Gift ideas

Attention shoppers: Holiday discount codes

17 December 2010 Gift ideas

I’m actually leaving my house today to brave the mall mob for those few items I can’t confidently buy online. I looked up some discounts and thought I’d share for any other last-minute shoppers among you. Chinese grandmas love a deal (when we have to spend money at all).

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Gift ideas for school-aged kids

3 December 2010 Gift ideas
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It gets harder to make general gift recommendations as kids grow older and their tastes more defined. I’ll share some fun finds from my research for my own two school-aged kids, boy and girl, and for their their many cousins and friends. As with the preschool kids, I have categories Pretend, Create, Learn and Move [...]

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Gift ideas for preschoolers

2 December 2010 Gift ideas
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Preschoolers are at the golden age for gifts – old enough to appreciate them and young enough to like just about anything. But choices out there are endless, and it’s all too easy to end up with a house full of abandoned toys. Here are my ideas for toys that last, in five categories: pretend, [...]

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Deal alert

1 December 2010 Gift ideas

Not my usual post – just had to give a quick heads up on two great gift deals in effect today. For anyone with a Wii system or buying one this holiday season, Just Dance 2 is Amazon’s Gold Box Deal of the Day, for $26 vs $40 normally. Electronics aren’t my thing, but I [...]

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The rush is on…holiday gift ideas

29 November 2010 Gift ideas
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Rolling out of Thanksgiving weekend, I thought we’d take a break from food this week to tackle holiday gifts. With four kids of my own, plus nine nieces and nephews, I’ve done a whole lot of gift buying for infants through teens, and the chinese grandma in me has to research the bejeezus out of [...]

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Happiness is a butter bell

14 September 2010 Favorite gadgets
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I discovered the butter bell a year ago, and now my family can’t live without it. Gone are the days of battling rock hard butter to spread on toast while four hungry children clamor for their breakfast. Now butter gets spread smooth as frosting, toast gets distributed, and munching mouths are happily silent for a [...]

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Cast iron skillets – nonstick old school

6 September 2010 Favorite gadgets
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Cast iron is the chinese grandma of cookware: the ultimate in practicality, durability and value – and it only gets better with age. It is also nonstick the old school way. If anyone out there is still using Teflon-coated pans, I urge you to wake up and smell the plastic. A high quality cast iron [...]

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