Holiday Shopping

‘Tis the season. Shopping season, that is. Choosing just the thing for this nephew or that in-law is tough. Nobody wants to throw money away on gifts that aren’t appreciated. We’re wandering down the tech aisle this year because who doesn’t love tech? Gadgets and wearables and smart everything, oh my! The FLUX Led Light & Power Bank will give you days of mega light at a campsite or anywhere else, and charge your phones at the same time. This thing is awesome and going on our list. It’s drone time, don’t you think? Seems like they’re all over the place. We love the DJI Phantom 4 Pro. It captures images you only dream of, and the controller is a thing of beauty with a built-in screen. Pardon our drool. The Stellarscope allows you to dial in your location and look to the stars, which are charted out for you. Great gift for the budding scientist in your family. And bonus, you get to use it, too. Wireless sound. Not earbuds – maybe they’re called cheekbuds? Trekz Air uses “bone conduction technology” to give you the sound you want without sticking uncomfortable plastic bits in your ear. They wrap around the back of your head/neck and rest on your cheekbones. We have got to try these! The constellation of products under the Amazon Echo umbrella allow you to set up your home in pretty smart fashion. You can ask Alexa to adjust the heat if you’re a bit cool, turn on the bedside lamp when you’re headed that way, get the coffee going when you actually wake up and not when you were supposed to get up, play games with you, or do loads of other helpful things. We want one, or possibly nine. Do you know a pregnant someone who is hugging the toilet throughout the day? Does your SO get all clammy and hang his head out of the car window as soon as the wheels leave the driveway? Reliefband® controls the nasty symptoms of morning and motion sickness. It slips on the wrist and, with the touch of a button, sends a signal to the part of the brain that controls nausea, retching, and vomiting. Wearable tech everybody loves! There you go, shopping solved. What’s on your tech list this year?

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Gifts For Mom-To-Be.

It’s fun to shop for that special mom-to-be in your life. Here are some ideas to get you started, and we’d love to hear your wonderfully creative ideas in the comments. Dawn Dais wrote a book called The *&^% No One Tells You: A Guide To Surviving Your Baby’s First Year. Sounds cute, and we all know there’s a lot of grossness the first year or two that no one talks about. Conversations in homes with new babies go something like this: Is that supposed to be that color? I don’t think that belongs there. Where did that come from? (Should be a fun read!) Give a Kiva Card! Kiva is a nonprofit that connects loaners to borrowers. You choose whom you’d like to make a small loan to, say a mom who wants to increase her family’s goat herd. She gets the money, buys five more goats, then pays you back. You take that money and find someone else to fund, and the story repeats. You can stop loaning money whenever you want. It’s a meaningful way to help alleviate poverty, one person at a time. It’s a gift from the heart. An iTunes gift card will fill a phone or tablet with loads of practical and cool apps, such as What to Expect’s Pregnancy & Baby, BabyCenter’s My Pregnancy Today, or BabyBump’s Pregnancy Pro. There are also baby monitor apps and just oodles of others that will make the new mom very happy. If there’s a project that you know the mom-to-be wants to get done around the house, get a bunch of her friends together and go over one weekend to get it done! Everybody’s busy with work and life. Sometimes, big projects can be daunting, and a little help from our friends turns out to be a big deal. Most pregnant women will experience morning sickness. The ReliefBand helps quell nausea and vomiting. Give her one, and she’ll be saying thanks every day for weeks or quite possibly months! Never know how long morning sickness will hang around. Let’s not forget dad-to-be. Get him a waterproof camera and he’ll capture pictures of pregnant mom-to-be splashing in the pool, and later, baby’s first bath! There are loads of waterproof cameras of all shapes and price points, so take your time shopping on this one. Fair warning! We haven’t tried specific products out, but they look fun, don’t they? What gifts have you received that you’ve truly enjoyed? Share in the comments, we all want to hear.

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