Toys have been around forever. But no childhood or geeky household has been complete without video games for decades, and now apps are ubiquitous parts of helping us entertain and educate our kids. Check out the GeekMom recommendations for these items this holiday season, and there are a few tabletop gaming stragglers tossed in for good measure!
Continue ReadingThis week’s puzzle was either much harder than originally scoped or ill-defined; there were very few responses, and even fewer that were correct. Many thanks to everyone that hazarded a guess, from the close and reasonable (from which this week’s …
Continue ReadingGift-giving holidays in geek homes almost always include some gadget or other, or perhaps a dozen of them. Here are some gadgets and accessories chosen by our GeekMom writers that would be perfect to give your loved ones this holiday season.
Continue ReadingFor your chance at this week’s $50 ThinkGeek Gift Certificate, simply tally up the total of gifts “given/sung” by Max’s class as they sing the classic “Twelve Days of Christmas.” A gift is “given/sung” the number of times it …
Continue ReadingNickelodeon has released a new album of original holiday songs featuring Spongebob Squarepants and friends, to coincide with the Spongebob Christmas special that aired on CBS November 23 and will run on Nickelodeon tonight at 7:30 PM. The special, also …
Continue ReadingLong gone are the days of boring clothing presents and household gifts, with these options available to us all. And we’ve got plenty of great DVD recommendations in this gift guide as well. Put some geek in your ice cubes, bed sheets, and bathrobes, and entertain yourself and your kids with our varied selection of DVDs!
Continue ReadingThis year, Gaylord Palms welcomes Merry Madagascar as their theme for this year’s ICE! attraction. At nine degrees Fahrenheit, it’s by far the coolest attraction in the Orlando area.
Continue ReadingWe sat down to come up with a list of our favorite books and we ended up with a pretty long list. In fact, it was so long we had to break it into two parts (look for chapter two …
Continue ReadingIt’s fun to be frightened. Whether it’s Jigsaw or Jason, Pennywise or Pinhead, a start and a scream are all part of good entertainment, especially this time of year. But why are these horror movie bad guys scary? For …
Continue ReadingWe lent a family a 3DS to take on holiday with them. Their mission was to use it to take pictures, find information online when they were abroad and keep in touch with us while they were away. We spent …
Continue ReadingThe past couple of years, my little family has been starting some of our own family traditions. At Thanksgiving we have a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving lunch. In June we celebrate May the Fourth Be With You. In July we celebrate Christmas in July. Why? Because it’s fun and any excuse to get out our Santa hats and Christmas movies is good enough for us.
Continue ReadingIt’s just days before Father’s Day and the kids and I are scrambling! What do you get a guy who doesn’t need ties, wrenches or the latest crime novel? Upon discussing this topic with the GeekMoms, I was pointed towards a couple of how-to sites for duct tape wallets!
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Want a geeky roadtrip? I’d argue there’s little geekier than trekking to one of the U.S. or Canadian communities that celebrate Groundhog Day on February 2nd.
For those unfamiliar, the legend of Groundhog Day dates back to European folklore, where farmers relied on the emergence of small ground animals (in addition to groundhogs, there are records of badgers and hedgehogs) to signal the end of the winter. In the United States, the first records of the groundhog legend dates back to the Pennsylvania “Dutch” in the 18th century and even today Groundhog Day is widely recognized among the Amish.
Continue ReadingA dad short of dough, trying to build things. A son making contraptions on his own. A man with an affinity for Elf culture. A kid strategizing how to get the perfect gift. A reclusive green grump with a knack …
Continue ReadingOne contender is a man in an elf suit. The other is a boy in a bunny suit. By the end of today, only one will survive to be declared the geekiest holiday movie character ever. This is the final …
Continue ReadingThis holiday season, GeekDad isn’t content to just watch classic movies every night. We are powering up the festivities with a quest: Which of our beloved Christmas icons is the biggest geek? Eight movie characters filled the initial bracket — …
Continue ReadingEven if you’re trying to reduce your use of gift wrap this holiday season, as I am, you can bet that a fair amount of wrapping paper will still cross your threshold. Instead of just recycling that paper this year, start making a gift wrap ball that you can enjoy during the next holiday season. […]
Continue ReadingSomewhere between the sixth post-Thanksgiving viewing of Elf and the annual trip to Bedford Falls on Christmas Eve, it begins to sink in why these characters in Christmas-season movies are so beloved (or sometimes feared). They are makers and techies. …
Continue ReadingOne year it seemed we were having the worst Christmas ever. That autumn my husband had been in a car accident. His broken neck was healing, but it left him with severe migraines and what doctors thought might be a seizure disorder. Because he wasn’t medically cleared to return to work, we had to […]
Continue ReadingLast year my husband took ill just before Thanksgiving. He was out of work for about 10 weeks with severe damage to his inner ear. It came on suddenly, knocked him on his back and kept him there. I had a 15-month-old, a full time job and it was the holiday season. Thanksgiving was the […]
Continue ReadingSeveral of us have been lamenting on our GeekMom writers’ discussion board about how much more hassled many of us seem to be this holiday season. We each have unique stories, which we’re courageously sharing with the web world this week, and I was glad to know I wasn’t the only one who was feeling […]
Continue ReadingThe seventh and final edition of our 2011 Holiday Gift Guide contains everything that didn’t fit under one of the other topics. We have music, videos, and other ideas. What are your last minute holiday gift ideas? Tony Bennett, Duets II $11.88 Bennett is not who you immediately picture when you think “geeky singer” but […]
Continue ReadingThe sixth in our series of 2011 Holiday Gift Guides covers a variety of gifts that are more practical, yet still completely awesome. In many cases, that’s about the only thread that ties them together. What other gifts do you think are practical yet awesome? STM bags Prices vary Our mobile devices take a beating […]
Continue ReadingNext week Fox is giving me an early Christmas present by combining three of my passions in life: Star Wars, Christmas episodes and show tunes. The hit show Glee will present an unusual guest star, Chewbacca the Wookie, in a tribute to both the Star Wars and Judy Garland holiday specials. The Christmas episode will […]
Continue ReadingThe fifth in our series of 2011 Holiday Gift Guides covers toys and activities for the older kids and grown-ups on your holiday gift list. Some of these are aimed toward the under-18 crowd, but many of them are just as much for grown-ups as they are for kids. What catches your eye? Share your […]
Continue ReadingLast week I spent several hours at my 9-year-old’s school, helping children with their holiday gift purchase experience. It’s a program that my boys’ schools’ PTOs put on as a service for the children. For this particular school district, this was not a fund raiser. This is the fourth year in a row that I’ve […]
Continue ReadingImage via Wikipedia We are scarcely into the month of December, and I am already dreadfully tired of classic Christmas music and, for that matter, many of its more contemporary alternatives. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got Christmas Spirit™ to …
Continue ReadingFourth in our series of 2011 Holiday Gift Guides covers toys for the younger kids on your holiday gift list. Babies, toddlers, and possibly early elementary kids will enjoy the items below. What are you giving to the young kids on your list this year? Share your ideas in the comments. Batik Kid $18.13 Age: […]
Continue ReadingMy daughter loves having books read to her and she even likes “reading” books herself. We have a great number of books partly because I inherited a bunch of books from my childhood along with getting many books as baby shower gifts. But one area our library was lacking was holiday books. But that was remedied […]
Continue ReadingThird in our series of 2011 Holiday Gift Guides lists over two dozen books that we have discovered in the past year. Some are for grown-ups, some are for kids, and some are for babies. Some are educational, and some are just for fun. What are your favorite geeky books from the past year? Share […]
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