Merry Christmas - my "Three Gift" rule

Merry Christmas!

Sorry for the delay this week - I'm on vacation for the Christmas Holidays, and I totally lost track of the time!  In the busy season, it's easy to overlook the true meaning of the season.  I won't get all sappy over the meaning - it's been covered by others much more eloquent than I, rather I'd like to note how we try to keep the meaning with our two girls.

With the world of inexpensive plastic toys, free delivery from Amazon, and the numerous advertisments for thousands of nearly disposable toys - have you ever priced the cost of the special batteries some toys use?!? - it's all to easy for parents to get on the slippery slope of buying their children lots of presents and finding that they are expecting to get the same number as their siblings.  (And of course the price of the toy makes no difference - the 1 year old will love the box more than the $30 toy that came in it.)

To help remind our daughters of the reason, we've implemented a gift rule based on what "Baby Jesus" received on his birthday.  No, we're not forcing them to exchange gold, frankincense, and myrrh (though Kris would not turn down anything made of gold), rather we've implemented the "three gift" rule.  Each child receives three gifts: one from Santa, one from Mom and Dad, and one from a sibling.  There's a significance for each:

• One gift from a sibling.  This works out easy in our family since we only have two children - it's a simple exchange in their mind.  In larger families, it will limit the expense that the family will experience plus keep each child guessing which sibling got their name and what they were given.  This allows each child some time to reflect on what they want to give to their sibling - you might be suprised what ideas some will come up with (and it won't leave us parents struggling to decide).
• The gift from Mom and Dad symoblize the love of parent and child.  This relation ship is special and significant enough that it's not a gift lumped in with the other gifts they might receive.  My wife and I also use this gift as the "big gift" for the year to that child.  For instance, when we decided to get one daughter a video game she wanted.  Knowing that the inevitable "I got this gift from ____" might be uttered, we decided that we could bypass that argument completely if we gave it to her.
• The final gift from Santa will change over time.  Right now, our youngest still believes in him but our oldest has figured it out so for now we're keeping the big guy in our list.  Once our youngest finds out, we'll have a family discussion about this gift.  Since "Santa" easily represents a caring individual to the youngest people, this present will transform into a gift to symbolize the season.

To keep this a tech-oriented blog, here's how I used some tech this holiday season.

1. I entered all of my families Christmas lists into Evernote so I could easily update it wherever I was (on my laptop at work, on my iPad in the living room, from my phone in a store, etc).
2. I set a reminder on my calendar (synced to my phone and GMail account) that will remind me to purchase a "stocking stuffer" gift for my wife next year (calendar reminder for Dec 14, 2012).  (Yeah, I forgot and had to scramble for something Christmas Eve...)
3. I used the Amazon gift lists to help make sure I pointed other familly members to the correct item, and I bought from the lists my sisters stored on-line.  No more guessing!
4. I setup the "X10" receiver to control the Christmas tree lights so they weren't left on (or off) for a long period of time.

Many of the gifts I received this year are also tech related:

• "Geek Dad" by Ken Denmead (http://www.amazon.com/Geek-Dad-Awesomely-Projects-Activities/dp/1592405525)
  • Lots of great tech/geek related projects to do with kids of all ages: kite camera, homemade coloring books, simple electronic light ideas, LEGO ideas, etc.
• "Practical Android Projects" by Luscan Jordan and Pieter Greyling (http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Android-Projects-Books-Professionals/dp/1430232439)
  • This book looks like it will a great resource when I finally find some free time to read through it and start programming for fun again.
• An Energizer "TrailFinder" head-mounted ligth (http://www.energizer.com/lighting-products/outdoor/trailfinder/Pages/6-led-headlight.aspx)
  • Too many times working on a computer under a desk, or underneath the car I've wished to have light where I'm looking.  This should solve that problem in many of those cases.  And the single "spot light" mode is truly a spot-light worthy of a theatrical stage lighting set - I'm sure the kids will borrow this for some play time, too.

I'll wrap up for now - hope your Christmas was great!