Wishlist

I have been told by many people that I am difficult to shop for, since I am usually pleased with any gift I receive. This page is a compiled list of items I have my eye on, which would be excellent for any occasion. Specific brand names are listed only to give a sense of style that is preferred. Of course, as with anything, I am pleased with any gift I am lucky enough to receive, and time with family and friends always trump material goods.

UPDATED 10-22-2026         SPECIAL CHRISTMAS WISHLIST 2026

Except for the list below, my list for Christmas is open-ended. If you are looking for specific ideas, see the extensive list below. Here is what I am looking for this year.

Zero footprint: items that take up little or no space, such as music, clothing, wall art, video games, etc.

• Music CD are back in vogue, and you can find them just about everywhere, whether new or vintage. Vinyl and cassettes (and 8-Tracks) are not my thing.

• Speaking of music, I do not have a quality portable Bluetooth speaker. JBL for the win, but any brand or size will do.

• I'm good with just about any video game. There are plenty of fun games for a Nintendo Switch 1, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One systems which I still use. However, I am still working on the boatload of games Andrew gave me this past year.

  • STAR WARS: Galactic Racer came out in October. Since I use a gaming PC, a STEAM key would be great.

• I can't say no to a good (or award winning) graphic novel, regardless of the hero or heroine. It doesn't have to be new, as there is plenty of Half Price Books options to choose from.

• A Vaydeer Vertical Laptop Stand will help me clear up space on my work areas.

• A set of 2 magnetic LED BBQ Lights are for grilling in the evening during fall and winter.

• Ray-Ban OR Oakley Meta AI Glasses - because I am a sophisticated dad with sophisticated tastes. This pairs well with a Tag Hauer wristwatch.

Consumables: food, beverages, restaurant gift certificates, year-long subscriptions, personal lessons, services, tickets for entertainment or travel, experiences.

• No bath and body items (except cologne, see below) as these items are usually taken care of by certain family members.

• My favorite snack of 2026 is BUILT Puff Bars (brownie batter).

Upgrades or Add-Ons: a bigger and/or newer something of what I already have, or something that adds onto an item or setting that I already have.

• Some of the items listed below are considered upgrades (Apple Watch 12, bigger screen Amazon Alexa devices for the kitchen, media room, etc.) or add-ons (NFL mini helmet collection, another Yeti Rambler 30 oz. tumbler, something for the backyard deck area).

• I am an avid fan of Dewalt power tools. Although I already have two non-Dewalt chainsaws, I could use one more for “convenience cutting”. The Dewalt 20V MAX 12 in. Cordless Battery Powered Chainsaw is perfect. One of the chainsaws I already have is a Stihl and a new battery powered lesser version just released this year.

• During the cooler months, I split wood for firepits and fireplaces. Often, a chainsaw is needed to process the time collected during the year.  A set of STIHL Performance Series Orange Zip Apron Chaps (36in. Length) or similar might keep me cleaner and more protected.

• A pair of Cuisinart 3-in-1 Stuffed Burger Presses will make grilling easier. Four or six would take care of family lunches.

• 3-Piece Huusk Viking Butcher Knife Set since I like knives and I like meat.

• A Misby electric mug warmer will keep my morning hot chocolate warmer and for longer. I hear smart mugs are also a thing.

• A Marcellin Pizza Axe does not ASK the pizza if it wants to be cut……

• SATISFYE INC ZenGrip Ronin Elite Bundle which is compatible with the Nintendo Switch for when I want to game on the go.

• I could use a wheelbarrow, but I don’t think it will fit in the shed. Perhaps someone is smart enough to solve this. The other solution is a Gorilla Poly Dump Cart 600 lb. capacity, which will also lessen my chances of spilling over.

• A transparent Lock Pick Training Kit will help me if I ever want to start a life of crime. Like LEGO sets, it is also good for keeping the mind sharp with manipulatives.

• Speaking of LEGO sets, the Batman logo and Milky Way painting are now out for Christmas 2026.

• Something silly: PowerUp 2.0 Electric Paper Airplane Conversion Kit.

• Hair is like a bad woman: you have to get rid of it before it gets rid of you. The Remington Shortcut Pro Self-Haircut Kit HC4250 would help me with this.

• I already have children, but grandchildren are also nice. Just be careful about wrapping them. #That’sDark

Appliances

• GE Profile 30 in. 5 Burner Element Smart Free-Standing Double Oven Electric Range in Fingerprint Resistant Stainless

Audiobooks

1. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

2. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

3. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

4. Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery

5. Artemis by Andy Weir

6. Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

7. Atonement by Ian McEwan

8. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

9. Beloved by Toni Morrison

10. Billy Budd, Sailor by Herman Melville

11. Bleak House by Charles Dickens

12. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote

13. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

14. Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

15. Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres

16. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

17. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

18. Charlotte's Web by EB White

19. City of Glass by Paul Auster

20. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

21. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

22. The Color of Magic (Discworld) by Terry Pratchett

23. The Colour Purple by Alice Walker

24. The Crack-Up by F. Scott Fitzgerald

25. The Crow Road by Iain Banks

26. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

27. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

28. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

29. The Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck

30. Dune by Frank Herbert

31. Emma by Jane Austen

32. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

33. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

34. Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

35. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

36. Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce

37. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

38. The Folk of the Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton

39. Germinal by Emile Zola

40. The Giver by Lois Lowry

41. Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell

42. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

43. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

44. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

45. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

46. Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

47. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

48. I, the Jury by Mickey Spillane

49. The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

50. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

51. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

52. Life of Pi by Yann Martel

53. The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1)

54. The Little Princess by Antonie De Saint Exupery

55. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

56. The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu

57. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

58. Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe

59. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia

60. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

61. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

62. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

63. The Martian by Andy Weir

64. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

65. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

66. Middlemarch by George Eliot

67. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

68. The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie

69. Neuromaner by William Gibson

70. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

71. Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson

72. Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky

73. O Pioneers! by Willa Cather

74. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

75. On the Road by Jack Kerouac

76. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

77. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia

78. Passing by Nella Larsen

79. Persuasion by Jane Austen

80. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

81. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

82. Possession by AS Byatt

83. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

84. The Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

85. The Remains of the Day by Kazou Ishiquro

86. Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

87. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson

88. The Secret History by Donna Tartt

89. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

90. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

91. Silas Marner by George Eliot

92. The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

93. The Stormlight Archive book series by Brandon Sanderson

94. The Stranger by Albert Camus

95. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

96. Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome

97. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

98. The Talisman by Stephen King

99. Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

100. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

101. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

102. A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shite

103. Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh

104. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

105. Ulysses by James Joyce

106. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thacherary

107. The Vorrh by Brian Catling

108. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

109. The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

110. Watership Down by Richard Adams

111. Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne

112. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

Additional Reading

1. Think and Grow Rich

2. How to Win Friends and Influence People

3. Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

4. The Definitive Book of Body Language

5. The 4-Hour Work Week

6. Rich Dad Poor Dad

7. Humans of New York: Stories – Brandon Stanton

8. The Greatest Salesman in the World

9. Dream Save Do: An Action Plan for Dreamers Like You 

10. The 100 Dollar Startup

11. Start a Freedom Business

12. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to The Future

13. Breaking Night

14. The Power of Habit 

15. The Great Divorce

16. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

Bath & Body

• • Sauvage/Christian Dior Cologne

Clothing

• • Apple Watch 12 46mm Nike Sports band

  • Brioni ties from Neiman Marcus

  • Tommy Bahama short-sleeve button-down shirts

  • UNTUCKit long-sleeve button-down shirts (x-large)

  • Vineyard Vines ties

Food

• • Any 10+ year single malt scotch whiskey is appreciated

  • Any Webber grill accessories; just ask my family what I already have

  • BUILT Puff Bars (brownie batter flavored)

  • Cabela's Commercial-Grade EZ-Cut French-Fry Cutter (or similar)

Gaming

• • Nintendo Switch 2 gaming system

  • Any party games for Nintendo Switch or Switch 2 (see above)

  • Enhance Collector's Edition Board Game Backpack

  • Enhance Tabletop Gamer Backpack

  • Ghost of Tsushima game for PC

  • Kill Team: Starter Set: Warhammer 40,000 tabletop game

  • Madden 27 game for PC

  • Star Wars Outlaws game for PC

  • SATISFYE INC - ZenGrip Ronin Elite Bundle, compatible with Nintendo Switch

  • Targus Leather Pilot Case

Gift Cards

• • Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, any steakhouse

Hardware

• • John Deere/Craftsman walk behind gas edger

Household

• • Humanscale FREEDOM HEADREST gaming chair

  • LEGO 31199 Marvel Studios Iron Man (up to 2 more/I already have one copy, but there are 3 different images and three copies make a mega-image.)

  • LEGO wall art, helmet collection, or any vertical build that does not take up a lot of space.

  • Mont Blanc pen

  • Secretlab TITAN 2020 gaming chair

  • UltraSabers Archon (Obi Wan Kenobi) lightsaber

  • A new slab for the back patio

Jewelry

• • Apple Watch Series 12

  • Tag Heuer men's wristwatch (must be gifted by my daughter)

Music

• B-52s albums: B-52s

• Bob Dylan albums: Blonde on Blonde, Shadows in the Night

• Curtis Mayfield albums: Curtis/Live

• Fabulous Thunderbirds albums: T-Bird Rhythm

• Floggin Molly albums: Drunken Lullabies

• Frank Sinatra & Count Basie albums: It Might As Well Be Swing

• Led Zeppelin albums: Led Zeppelin

• Muddy Waters albums: The Best of Muddy Waters

• Nirvana albums: Nevermind

• NRBQ albums: At Yankee Stadium

• Pink Floyd albums: Meddle; Obscured By Clouds; Delicate Sound Of Thunder

• Queen albums: A Night At The Opera

• Soundgarden albums: Superunknown

• Texas Tornados albums: Four Aces

• The Beach Boys albums: Pet Sounds

• The Beatles albums: Abbey Road

• The Blazers albums: Just For You

• The Killers albums: Hot Fuss

• ZZ Top albums: Tejas; Tres Hombres; Eliminator

• The Greatest Showman movie soundtrack

Technology

• Black Diamond Storm 375 Headlamp

• Corsair accessories to compliment current CoarseAir PC build

• Raspberry Pi 3

• Raspberry Pi 400 Personal Computer Kit

Television

• • Battlestar Galactica (1978) + Galactic 1980 - seasons 1 on DVD

  • Heroes - seasons 1-4 on DVD

  • Knight Rider - seasons 1-4 on DVD

Theater

• • 2 tickets to upcoming play or musical

Travel

• 2 roundtrip airplane tickets to anywhere outside of Texas

• 2 roundtrip railway tickets to anywhere outside of Texas

• Any cruise liner trip for 2, but Disney Cruise Lines or Royal Caribbean Cruises to Europe FTW

• Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio tickets

• Visit all 32 NFL stadiums, preferably with games being played live, preferably against the Dallas Cowboys, preferably when they have a winning season: Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta Falcons, Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers, Chicago Bears, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, Kansas City Chiefs, Las Vegas Raiders, Los Angeles Chargers, Los Angeles Rams, Miami Dolphins, Minnesota Vikings, New England Patriots, New Orleans Saints, New York Giants, New York Jets, Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tennessee Titans, Washington Commanders

• Visit all 50 state capitals: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming

Various

• Riddell NFL mini helmets using the most updated logos: Buffalo Bills, Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars, Los Angeles Chargers, Miami Dolphins, Minnesota Vikings, New York Jets, Pittsburgh Steelers

  • BONUS: classic Houston Oilers