Top Gifts of 2013- A Gargantuan Post

It's about time I publish our top gifts of 2013. You can see our top gifts from 2012 here.

 

This sherpa sweatshirt from Lands End has only been taken off to be washed. Freddy coveted a sherpa sweatshirt for so long that I think he all but forgot about it.  These are perfect for jacket averse boys and children who fuss about scratchy clothes.

The jambox speaker was one of Moojie's favorite presents. The sound quality is fantastic and clear, with enough range to walk freely around the house. It's small enough to take in a backpack and strudy enough to withstand being jostled about.

Both Zita and Freddy got these headphones from Fab.com - the best part about them is the feature that allows one child to plug into another child's headphones; no splicer is needed. No fights. Happy mom.

This fluffy soft robe was one of my favorite gifts. I was 8 year-old-girl-excited about my new fluffy robe and pajamas. It dawned on me later in the day that I couldn't remember the last time I bought new pajamas for myself. It was probably when we were first married.

 (This isn't my exact robe, but it's close enough) 

 This robe is all the more special to me because it was Zita who tipped off my mom that every time we passed a robe like this in any store, I would pass my hand along the sleeve and say "feel how soft this is Zita! Wouldn't this be so cozy?" Surprise gifts that one wants, but never explicitly ask for are the absolute best. 

Zita's white coat from Old Navy was a top gift this year, not only because she needed it, but because it was a steal. It's cute and goes with everything, and Zita beams with warm happiness when she wears it.

 

I loved the expression on Moojie's face when he opened his Hoodie Buddy. The earphones are built into the hood strings and most importantly, it's machine washable. He wasn't expecting it but wanted one, so of course he was super duper grateful and happy to get it. Again, that element of surprise is the best.

 

Moojie got a new mobile phone from his grandparents after having the same old phone held together by masking tape for years. Zita got a new phone from us, and so both of them got this portable USB charger that works with any USB compatible devise. I think these will be the most useful at school when their phones are low on battery.


2014 Book of World Records was given to Freddy, but everyone reads it, and I keep finding it all over the house. It's the perfect thing for Freddy who is also known as "Mr.Facts." Any age, boy or girl, this is a great gift.

I'm sure I am forgetting something, but if I keep this in draft mode for any longer, Valentine's Day will be upon us.

This was supposed to be a Christmas where we scaled back on presents, and we certainly did as parents. However, with extremely generous aunts, uncles, grandparents, Godparents, and relatives galore, they once again seemed to have an extensive flow of gifts from Christmas Eve night until Christmas afternoon. 

The Best Present Ever

According to Freddy is a Nerf gun. The party was a success, and today is Pai's birthday so lots more later.

Top Gifts of 2012

There were a few stand out gifts this year that I'm going to consider top gifts. They aren't necessarily the biggest and most expensive, but they have made the biggest impact on our daily lives here on Happy Street.

Where has the Nespresso milk frother been all my life? It heats and froths to perfection and is in constant use. It's also easy to clean. Go get one if you don't already have one.


Next up is this simple wooden block robot called the Cubebot. Freddy already loved designing and building robots. He is always drawing them, building them, and making robot cities on his bedroom floor.

This Cubebot can be shaped into many different robots that he has already classified by purpose and speed (e.g. Configuration B, slow land moving robot) the best part is that it can't fall apart, and stores away in a small box.

Next we have the American Girl Doll, which needs no explanation or introduction. It has already paid for itself in the hours of entertainment it has provided our Zita. She doesn't play with it so much as she plans around it. Zita is a planner after all. We do a lot of talking about her (the doll's) potential clothes and living arrangements.

I have always wanted framed silhouettes of the children, so I was thrilled to receive these on Christmas morning. We debated about where to hang them, and went with the copa wall where we can enjoy them the most. I had grown so tired of the yellow in this room, but I'm back to liking it again thanks to the black frames and white background. These silhouettes were commissioned on etsy.com.

The next gift is not necessarily a gift I like, but one that has most certainly had a big impact. These are fancy noise-canceling headphones, which is great when Mooj needs to drown out the noises of life around him to study, but not so great when I need to get his attention. I now have to text him messages like "it's dinner time" even if he's in the same room. He loves them, but they are such a pain.


"From what device am I texting him?" you may ask. Let me introduce you to the newest resident on Happy Street- my very own Samsung Galaxy. I've always had horribly outdated and cheap Nokia phones and I never was one to covet top-of-the line phones, but Pai brought me into modern times and surprised me with my first smart phone. I use the camera a lot- be prepared for phone photo dump posts, and Freddy and Zita have quite aptly oriented themselves in this new Android world. It is essentially a copy of the iPhone.



I am leaving out lots of great gifts, not to mention I still need to post about Christmas day, but these stand out as the top gifts of the year.

Treasured Baby Gifts

I've received some absolutely exquisite baby gifts. This little blue outfit is hand made, and not by a Portuguese grandmother. It was sewn by a real live young friend of mine. As someone who messes up sewing on buttons and can only do a basic hem under duress and in crisis situations, hand made outfits are treasures to me.

Check out the little elephant buttons. What I love most is that there's plenty of room for a chubby tummy later on.

First Baby Gift

Getting a present for the baby makes it seem so much more real. This blanket came from Vasco's grandmother and as soon as I know if it's a boy or a girl, or when we pick a name, I'll have the initials monogrammed in.

Did Zita Get Her Ears Pierced?

Nope! These are magnetic earrings. Zita is the only girl (out of 9 girls) in her class without pierced ears. She has wanted them pierced since the first grade, but I've always thought that closer to 12 is a good age. We might not hold out for three more years, but it's not happening any time soon. Pai maintains that she doesn't need them pierced ever, nevermind in 3 years, and certainly not now.  

A friend told me about the magic of magnetic earrings so when I was at Freeport last weekend and saw a Claire's Botique, I knew I had to get a pair for Miss Zita.  She lost one of the earrings twice within the first hour of having them, and the second time we never found it again.

So, if you are stumped for good birthday gift ideas for younger girls, or girls without pierced ears, pick up some magnetic earings!

Fluff and Flowers

One of the little presents that I got Zita for her birthday was a lavender pin-on flower that can be used as a hair clip or pinned on clothes.

She had a party (not hers, another one) this past weekend and decided to jazz up her gray dress that she got for Christmas.

 I'm going back for more now that I know how much she likes it because with Zita, one never kows whether things will irritate her or not. It's a good birthday gift idea for classmates that can be given with a book or something that needs a little sprucing up.

Here's her plainish gray  (Zara) dress before

See what a difference the flower makes? She wouldn't let me take a good picture of her wearing it.

Remember that white dress she wore for lunch a few months back? It's another perfect candidate for these great flowers.

The flower was 2-3 euros at H&M and came in an array of Spring colors. I'm going back for more and definitely getting one for each of my neices. I feel a photo shoot coming on....

Gifts From the Children: After Shots

Remember those boxes the kids were painting for teachers? I never posted the after shots. Only one of them was completed by Freddy, and the other kids came up with alternatives.
Here it is before Freddy added polka-a-dots and his teacher's name.

 I gave these bark jars  (with pretty Christmas ribbons) to the play ground aides and a nun that is dear to us at the school.

Done with baking

It's bark time!

Teacher Gift Idea- Input Needed!

I have been on the hunt for materials that Moojie needed for an art  project at school. That lead me to the Chinese Shop across from CascaisVila. On a side note, they have an amazing selection of gift bags, ribbon, and wrapping paper. Sure some of it was tacky, but I was very impressed with their wrapping section.  Back to my original point of this post- gift ideas for teachers. This can also be for those random tias, primas, or friends, but I know that getting a teacher the right gift can be particularly difficult.

I found this box in the sewing section, and it's actually meant to hold spools of thread. Our teachers happen not to be big into sewing so I'm contemplating a few options:

 a) putting a well decorated cupcakes, cookies, or fudge into each space.

pro: it will look so so cute and yummy, and it will surely be the only baked goods box given.
con: lots of work, risk that frosting will squish against glass

 b) using it as a tea box (the window is glass and the box is wood) and filling it with a tea assortment
pro: it's easy, no kitchen mess, low stress
con: I'm not seeing any con here

 c) Christmas scented  candles

 The wood is unfinished so I'll supervise painting the boxes and let the kids write their teacher's name on the top part. I bought two of these boxes and I'm already kicking myself for not having bought more.

I also bought these wooden treasure chest type boxes which willl be painted for my nieces by my children as part of a secret santa exchange (don't worry Tinna, they're small!) . For the more religiously inclined niece, it will be a box for her rosary.

For the school aides and the nuns we are fond of, I bought Christmas tins and will fill them with cookies.

So, what's the consensus for my glass topped boxes- baked goods, tea, or candles?

Word Clouds- Christmas Gift Ideas

We've been having so much fun making word collages on wordle.net recently. The program picks up the most frequently used words in a text, and creates a collage where word size corralates to word frequency. The kids usually just type in silly words and watch what comes out. One can change the colors, font, design, and personalize most aspects.

 I asked Freddy to give me 20 words and these are the first that came to his mind.

(He was standing at the computer, and Zita's friend Sofia was over, the rest are predctable Freddy words)
 I find it interesting that only two words are in Portuguese and I'm curious what words would come out if Vasco had asked him.

I've since discovered an even better word cloud generator site called http://www.tagxedo.com/. It allows one to fit the word cloud into an uploaded shape such as an animal, country, your child's own photo, musical intruments,  a word, etc.  I was up until almost 1am fiddling with tagxedo last night. The possibilities are endless. I quickly made this image below linking to this blog and fitting them to the word "joy." I find it pretty hilarious that the word "cake" is as prominent as the children's names.