The hardest part of the holidays...

Is buying gifts for people. Especially when they don't make a list and I hardly ever see him/her enough to actually have an idea of what s/he would like. AKA my family's secret santa we do every year. With there being so many of us [myself, 4 brothers, and 3 sisters-in-law], we have been doing a secret santa/pollyanna/whatever you want to call it the past few years. It's easier to buy one gift for one person and makes more financial sense to us. And since myself and my younger brother don't really have a good stable income [and owe money for school], we cap the limit at $25.

And every year gets harder and harder... But then again, I feel like I always get the 3 hardest people to get a gift.

And it's not just my secret santa. It's buying gifts for my 5 nieces and nephews, my mom, my dad, and my grandmothers. So I'll go through all the issues with each of these groups.

Nieces and Nephews
Honestly... They have every toy they could ever want. My oldest niece [turned 6 in October] just bought herself an iPod Touch... I don't even have an iPod Touch [or any Apple product for that matter]. That's not to say that they are spoiled [my niece used her own birthday and piggy bank money for it] but there is little else to really get them. All of them have oodles of clothes with the occasional odd bits and bobs missing [my mom usually get those]. They all have so many toys that I don't even know where they put them all. What else is there to get for kids 6 and under? I've considered trying to do some artsy craftsy things [and trying to find things on Pinterest]. I'm making my one nephew who is snowman obsessed a snowman shirt [picture of the snowman below] and he is also getting a little Figment car that I got when I was in Disney... And that's all I have for the kids so far.

Mom and Dad
Well, my mom and dad are issues of their own. They always want conventional things like slippers [on the dad's list this year] and a cardigan [the mom's]. They never want anything fun or it's always a basic staple that they would never buy for themselves.

With my dad, it wouldn't matter if I bought him something on his list or gave him something he'd probably use. Because it will take him about 4 years to use it. My younger brother and I went to Spain for a trip. We had no clue what to get him. So we thought "Hey, he wears hats a lot. Let's get him a hat." So we got him this cap that says "Super Torro" on it... He started wearing it this year... that's 4 years ago. The same goes for any clothes we buy him [he wears the same ratty crap]. This year, I went on the suggestion from my mom to buy him a water jug. His work can be labor intensive and he needs to be drinking lots of water. Of course, it doesn't have the same spout as the one he has but... We'll see if he uses it.

My mom... She doesn't buy things she wants. Hence, why she hasn't bought herself a cardigan, something I would consider a staple in my wardrobe. She doesn't use make-up and rarely ever dresses up. She isn't interested in jewelry and is super picky when it comes to purses. Her gift happens to be a fluke that she even tried this. As you may know, I get a Birchbox every month and this month's included the Borghese active mud for face and body. We tried it out together and she seemed to really like it. So with my 20% off on Birchbox, I bought the 7oz version. And then I saw on Beauty.com, they had a cute little Borghese set for $20 [I think I got 20% off that too].

Grandmothers
Ok, to differentiate them, I will give you the names I call them. For my mother's mother, I call her Tutu [it's Hawaiian and no, I'm not Hawaiian]. For my father's mother, I call her grandma.

Actually, for the last few years, it has been pretty easy to get for my Tutu. She keeps up-ing her technology field by getting something big for herself each year. One year she got a Wii and another year she got a Kindle. This year, the big buy was an iPad. I could get her an iTunes gift card [she loves music] or something related to it. For her birthday [which is tomorrow], we got her a nice iPad stand/cover. Maybe I can get her some decent speakers or something. She mainly wants to use it for Skyping.

As for my grandma... I never know what to get her. She doesn't leave her house much except to go to church. She is very dependent upon my aunts and maybe my cousins for transportation anywhere. My mom pretty much sticks with getting her the same gift every year, green tomato chow [or relish if she can't find the chow] and a book. Usually my younger brother and I will just sign our names on the card and that's it.

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Not only all of that but I really do need to stick to a budget. Money is definitely tighter now that I have to actually start paying back my school loans... And while they aren't ominous now, they will be if I either can't get a better paying job or I can't move out of my parents house. But those are woes for another post.

Also, expect another Julep box post coming soon! Got my December box and let me just say: love it!