Our boys' birthday is in June so usually I try to let this holiday slip under the radar, but I’d love a few tokens of a job well done and the significance of another year spent together.
Honestly, most guys are notoriously difficult to find gifts for because typically we keep everything we need for years on end. Its a much more gradual acquisition of trusted resources than a seasonal purge of temporary possessions. We love things we can keep around for a long time. In that spirit, here are a few things I’d keep around in celebration of fatherhood, at least for a year or three:
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Olympus E-P2 Pen: I don't have a quality digital camera and my Google phone is a bit shaky on the camera lens. This camera gets great reviews and looks like something my step-dad would have owned when he was in the service in Korea in the 50's. Multiple lenses - good for taking pictures of my two daring dudes.
Black Hearts by Jim Frederick: Shameless plug for an old high school friend, but he just happens to be the Gen X Stephen F. Ambrose. If you really want a view from the ground on Iraq, this is the book to read. Buy it before Tom Hanks options it.
Woody Allen Box Set: There is a "Woody Allen Collection" with just Manhattan, Annie Hall and Hannah and Her Sisters. Albeit a little incomplete, (The Purple Rose of Cairo, Manhattan Murder Mystery), it's just enough scattered, New York neurosis to make a Dad feel sane again.
Yidsun BlueBoom Bluetooth Speakers, New Era 59Fifty Fitted Baseball Cap, Six Pack of Budweiser Cans: Nothing says "take a break, Dad" better than permission to sit outside and listen to a baseball game with a few cold beers. Nothing fancy - a fitted cap (provided he's not a fan of some expansion team), some easy drinking Budweiser, and these awesome Bluetooth enabled speakers to fiddle with their gatget phones. Great validation trick. And cost-effective.
Baby Bat and Sky Spy Kites from Gayla: These are getting really, really hard to find (depressing) - but they're available online. I think father/son, father/daughter kite flying sounds awesome. Sign me up for one each and one for each boy.