Just curious if anyone has any similar plans in mind and what y’all are making.

My spouse and I are not very much into making/receiving gifts as a general rule, but we’re all in for DIY/craft or fixing old stuff and making them like new again. We both cook too, she will bake pies and pastries which is something I’ve never enjoyed doing (but will gladly eat 8), while I do love cooking meals. So it’s kinda easy for us to not spend a fortune while doing stuff we know the other will appreciate.

Next month, I plan on giving a refurbished laptop running Linux to a young dude that is broke but needs a machine for studying. I will upgrade and clean the machine to make sure it will run smooth for as long as possible, and since it will run Linux I know it will run smooth even if it’s not the newest machine.

For this Christmas, I hope I’ll be able to craft for myself a… cardboard cabinet for storing my analog Zettelkasten. I’m huge into cardboard as its cheap material (free, when using recycled boxes and packages) and easy to work with, while still being sturdy enough for many usage. Recently, for a friend, I made a cardboard iPad holder that’s similar to the one I made for myself (just prettier ;) after they asked me where they could get one.

For my spouse, unlike we usually do for one another this time I want it to be a real surprise, she recently told me she would like for us to start writing to one another like we used to do when we met (we’re both well into our 50s, and have been together for almost 30 years). She mentioned it a few times already. So far, I have managed to dodge replying to her suggestions but my Secret Plan is this: instead of writing her an email, I will start sending her… good old snail mail, and postcards, decorated with mail art, like I used to do when I was younger.