Christmas Lists and Wish Lists

I keep an Amazon wish list, mainly for reminding me of things I think I need or want. It's rather extensive and I'm adding stuff to it all the time. You may check it out here: Press "Now" to continue.
I don't really expect anyone to purchase anything on this list for me, although I make it available to those who really feel the need to buy me something for Christmas, my birthday, etc. So now, if anyone asks me what I would like for my birthday, I can direct them to this link instead of trying to think of something. It works well because I never really remember things for which I have a need until I'm actually, well, needing them. Wants are a bit different, but there too, I can't remember the titles of cds I've run across in music books and said that I would like to have those cds. The same with books. I'm thinking this is the best way I've come up with yet for remembering. And then again, if I can't remember, maybe it isn't all that important.  Unless you want to spring for the Taylor guitar. I am so much kidding it's not even funny...

How to Christmas shop for kids, from one who's bad at it

I'm not really a good gift giver, and it doesn't really matter to me if I receive any gifts. I like to be around my family and friends at Christmas time--that's my kind of gift. Gifts are one of my lowest things on my list of the Five Love Languages. I often find myself at a loss when it comes to choosing gifts for my grandkids. I'm ashamed to admit that I like to just find something and get it done. I've found though that the simple power of observation helps a lot. Here's an example. We have noticed that our grandkids when they're in a certain age range, always seem to love to find the flashlight in the house and play with it in a dark room. I was out at Harbor Freight last year and I saw on the shelf on sale some headlamps. This would be perfect for my grandkids, I thought, and I snapped up two of them, thinking of the two boys, Taggart and John, who are the same age and would love to play with them. I should've picked up more as the other kids would love them too. I probably will before I give any of them away. Noticing what they seem to have fun with, even if it's not necessarily a toy, can lead to ideas of what they might like.
Another thing that you can do is go to Amazon and type in the search box: toys for three year old girls, toys for five year old boys, toys for ten year olds, or any other combination you might need. This will give you a list of suggestions. I've found this to be quite useful.
You can type in the same kind of word combinations into Google and find websites like this: clicky-clicky
A time tested way of finding out possible gifts for kids is to ask their parents what they think their child might be interested in. We asked our son Ben and his wife Marie what kinds of things their kids might want and they gave us some direction--they said some kind of toys or activities that will help their kids to learn. This was very helpful.
All that being said, I've found that making sure you know the interests of the kids you are buying for goes a long way toward finding a gift those kids will love.

And now, here's a great song by the Oak Ridge Boys: Thank God for Kids