spend, but I love them and want them FOR MYSELF. And there are a number of $20 prints I want to consider for my sister-in-law. And I’m going to go back later to browse more and put some on my own wish list too.

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Whenever I see something that seems like it would make a good gift, I make myself a note. Sometimes these notes clump into categories, and sometimes not. This is post of gift ideas I’ve been meaning to mention, but they keep not fitting with other posts.

Marmar Magnetic Necklace Sets (photo from the shop). Wait, because these are even neater than you think. FIRST, they’re neat because to change the pendant on the necklace, you just click a new magnet into place. But THEN, they’re ADDITIONALLY awesome because they work with all the Marmar refrigerator magnet sets! So, like, you get yourself a necklace, and you have magnets all over your fridge, and in the morning when you’re getting ready you can PICK A MAGNET OFF YOUR FRIDGE AND PUT IT IN YOUR NECKLACE. A squirrel one day, a cupcake the next! A famous scientist one day, a Santa-hatted cat the next! This idea appeals to me so much, I really really wish I wore necklaces. I would buy ALL THE MAGNET SETS.

Sons of Anarchy temporary tattoos (photo from fxnetworks.com). (I mean, clearly the photo is from fxnetworks.com. Clearly I do not have this nice young man in my living room posing for a photo for me.) I saw a mention of these in an interview with one of the cast members, and I immediately thought “OMG THAT WOULD BE SO COOL FOR A FAN OF THE SHOW.” Or for the partner of a fan of the show. Ahem. No-judging zone.
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I know many of us like to wait until after Thanksgiving to start thinking about Christmas, but today is the annual Melissa & Doug half-price sale on Amazon, so I urge you to consider making an exception. I think of Melissa & Doug as a highly reliable brand, as well as a brand that pleases people if I bring it to a birthday party. It SMACKS of Quality Family.

Now, when I say “half-price,” I think we all know that Amazon can be a little sneaky about that: some of these items are more like half off suggested retail price, which means more like a third off regular Amazon.com price. STILL. Others are truly half-off, and all are at least nicely on-sale. Every year I like to first see if there’s anything I want to buy for the kids for Christmas, and then I stock up on a few things for birthday parties, and a few more things to put in Christmas toy donation boxes. Some highlights of this year’s sale:

Melissa & Doug Ice Cream Set (photo from Amazon.com). My mother has this set, and it’s one of the hits of the playroom. The ice cream scoops are magnetic so they stick nicely to the scooper and to the cones; you can even do a double-scoop.
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I am breathing carefully and calmly through my nose as I think of playing board games with children: Monopoly, which goes on forever and makes children cry; CandyLand, which seems like it’s about to end and then someone gets sent back to the beginning.

I do have a few, a very select few, that I am willing to play. I look for a game that is fun for me as well as for the kids, and that doesn’t require me to hold way back in order to avoid trouncing my opponents.

Wits & Wagers Family (photo from Amazon.com). I prefer the grown-up version, which I first encountered at my brother and sister-in-law’s house, but the kid-friendly game is nearly as good. I am timid and suspicious of games, but this one won me over: it’s like Trivial Pursuit except you’re NOT SUPPOSED TO know the answers. The idea is that everyone will be guessing. The guesses are laid out in a row, and then everyone can bet on the likelihood that the guesses are correct; in this way, you can win points even if you didn’t know the population of Vatican City, or how many points an athlete scored in his best game. It ends up being a lot of fun and a lot of laughing, and as soon as I got home from that game night I ordered the family version to play with the kids.

Set (photo from Amazon.com). This game was recommended to us by one of the kids’ teachers, who had the kids make their own small decks to practice with. The point of the game is to find three cards that make up a “set”: the three cards can be different colors but the same shapes, or different shapes but the same colors, or all different colors/shapes. It took me a little while to catch on, but after that it was simple and addictive.
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The problem is, every year I think it’s too early to write holiday posts—and it IS too early, but I only write here once a week, so if I wait until after Thanksgiving it’s only four posts until Christmas, and one or two of those don’t allow enough time for shipping. Since this is a PRODUCTS AND GIFT IDEAS blog, that’s not going to work.

Plus, it’s more financially comfortable if I start buying things early and setting them aside. And the whole season is less frantic for me if I think about it early, even though I know for some people that makes it MORE frantic. So. I know it’s September, is what I’m saying. I know it hasn’t even been Halloween yet. I don’t want to PUSH you. There’s still A QUARTER OF A YEAR left. Plenty of time! You can just skip this post now, and come back to it in early December when you need it!

Would it feel better if we didn’t even mention The Holidays? I could just say this is a post of books my kids want, and incidentally I plan to acquire some of them for…a later event. Yes. That’s better. And happens to be true.

Mostly what we do when a kid mentions a book he or she is interested in is see if we can get it from the library. But right around the start of the school year, when book fairs get them thinking about books as something to beg for, I start putting the books they mention (or other books I find that seem like good candidates) in the saved-items area of my Amazon cart, because I like to put a book or two in each Christmas stocking. Our family has a kid celebration in the afternoon, and the grown-ups celebrate after kid bedtime—so it is very nice to tuck the children in with a new book to keep them busy and quiet until the sugar crash lets them sleep.

Here’s what I have in the cart so far:

Vordak the Incomprehensible: How to Grow Up and Rule the World (photo from Amazon.com).
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My nephew recently turned one, which is hard for me to believe but the evidence sits before me. Recently there were requests for gift ideas for a one-year-old, so I took notes at his birthday party.

Pewi YBike Walking Buddy and Riding Toy (photo from Amazon.com). This is a very stylish looking riding toy. And if the child stands facing it, it’s also a sturdy walker.

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My teenager was invited to a birthday party last week. This was new ground. It was the first party without a paper invitation, the first party where I’ve wondered if there would be chaperones and whether I might like to call the parents to see if our philosophies match on topics such as liquor and supervision.

The gift was its own problem. Littler kids like a lot of things, and there are a lot of other things they’d enjoy trying even if they didn’t end up liking them. If I’m in doubt, I feel like I can always fall back on a Melissa and Doug coloring/sticker bundle and fancy coloring implements.

The older kids at my house are definitely harder to buy for, and SOMEONE ELSE’S older kid seems almost impossible. And what if presents aren’t really COOL anymore, or the wrapping paper is stupid, or the gift is embarrassingly too young (”Here, sonny, I got you this jigsaw puzzle of puppies!”). *fret fret fret* But eventually I thought I would just try to do what I would do for my own 13-year-old and not worry too much about it—and if I made some sort of Grievous Error, Rob could just roll his eyes and say “MOTHERS!” and the other boys would make scoffy noises and say “I know, right?”

Prismacolor Manga Colored Pencil Set (photo from Amazon.com).
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My mom and I were shopping in a used furniture store and we saw a picnic-set backpack. I remember those were THE wedding present a number of years ago—I wonder if they still are? They’re just so charming and romantic, with their tableware for two, their wine-bottle holster and plastic wine glasses, the whole concept of newlyweds picnicking on a grassy hill. And yet the picnic backpack we saw was completely unused, and a friend of mine offered a similar report: that they had even registered for a picnic set, but then never got around to using it a single time and so finally re-gifted it to another couple.

This is not a large enough sample on which to base a decision on the suitability of the “picnic set as wedding gift” idea. For one thing, it’s really a sample of ONE couple: for all we know, the unused set at the used furniture store could have been from a couple who received two or more sets as gifts. And my friend who told me they never used their set was not a member of a couple that went on hikes and picnics BEFORE they got married, so they may have just gotten caught up in the idea that everything would change as soon as they were married—just as many women have a foggy concept of wearing long white nightgowns and sitting in rocking chairs as soon as the baby is born.

So the first thing I would like to know is whether you received a picnic set as a wedding gift, and the second thing I would like to know is if you have used it. And then I would like to look at some options, partly for the fun of seeing what’s available, partly for the usefulness in the current wedding season, and partly so that people can say, “Yes, we got one—hey, it’s the third one down!”

The Picnic Time Insulated Backpack for Two (photo from Amazon.com) is similar to what my mom and I saw.
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The twins turned seven, and for me it meant not just “O MY BABIES ARE GROWING UP” but also “O MAN THIS IS A LOT OF PRESENT IDEAS TO COME UP WITH.”

One of the more surprising successes was a calculator (photo from Amazon.com) for Edward. He’d kept stealing mine, so I wondered if he might like to have one of his own—and although his first reaction was not quite the level of THRILL a person might be looking for in a birthday gift reaction, he’s played with it nearly every day since.

My parents bought LittleMissMatched socks (photo from LittleMissMatched.com) for Elizabeth. I had the fun of choosing, so I chose all from the buy-3-sets-get-1-set-free section, to reduce the pain of paying THREE dollars PER sock PLUS shipping. This was a great gift idea for grandparents, because I KNEW Elizabeth really wanted the socks but I was having a hard time getting over the hurdle of the price (and the SUPER annoyance of not being able to use a free shipping code on an order containing buy-3-get-1). My mom: “Pish! They’re perfect! Let’s order them!”
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Can we talk a little about what we did for Father’s Day THIS year, so that we can refer to it NEXT year? I’d wanted to do a post on Father’s Day gift ideas last week, but I felt too discouraged, and also Paul reads here sometimes and I didn’t want to give away his gift idea. And of course all the store gift ideas are like “Barbecue! Golf! Beer! Sports! Tools! Here’s the perfect idea but it’s $250!”

I was lucky this year, because I thought of an idea for something I wanted to get ANYWAY for Paul, and Father’s Day was only a month or so away so I bought it and put it aside.

Wireless Remote Locator (photo from Amazon.com). Paul is continually getting frustrated at not being able to find the remote, and I am continually getting frustrated about the frustrated searching, so this is really a gift for BOTH of us. There is a risk, of course, of losing the remote finder—but I plan to NAIL IT TO HIS HAND THE WALL.
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