Two men are going to prison after being convicted of molesting their two adoptive sons, Georgia officials said. In July 2022, Walton County deputies were contacted about child sexual abuse material uploaded to a Google account, according to a Dec. 23 news release by the Alcovy Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office. Deputies met with Hunter Lawless, who is accused of admitting to receiving the child abuse material from Zachary Zulock, officials said. Lawless pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation of children and was sentenced, officials said. McClatchy News reached out to the Alcovy Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office on Dec. 23 to clarify his sentencing and was awaiting a response. Police performed a search warrant on the home of Zachary Jacoby Zulock and William Dale Zulock and eventually learned the two men had been sexually abusing their adopted sons, prosecutors said. The abuse began a “few years before the search warrant was executed,” officials said. “Those involved with the investigation and prosecution of this case will never forget what they had to see and hear in this case,” Randy McGinley, the Alcovy district attorney, said in the release. “These two defendants truly created a house of horrors and put their extremely dark desires above everything and everyone else. However, the depth of the defendants’ depravity, which is as deep as it gets, is not greater than the resolve of those that fought for justice and the strength of the victims in this case. The resolve I have seen from these two young victims over the last two years is truly inspiring,” While searching, officers reported finding electronic evidence showing the two men sexually abusing the boys on different occasions throughout different rooms in the home. Different cell phones also contained graphic images and videos of the abuse along with graphic text messages, officials said. The evidence led officials to Luis Vizcarro-Sanchez after they saw he had been receiving messages from one of the men about the sexual abuse of one of the victims, officials said. Vizcarro-Sanchez pleaded guilty to pandering for a person under 18 and was sentenced, the release said. McClatchy News reached out to the Alcovy Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office on Dec. 23 to clarify his sentencing and was awaiting a response. In August, William Zulock pleaded guilty to aggravated sodomy, aggravated child molestation, incest, and sexual exploitation of children, officials said. In October, Zachary Zulock pleaded guilty to aggravated sodomy, aggravated child molestation, incest, sodomy, sexual exploitation of children and pandering of a person under 18. They were sentenced to 100 years in prison followed by life on probation and will not be eligible for parole for the entire 100 years, officials said. Walton County is about a 50-mile drive east of Atlanta. If you suspect a child has experienced, is currently experiencing, or is at risk of experiencing abuse or neglect, your first step should be to contact the appropriate agency. The Child Welfare Information Gateway has a list of state agencies you can contact. Find help specific to your area here. For additional help, the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline has professional crisis counselors available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in over 170 languages. All calls are confidential. The hotline offers crisis intervention, information, and referrals to thousands of emergency, social service, and support resources. You can call or text 1-800-422-4453. If you believe a child is in immediate danger, please call 911 for help. -------- ©2024 The Charlotte Observer. Visit at charlotteobserver.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Percentages: FG .448, FT .762. 3-Point Goals: 6-24, .250 (Pack 4-7, Djobet 1-1, Blackmon 1-6, Bethea 0-2, Cleveland 0-2, Staton-McCray 0-2, Johnson 0-4). Team Rebounds: 3. Team Turnovers: 1. Blocked Shots: 5 (Cleveland 2, Kidd 2, Blackmon). Turnovers: 12 (Johnson 3, Cleveland 2, Djobet 2, Bethea, Blackmon, Kidd, Pack, Ugochukwu). Steals: 3 (Johnson 2, Staton-McCray). Technical Fouls: None. Percentages: FG .474, FT .762. 3-Point Goals: 10-22, .455 (Newman 3-4, Avery 3-5, Thompson 2-5, Ousmane 1-1, Davis 1-2, Brantley 0-1, Dean 0-1, Keller 0-3). Team Rebounds: 5. Team Turnovers: 2. Blocked Shots: 3 (Jennings 2, Avery). Turnovers: 6 (Dean 3, Avery, Davis, Keller). Steals: 6 (Thompson 2, Avery, Brantley, Dean, Ousmane). Technical Fouls: None. A_1,936 (5,100).
The unprecedented rainfall on December 1 and 2, triggered by Cyclone Fengal, has brought Villupuram and its nearby towns and villages to a standstill. Thousands of people have been left stranded across the district after the rains as roads, bridges and other public infrastructure were destroyed. Crops on several thousands of acres has been destroyed, roads and bridges are damaged, power lines and trees are uprooted, and drinking water has been contaminated. The villagers also noted that hundreds of cattle has been washed away in the flood. The Thenpennaiar and Malattaru riverbeds are usually bone dry, but now, these rivers are teeming with water. The unprecedented rainfall, coupled with the release of surplus water from the Sathanur dam in Tiruvannamalai district and the Veedur dam in Villupuram district, fuelled the flood’s fury. When a team from The Hindu visited the affected areas on Tuesday to take stock of the damage, residents said they were caught unawares as the water level started rising on Sunday afternoon. For many, the floods not only claimed lives, but also destroyed livelihoods. Now, a detailed assessment of the damage to crops and infrastructure was under way Published - December 08, 2024 06:01 pm IST Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp RedditWhat do Reviews of Real Mitolyn Users Say About Purple Peel Exploit for Weight Loss?
Authored by James Galbraith via TheNation.com, A large majority of voters gave the Biden administration a failing grade on the economy. For the sake of future policy battles, it is worthwhile to try to understand their reasons... One cannot fault Jared Bernstein, lead architect of “Bidenomics,” for feeling a measure of “ guilt, confusion ” over Donald Trump’s defeat of Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. Bernstein says—and I believe him—that the daily mission of Biden’s economists was to improve the lives of the American working class. Not to be rewarded with a vote of “Good job, and carry on” must be a bitter blow. Yet there is very little evidence that disappointment with the economy decided the election. According to an NBC exit poll , only 6 percent of Biden’s 2020 supporters switched to Trump in 2024, and their numbers were partially offset by 4 percent of Trump’s 2020 voters who went to Harris. The difference is trivial, and we have no reason to think it was concentrated in the swing states; Trump gained far more ground in states where the outcome was not in doubt. The fundamental driving force in this election was differential turnout. In a voting-eligible population that grew by 4 million, Trump gained 2 million votes while Harris lost 7 million compared to Biden in 2020. Moreover, Biden’s victory was a unique surge, many of whose sources can be traced to the pandemic. Perhaps the most important was the unprecedented ease of voting, thanks to measures which did not recur in 2024. But the precise motives of nonvoters are unknown; they do not show up in exit polls. Voter suppression—an endemic feature of American elections—differential voter mobility between election dates (poorer people and students move more), demographic turnover, and anger over specific issues all doubtless played a role. That said, polls do establish that a large majority of voters gave Bidenomics a low grade. A sense of failure weighs on Bernstein and his colleagues, despite their good intentions and best efforts. They were repudiated—so say the polls—and for the sake of future policy battles, it is worthwhile to try to understand why. It is no help to argue, as Paul Krugman did , that voters are not competent to judge their own interests and well-being. Krugman faults the voters, in effect, for failing to accept the superior wisdom of a columnist at The New York Times . But it is a precept of democracy (and of free market economics) that voters (and consumers) do know their interests. To refuse this precept is to deny the point of democracy, in which case there is no good reason to go on having elections. Or markets, either. If voters are unhappy with the good readings on standard indicators—unemployment, the monthly inflation rate, economic growth— it must be because those indicators no longer connect to their sense of well-being. I have written on this before. In particular, low unemployment rates may reflect widespread disaffection with bad jobs; a low inflation rate does not reverse past price increases; and the incomes from growth may flow to profits and capital gains. These indicators are not useless—if they were bad, the situation would be even worse—but a good showing on them is insufficient. What did happen under Biden was a decline in real incomes - in household purchasing power. Prices had risen sharply in 2021–22, and even though the inflation rate was transient—contrary to screams from economists—the change in price levels was not. Wages struggled to catch up. Many people living on savings and pensions never did. While the White House moved quickly to bring down gas prices with oil sales from the Strategic Reserve, it did little to stop firms from padding their margins . Profits surged, as did rents , land prices, and the stock market . The Biden economists had overlooked a fundamental fact, which is that the ultimate benefit of any “stimulative” policy flows to those with market power—to land and to capital—regardless of how it may be distributed at first. In his interview with The New York Times , Bernstein accepted Larry Summers’s critique that Biden’s early fiscal policy had been too loose, unleashing inflation. But that critique was wrong then and it’s still wrong. Summers’s argument rests on a notion of working households living hand-to-mouth who would presumably rush to the grocery (and to the bars) with any extra cash they might receive. American households no longer function that way. They have budgets, bills, bank accounts, and habits. They took Covid relief as the buffer it was meant to be, saved what they did not need at once, and drew down those savings over time. Increased consumption (and investment in durable goods, like new cars and houses, as well as stocks and land) was largely limited to wealthy households , who were not the main recipients of Covid aid. Such households had free cash because they couldn’t spend their existing incomes, as they normally would, on services. And they had the extra benefit, for a time, of ultra-low interest rates. Pressure from voices like Summers led to an early curtailment of direct Covid relief, which fell just as prices rose. It is a shocking fact that while during Covid child poverty rates and food insecurity declined , those rates returned to pre-Covid levels when the benefits ended. Should we really be surprised that the affected families, having briefly tasted a better life for their children, were unhappy? At the same time, jobs were beginning to come back—but what jobs? In economic mythology, American life centers on work—on character-building, strength-testing, skill-demanding engagement with the physical world, on the farm, the range, the factory, the construction site or the open road. But most jobs today aren’t like that; practically all new jobs in America for the past 60 years have been in services—in shops, offices, restaurants; in accounting, bookkeeping, maintenance, and other minor professions. Most such jobs are neither secure nor well-paid, and it often takes two or more to sustain a middle-class household. Costs of commuting and child care make many secondary jobs barely profitable to hold. Covid relief and enforced unemployment gave many Americans a break, which they used to reassess their relationship to work. Many decided not to return, which is why the jobless rate fell and remained low , even though the employment-to-population ratio never fully recovered. As the economy began to open up again, employers needed workers. Vacancies rose. What to do? The option of raising wages (and improving working conditions) is never attractive, since the gains must be given to all workers, not merely those newly hired or rehired. The alternative is to put a squeeze on those who have left the labor force until they feel the pinch and come back, hat in hand, seeking a job. And this could be done, with the complicity of the Biden team, by letting Covid benefits expire , and by hiking interest rates . Price increases, directly boosting profits , also added to the pressure on the not-employed. Is it a surprise that people do not like being pressured to take “ bullshit jobs ”? Meanwhile, Biden’s policies aimed at industry, infrastructure, and the environment came into play; so did the endless flow of weapons for Ukraine. Whatever the long-term merits (or demerits) of these programs, their political impact was next to nil. Infrastructure goes unnoticed except as an annoying obstacle to the daily commute. Energy (if it works) feeds into an existing grid and arrives invisibly. American chips and other artifacts of the great “war” with China evoke no pride among ordinary consumers of the smartphone. Why should they? The total growth of manufacturing jobs since 2020 has amounted, so far, to at most a few hundred thousand —scarcely a month’s normal growth of jobs in America. Construction jobs are up by about 800,000 —but many of those are filled by migrants. There is almost no visible positive effect on any part of American economic life, outside the market caps of a few companies—which, like all companies, are owned mainly by the rich. The final and fatal blow to Bidenomics was the support given by the White House to the Federal Reserve, once the central bank started raising interest rates in March, 2022. Early on, President Biden gave his blessing —“Fighting inflation is the Fed’s job”—while also ducking his own responsibility to act against surging prices. Interest rates proved irrelevant to the “inflation fight”—they failed to slow economic growth or goose unemployment—but they froze up the housing market , made life miserable for small business, and undercut the viability of long-term investments, including renewable energy projects. Meanwhile, vast sums flowed in payments to banks on their reserves and to the tiny minority with large holdings of Treasury bills. The Biden economists never challenged these arrangements. They hewed to the craven orthodoxy, dominant among Democrats since the time of Robert Rubin, that the Fed’s independence is sacrosanct . But the entire point of an “independent” central bank is to defeat any economic program that serves the people to the inconvenience of Big Finance. To be fair, since at least the 1990s all Democratic administrations have been paralyzed by the schizoid division of the party itself. Democrats have come to depend on funding from oligarchs—in banking, technology, entertainment, and other elite sectors. Votes, however, must still be gathered from low-income (and especially minority) communities, who form a large part of what is called the American “working class.” But except in extraordinary conditions this group gets little from the government (apart from pandering to identity ), and what it does get—for instance, the Earned Income Tax Credit —is often as invisible as possible, to minimize political opposition. The pandemic allowed a dramatic exception, briefly revealing how conditions could be transformed by a radical policy. But instead of capitalizing on this event, Biden’s team steered for a return to normal. Meanwhile, Biden pursued an aggressive campaign of confrontation and escalation in Ukraine and the Middle East, as well as the economic combat with China—unwinnable wars on three fronts. So while I do not think it fair to blame Bernstein and his colleagues for the Harris defeat, that most Americans do not think of the Biden years as an era of happy prosperity should be no surprise.
Romania’s far-right presidential candidate denounces cancelled vote at closed polling stationFox News senior strategic analyst Gen. Jack Keane (ret.) discusses Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons and the risk it poses. Iran has recruited young children to commit attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets across Europe, a new trend amid several blows to Iranian proxies in recent months and dwindling influence in the Middle East. The troubling pattern includes incidents in Sweden, Belgium and Norway as Tehran has expanded its proxy war against Israel into Europe. In Stockholm, a 15-year-old boy with a loaded gun took a taxi in May and asked to be taken to the Israeli Embassy. However, he had to call an associate for directions when he was unable to locate the building. Swedish police stopped the cab before it reached the destination. IRAN HIDING MISSILE, DRONE PROGRAMS UNDER GUISE OF COMMERCIAL FRONT TO EVADE SANCTIONS Police officers are seen outside the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm on Jan. 31, 2024, after a hand grenade was found nearby. (Getty Images) Authorities had been monitoring him for several months. A 13-year-old in Gothenburg was caught firing shots at Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems. At the same facility, a 16-year-old helped plant homemade explosives outside the main entrance, Bloomberg reported. In Brussels, security services found children as young as 14 orchestrating an attack on the Israeli Embassy. Fox News Digital has reached out to the Iranian Mission to the United States for comment. Recruiters acting on behalf of the Iranian regime have reached out to minors on platforms like Telegram, TikTok or WhatsApp, according to Peter Nesser, a terrorism researcher at a Norwegian defense research institute. The new tactic comes as Iran's influence has severely weakened in the Middle East amid Israel's deadly response to devastating attacks from Hamas and Hezbollah, both Iranian proxies. ISRAEL EYES IRAN NUKE SITES AMID REPORTS TRUMP MULLS MOVES TO BLOCK TEHRAN ATOMIC PROGRAM Swedish Minister of Justice Gunnar Strommer, second left, speaks during a joint statement with Norwegian Minister of Justice Emilie Enger Mehl, left, Denmark Minister of Justice Peter Hummelgaard, second right, and Faroe Islands Minister of Justice Bjarni Karason Petersen about the recruitment of children and young people via social media for organized crime. (Getty Images) In addition, the recent ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has compounded Iran's woes in the region. While some young people recruited by Iran are acting out of frustration at Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza , some are motivated by money. In Sweden and Norway, they can't be prosecuted if they are under 15, the report said. "There are cases where the proxies aren’t aware or don’t realize that they are acting on behalf of a foreign power," the Swedish Security Service said in a statement this year. The 16-year-old who attacked Elbit Systems used two thermos flasks packed with explosives in an attack on the Israeli defense company and was charged alongside a 23-year-old accomplice, according to Bloomberg. Police secure the area near the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm after an apparent shooting on Oct. 1, 2024. (Getty Images) CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Sweden has seen an increasing presence of organized criminal gangs recruiting minors from immigrant communities. More than 1.5 million people have moved to the country since 1980 and now around 20% of the population has been born outside the country, but many struggle to assimilate, the report said. Louis Casiano is a reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to louis.casiano@fox.com .
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NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump wants to turn the lights out on daylight saving time. In a post on his social media site Friday, Trump said his party would try to end the practice when he returns to office. "The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn't! Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation," he wrote. Setting clocks forward one hour in the spring and back an hour in the fall is intended to maximize daylight during summer months, but has long been subject to scrutiny. Daylight saving time was first adopted as a wartime measure in 1942. Lawmakers have occasionally proposed getting rid of the time change altogether. The most prominent recent attempt, a now-stalled bipartisan bill named the Sunshine Protection Act, had proposed making daylight saving time permanent. The measure was sponsored by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, whom Trump has tapped to helm the State Department. "Changing the clock twice a year is outdated and unnecessary," Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida said as the Senate voted in favor of the measure. Health experts have said that lawmakers have it backward and that standard time should be made permanent. Some health groups, including the American Medical Association and American Academy of Sleep Medicine, have said that it's time to do away with time switches and that sticking with standard time aligns better with the sun — and human biology. Most countries do not observe daylight saving time. For those that do, the date that clocks are changed varies, creating a complicated tapestry of changing time differences. Arizona and Hawaii don't change their clocks at all.Arctic Bay, Nunavut, expected to receive federal funding in 2025 to build small craft harbourAre you, like me, finding yourself less than two weeks out from Christmas and still desperately texting your friends in search of gifts that are really going to impress your loved ones? My 3.5- and almost-5-year-olds aren’t yet making their wishlists on PowerPoint yet (looking at you, tween parents), but they’ve scribbled down enough keywords (“unicorn,” “Rudolph” and “cat” among them) for me to recognize that the stakes are high this year. Plus, I have the adults in my life to think about. I’m looking for impressive skin care gifts for my mom, yet another pair of merino wool socks for my spouse, and maybe a thing or two for myself. If you’re also shopping for children and adults alike this season, check out the list I’ve come up with. I’ve tried extra-hard to make a list that feels as special as everyone you’re shopping for. HuffPost receives compensation from one or more retailers on this page, and HuffPost and its publishing partners may also receive a commission for purchases made via links. Every item is independently curated by the HuffPost Shopping team. Prices and availability are subject to change. There is nothing cuter than watching your no-longer-a-toddler-but-not-quite-big kid play charades for the first time. We got this card game as birthday gift when my younger daughter turned 3 over the summer and it's been a riot to play. There’s very little to the game (in a good way) — you just draw a card and enact what you see. All the cards have pictures so it’s easy to play even if your kids can’t read yet. I love this nail polish from Piggy Paint . The colors are so cute, it’s truly non-toxic — it doesn't smell at all! — and it makes a fabulous stocking stuffer. Though this mask by Azure contains real 24K gold, you luckily won't have to shell out much at all to buy it for the skin care fan on your list. The mask firms, lifts and revitalizes skin thanks to ingredients like the aforementioned gold, collagen, hyaluronic acid, aloe vera and more. The easy application using the tube and the fun, sparkly packaging are icing on the cake. This will be a perfect gift for my beauty-obsessed cousin. A fellow mom in one of HuffPost’s parenting Slack groups mentioned she'd be adding this NeeDoh cube to her daughters’ stockings. Suitable for kids ages three and up, the squeezable translucent object offers a satisfying resistance due to its unique shape. “I enjoy poking in the corners, pinching the edges sharper, poking in the flat sides, compressing in one direction and then the other, etc — it's just WAY more dynamic than a sphere,” wrote one reviewer . A cousin of those photo viewfinders that were popular when the millennial set was growing up, these customizable flashlights can project images onto any surface. The purchase comes with a variety of stock photos, and also includes a redemption code for customizing slides with your own images, which is truly the fun part. Another weird thing about flashlights? For kids at a certain age, they're the greatest novelty and an endless source of entertainment — and that’s without the neat-o projection capabilities. A hardbound planner or blank journal is one of my go-to gifts, and my go-to brand for said gift is almost always Papier . The brand has seemingly endless and really beautiful cover prints to choose from, and I usually end up getting these for extended family members or coworkers when I need a foolproof option. I love this spiral-bound weekly planner option with a bold floral print. The 11-by-9 book contains weekly and monthly pages, or even a calendar view so you can see the whole year at a glance. There are also lined pages for note-taking and a section for contact information. A friend pinged my mom group chat the other day and needed inspiration for a bigger-ticket item for her almost 4-year-old. I suggested a balance bike , which is definitely splurgier — but something like this option from Strider, that offers the option to add pedals later on, feels like a good investment that will grow with your child. The bike has 14-inch wheels and is intended for kids aged 3-6, with a weight limit of 80 pounds. The padded seat is adjustable for inseams between 16 and 23 inches to accommodate your growing kiddo. When your child is ready to ride on their own — maybe by next Christmas — you can buy a pedal conversion kit separately. Every time I try to get creative with gifts, the person I'm shopping for surprises me with a completely predictable request. Case in point: My spouse, who has asked for a pair of merino wool socks in a “solid, fun color.” It‘s actually been surprisingly difficult to find a pair with a significant blend of moisture-wicking merino wool and bright, solid colors. This option from Icebreaker is made with a 60% merino wool blend and comes in the egg-yolk yellow pictured here, an aqua hue and a cool sort of persimmon color. (The color options on Amazon are a little different, FYI.) We get a lot of mileage out of dress-up stuff, and it‘s something I definitely recommend as a gift — it’s screen-free, has a fair amount of longevity and is usually ready to be repurposed or handed down when your kids have outgrown it. Our dress-up bin is currently overflowing with princess stuff, so I have my eye on this disco-tinged dragon cape for something that’s a little less frilly or girly. The silky polyester cape is studded with gilded horns and spikes and even features cool reptilian eyes. FYI, Great Pretenders is one of our favorite resources for costumes — they have such a wide variety of “looks” ( firefighters , animals , etc) and I find the quality to be reliable and long-lasting. We also have their doctor set and green fairy costume and they get a ton of airtime. One gift that I'm eyeing for my entire household is this eternally viral vacuum-mop hybrid that promises to make short work on nearly every possible variety of household mess. Thanks to a built-in sensor, the machine will automatically adjust its suction, water flow and brush speed and tailor it to whatever debris it encounters. If you‘re even vaguely familiar with the toy landscape, you know that magnetic building toys abound and you may be constantly hearing about the popular Magna-Tiles or Picasso Tiles that are all over Amazon. These pliant construction pieces from Clixo offer similarly open-ended play potential but in a totally different medium. Each piece is made from an extremely sturdy proprietary plastic (that’s somehow also as flexible as paper) that interlocks with strong magnets, and a variety of piece shapes enable kids experiment with a variety of creations. I'd definitely recommend these if your recipient is experiencing tile fatigue. The image here is of a larger 40-piece “Creator Pack” set, but you can get these in smaller kits at stocking stuffer prices. (We have the 15-piece “Grab and Go” set and have gotten a ton of mileage out of it.) Flamingo Estate’s tomato-infused Roma fragrance collection has proven to be an unexpected viral favorite with HuffPost readers this holiday season. While the candle is certainly a surefire hit, I'm gravitating towards this unexpected perfume roll-on for my sister, who I'm always looking to gift with something extra-unique. The gently-spiced, herbaceous tomato scent is infused into a moisturizing safflower oil base for a luxurious beauty gift that anyone can take on the go. We try to keep it fairly crafty in my home, and this is the drawing paper that I buy in bulk for every day use. The 9-by-12 sheets are perforated and heavy-duty enough to withstand heaps of tempera paint (although we mostly stick with good, old-fashioned markers). While it's not the most exciting present by itself, I'd bundle it with some other art supplies to make for a comprehensive gift. This unexpectedly stylish men’s fleece jacket comes from the Amazon Essentials brand (and not a pricey retailer like Everlane, where we’ve spotted similar styles , or even Ralph Lauren ). It’s equipped with thoughtful details like a drawstring at the neck and handy thumbholes, and you can get in sizes XS-XXL and in four colors. I'll probably snag this for my constantly-outdoors brother who loves to go camping. I am including a second magnetic-building set for selfish reasons. A family gifted this Geomag building set to my kids while we were traveling over the summer — they loved it, of course, but over the course of the trip we lost a multitude of the pieces, so I've been looking to restock them. The kit we have features 25 pieces with magnets that are indeed extremely powerful. I like that they're made from recycled plastic and offer yet another building mode in the world of magnetic components. (PS: If you've read through both of these options and still just want Magna-Tiles, know that there is a really cool high-viz set for 20% off at Amazon right now. Did you know you can also get glow-in-the-dark ones ?) OK, before you call me out for spending close to $50 on 50 milliliters of product: I got a bigger size of this cleanser for my mom for Christmas last year, and she raved about how nice it was. She's extremely low-maintenance about her skin care routine, so hearing such positive feedback from her has committed me to making the luxury organic skin care brand Tata Harper a Christmas-gifting tradition. And like... what is the holiday season if not an opportunity to senselessly splurge on your loved ones and give them things they’d never buy for themselves? I'd rather spend this money on a small amount of something that she'll actually use than a piece of kitchen junk that’s just going to collect dust in the pantry. Anyway, thank you for coming to my TED talk and just buy this gorgeous regenerating cleanser that uses BHA and apricot microspheres along with clay and grapefruit to remove impurities from your skin. It’s best for combination or oily complexions, and the brand recommends applying it to dry skin for best results (and to save water). We’re unrepentant multiple-cup-a-day coffee drinkers in my household and mugs are a popular gift for people in my household. I've always liked the look of a glass mug, and these double-walled options from JoyJolt make for a stylish and affordable gift. Another screen-free gift with a longer shelf life? Puzzles! My kids get really into them and it’s important that the subject matter align with their interests (which, right now, is definitely princesses). Djeco makes a ton of really beautiful ones, and I love the enormous scale and unique shape of this castle-themed one . This is an easy, affordable stocking stuffer if you're stumped on a good gift. These handsome gloves are made from domestically sourced deerskin leather and lined with a fluffy PrimaLoft fabric for some seriously heavy-duty warmth. They're a worthwhile splurge for anyone who appreciates style and function. I have my eye on these for my spouse, who desperately needs a new, high-quality pair. If the previous option was a little beyond your budget, I also really like this eclectic fleece pair from outdoor brand Cotopaxi. These warm, screen-friendly gloves are made from the brand’s beloved recycled-polyester Teca fleece and feature grippy finger pads for added functionality. Bath bombs are extremely popular in our household, and are a very important item in my bedtime-routine toolbox in helping coax reluctant bathgoers into the tub. My kids consider them pretty novel even when they’re not embedded with surprises, so a set like this one that contains animal figurines and fact cards is just... wow. The set includes five bath bombs made from safe, natural ingredients like baking soda and epsom salts, and infused with avocado oil and ylang ylang. You can choose from themed assortments like safari, sea life and farm animals. I'm personally at the stage in my “Gabby’s Dollhouse” journey where my children ask to watch it at every possible opportunity, so to be able to present this actual Gabby’s dollhouse on Christmas morning would be the best thing I could possibly do as a parent at this point in time. This 25-inch tall, three-story dwelling includes six dedicated rooms for friends like Mercat and Cakey (who are sold separately) and comes with 14 accessories like furniture and an all-important Gabby figurine. It's pretty a-meow-zing. I am extraordinarily behind in hopping on the Gazelles bandwagon, but I swear it’s because I can't decide on a color. I see cool people wearing these all over the NYC subway in a host of bewitching colors — green, yellow, a nice clay-toned tan — and I am just stymied because I like them all. If you want to go down a similar rabbit hole, I welcome you to check out the 18 (!) options on the Adidas website. I think I've finally settled on these pretty blue ones with a classic white stripe to get for myself this year. With a suede upper, leather lining and translucent gum sole, these sneakers are an updated version of a design that Adidas first launched in 1979. It wouldn‘t be a gift guide from me without a recommendation from Super Smalls — the fashion editor-founded brand is responsible for some of the coolest kids' accessories out there. The growing product assortment is nearly impossible to choose from — especially now that it includes so many lifelike Disney goods, like the glow-in-the-dark Moana necklace pictured here — but I've tried to narrow down a few favorites. Shopping writer Haley Zovickian included these gorgeous handmade home goods in a recent roundup of unexpected gifts , and I might just have to get them for myself this holiday season. Zovickian wrote: “Inspired by traditional Armenian rug patterns, these beautiful rug coasters are a delightful way to protect your tables while beautifying them at the same time. Handwoven by artisans in Armenia but shipped out from Connecticut, the coasters are made with plant-based dyes to honor the richness of nature and sustainable design. You also can grab the blue Kaspian mug (pictured right) to complete your gift — each stoneware mug is handmade, hand-painted and naturally dishwasher-safe.” The retailer promises shipping lead times of up to five days, so order these now in order to get them in time for the holidays. This fast-paced, easy-playing card game is constantly recommended in gift guides, but I'm including it here just in case you’ve missed it up until now. Everything we read and hear about this game indicates that it's a pretty foolproof gift for a school-age kid, and a great price point if you're looking for a stocking stuffer. It involves quick reactions to the silly string of titular words, and special cards in the deck can redirect play in unpredictable ways. My daughter was recently gifted a chess set really similar to this one and she is weirdly obsessed with it! Now we just have to figure out how to actually play chess, but it seems like it could be a cool thing for us to learn as a family. This colorful set is made from FSC-certified wood and packaged with 75% recycled materials. You can stash your pieces in the thoughtfully designed included storage box, too. Look, is it a little weird to gift someone something for their toilet? Maybe, but anyone I've ever met who has used a bidet even once before is all too happy to talk about what a gamechanger it is, so do with that what you will. Luxe Bidet's NEO 120 , the brand's bestselling model, comes with all the tools your giftee will need to install it and has control knobs for the water pressure and different modes (including one that's self-cleaning). With 4.9 stars across more than 6,200 reviews, you kind of can't go wrong here (and hey, it's definitely something they'll use every day). Promising review: "I absolutely love it! I have gotten several of my friends this LUXE BIDET for birthday and Christmas gifts. I cannot be without it. I do not like to go to a bathroom that does not have one, Not only does it make you feel CLEAN it saves on TP. It is an PLUS to the bathroom." — Carolyn C. Check Out All Of Our Gift Guides Related From Our Partner
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