shopping – For His Purpose

It’s interesting to me that as people get older it seems harder to come up with ideas for Christmas gifts. You would think that the older our loved ones get the better we know them, the easier it is to shop for them! …Not the case for me though!

I’m not quite finished with all my Christmas shopping but I do have a majority accomplished and thought I’d share some of the gift ideas I’ve come up with so far in hopes that it may be a help to you for your gift giving! Feel free to share your gift ideas in the comments section, together we’ll outdo Santa and his elves!!

Our family has a wide range of ages to shop for this year from newborn, to kids and teens, adults, and great grandmas as well.

Here’s a list of gift ideas that I’ve organized by youngest to oldest:

NEWBORNS

Baby wash/shampoo and baby lotion from honest.com ($17.99)

What doesn’t sound more fitting and soothing than the scent of sweet orange vanilla on soft baby skin? As an added bonus, right now, honest.com is offering 20% off your order when you enter your email!!

KIDS

I ordered an eight-pack of stainless steel (tall) tumbler cups from Amazon last week, one for each of my nieces and nephews. I plan to use my Cricut machine to put their names on them. I’ll fill them with their favorite mini candy bars and then give a bottle of soda to each one also! ($59.99 for an eight pack)

TEENS

At our house we do “Taco Tuesdays” each week (the name explains it all). My son has a slight obsession with tacos and probably more so it points to the tortilla itself!! In fact most mornings his breakfast preference is peanut butter and strawberry jelly spread over a tortilla and folded in half…so when I came across this tortilla blanket I couldn’t resist! They have other options as well: a cookie, pizza, or waffle!! Super fun and unique!! ($15 to $30)

FOR THE TEEN GAMER

Gaming headset

Gaming mouse

I don’t understand the difference between the amped-up mouse (featured above) and the original mouse that already comes with a PC??? And that gaming headset seems like an unarguable ticket for a visit to the chiropractor but nevertheless my kids must know something I don’t…here’s to trusting their “gaming” knowledge!

Gaming headset ($19.99) Gaming mouse ($20.99)

ADULTS

Who doesn’t love giving or receiving a personalized gift? We ordered these personalized doormats for my brother and his family as they’ve just welcomed home a new baby, to make a family of four now! Their doormat will read (The “insert last name” Family).

And my in-laws just became the proud owners of a new home this past September so a doormat seemed practical, especially as it will display, “Mama Thea & Papa’s House!”

Personalized doormats ($25 and up)

I also love a gift that seems to keep on giving long after the holidays. Gift cards are great for this! Can’t go wrong with a Scooters or Starbucks gift card for the coffee lovers in your life! Pick your price!!

For the cow fanatic (which includes both of my daughters) these casual cowprint shoes are ridiculously popular and on the MOOve right now! In fact, I tried to pick them up in the Hey Dudes brand (which typically run around $60) and I might have had better luck finding a needle in a haystack! Cavenders sells the Gypsy Jazz brand though, which are just as comfortable, plus they’re offering 10% off when you enter your email! Gypsy Jazz cowprint ($44.99)

And if you want to “step” it up a notch with something a little more dressier you can find cowprint boots at Cabelas…($49.99)

Natural Reflections cowprint boots- Cabelas.com

And for the hunter in your life you can never go wrong with a new camo bag chair! (Only $12.88!!)

GREAT-GRANDPARENTS

Honestly what they usually want most of all is our time! My grandma is now in the nursing home and I try to visit her once or twice a week there.

I bought her favorite bag of ground gourmet coffee from a speciality store in town and also picked up some disposable to-go coffee cups a while back ago and have been brewing up a cup of coffee at home right before I leave to see her. She absolutely loves this and sips away while we make small talk and ohh and ahh over Paula Dean’s dishes on TV. Sometimes I’ll sneak in a soft donut from the local bakery too!

Other little odds and ends that this precious generation enjoys are soft cookies or breads, blankets, socks, a phone call, plants, flowers, homemade drawings or colorings from the littles, family photos, greeting cards by mail, devotion books…anything of this sort. But seriously most of all is TIME. If you have a loved one whose years are mostly behind them at this stage in life, give them the gift of time and fellowship. It’ll be a gift that not only they cherish, but in turn blesses you as well.

Hopefully some of the gift ideas I’ve shared help! Enjoy this time of year and remember our gift giving is in celebration of Jesus’ birth, Christ needs to be our top priority, both now and year round. We can panic, stress and search for the perfect ‘something’ for our loved ones but the bottom line is God has already outgiven us all as he’s offered the best gift ever, freely available to all…

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” —John 3:16

Phew! After yesterday’s tender post today’s topic feels like a breath of fresh air even though I’m a bit indifferent over what I’m about to share…

Last week I dished out our Texas trip itinerary complete with pictures but that post was getting long so I left out the part about us buying souvenirs.

Today I’m gonna spill the beans.

On Thursday of our trip we spent the day at the beach and when Friday came my husband and two younger kids were exhausted and wanted to spend the afternoon at the condo after going to the sea turtle facility that morning.

My oldest daughter (Paige) and I however still had a bit of go left. I’m not a huge souvenir person at all but Paige wanted to check out the beach shops and I was game for chauffeuring and tagging along.

Here’s the honest truth with those beach shops—they’re packed to the gills, everything’s branded with the tour destination name which skyrockets the price, and when you’ve seen one you’ve seen em all!

…except for the second shop we ended up in…

That one had its own unique little feature…

Paige spotted it first.

The advertising was plastered on the front window.

HERMIT CRABS SOLD HERE

Hook, line and sinker Paige was the bait and they reeled her right in.

“Mom!!!! We should get hermit crabs!!!”

“Oh man, that might be kinda cool!” I was quickly getting sucked in too.

We marched through those doors like gals on a mission and our feet carried us straight to the hermit crab exhibit, ignoring the cluttered shelves of South Padre Island knickknacks.

Oh how I wish now that my eyes and pocketbook would’ve met a twenty dollar water bottle, or a fifteen dollar ball cap, a t-shirt, or a towel…something other than the crabs!!

But we succumbed to the hermit crabs. And not only that we thought it’d be real cute to surprise the rest of the family back at the condo with these crabs so there was no checking in with my husband on my spontaneous “live” purchase.

We walked out of the store with two hermit crabs, a small plastic cage, their food, extra shells, and a watering sponge, plus 35$ less than ten minutes beforehand.

When we got back to the condo we set the crabs on the kitchen island waiting for Nate and the kids to spot them on their own.

They did! Within minutes! And this is a Christian blog so never mind what my poor husband said!!! Basically in a very curious R-rated way he asked what they were!!!

McKenzie and Warren were enthralled and wondered why there wasn’t a third crab, one for each kid.

Before long we were all in the Jeep, headed back to the store to purchase one more hermit crab. My husband was on board with all of this.

That evening though I began researching proper care for these new-to-us little critters and found out they are a lot more maintenance than what you see in the beach shops.

They’re actually not cared for properly in these shops and require heat sources, a variety of food choices, and two types of water—salt and fresh.

In the beach shops you will see them with a sandy flooring, extra shells, hideouts, water, and pellet food. They make it look super simple, this is why I was cool with getting them.

After realizing all of their needs I was like “you guys we gotta take these things back!! Tonight!!”

I was having some serious buyer’s remorse and was absolutely not okay keeping them because I knew they’d need a bigger cage, more supplies and more responsibility than originally thought.

My sweet husband though. Oh my goodness. He looked at me and said, “Alicia we’re not taking them back. We’re gonna keep them. We’ve made way stupider choices before. This is fine.”

And he is absolutely right.

About $150 later we have our three hermit crabs and their crabitat all set up in Mc’s room. Thankfully she was thrilled to show them hospitality!

In a heartwarming way I’m reminded of my dad as I care for these little guys. My dad, up until his dirt bike accident, had all kinds of reptiles that he raised and he was very passionate about it, even hatching baby bearded dragons a few times. So it’s neat to think of this as a reflection of his hobby.

Had I known before purchasing the hermit crabs what I know now I would’ve never bought them. But here we are and life definitely shows itself to be an adventure at times so we’re making the most of it. They really are interesting to watch and two of them have already switched shells. They’re night critters so we literally have to sneak in and spy on them if we want to see them in action.

The joke is, when I went to Florida back in April I brought home a live palm plant, Texas these hermit crabs…now if I make it to Alaska or Africa someday who knows what I might bring home…

Weekend blessings to you all!!❤️

Tag: shopping

Christmas Shopping Ideas For All Ages

Our Bittersweet Texas Souvenir

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