Gift guide for the 10 year old boy

I am enjoying looking at all the blogger gift guides. Tonnes of inspiration and tonnes of beautiful things. And sometimes a bit overwhelming.  Up until yesterday I had done lots of online gift buying, taking advantage of Amazon free shipping and beautiful crafts on ETSY (yep, share the wealth).  I decided yesterday that I need to get off the computer and into a mall. We did hit the local craft market on Saturday, but we were pressed for time and accidentally squeezed this errand in at the busiest time. We cruised through the crowds, I spotted some handcrafted felt items (beautiful round, pot holders), directed my son in that direction and I waited while he bought me a gift.

But I needed to get to a mall (I cant believe I said that, two times already!), and pick out a few items for my kids. Things I didn't want to buy on line; things that I wanted to hand pick, touch and inspect.

The mall was "empty". My two year old spotted Santa, so we went over to say hi. Adorable, (first time for this mom, as my son was never interested in talking to Santa, he liked to observe from a distance). Lucy didn't want to sit on his lap. She stood in front of him, leaning on one leg, rocking side to side, answering his questions. I couldn't hear her, but Santa did say loud enough for me to hear, "You do not know what you want?!...well come back later when you do know, let me know." He gave her a chocolate and she was freaking delighted. I was curious how she answered the prompt "Have you been a good girl?". When I asked her, I got a lot of "I dunno". She ate her chocolate and fell asleep and I got on with the task at hand.

Normally I like to browse and find things on my own, but all this online shopping has made me impatient. I would take a quick walk around the store and leave when I couldn't find exactly what I wanted. When I spotted a few items I liked, but not in the right size or colour, I would get the clerk involved (something I used to avoid doing)...  "Hey, is this it or are these leggings stocked else where? Have any of those ribbed leggings in dark green? Have any of those velour flare lounge pants toddler size? Have any size 1 underwear for a petite toddler?" Much more efficient then browsing and digging for things myself.

I managed to find a few things. I have an inclination for both kinds of shopping now, although on line may be winning. Click around, click in all the search options, down to every possible particular, and then wait for parcel to arrive.  Although this kind of shopping requires a bit of organization and an earlier start in the month, if you don't want to stress.  I like to do in store shopping much closer to Christmas, with bits of crowds, hot chocolate and only ONE item on my list...like socks. Easy to find and grab. And I also prefer it to be snowing. Big snow flakes you can catch with your tongue.  AND if I lived in my old city, I of course would much prefer shopping via a skate down the frozen canal to the market, browse the local shops, jump into the mall to warm up and back outside... but this city that I have lived in for 15 years has changed that preference.

If you want gift suggestions for a 10 year old boy, the rest of his list goes like this (look at him concentrating so well, picking the perfect font and letter size):

•  Winter Clothes: Fuzzy socks, fuzzy pj's, house coat
• Board games: Apples to Apples
• Remote control cars
•  Magic cards please please please
• three layer trident gum

And his letter to Santa:

•  A big stuffed Domo
• A Sock Monkey
• 2 Ugly Dolls
• A typewriter
• A Messy soccer jersey (blue and purple jersey)
• Some worm clothes (I guess) (note from editor: I was told to fix the spelling mistake before printing, but i thought it was too funny to bother to fix)
• Ping Pong Table

There you have it, an authentic gift guide for a 10 year old, written by a 10 year old.

And for your two year old: "CHOCOLATE". Lots of it.