If you belong to my family, stop reading right now. I'm serious. Stop. It. Otherwise, spoilers ahead!

A few weeks back, I was in Target shopping for the Cat's class adopt-a-family. While I was purchasing gifts for the kids in our family, I also started throwing things in my cart for my own kids. Most of my shopping is done online because otherwise what happened that day will happen every day: I see something I know my kids will love, and in to the basket it goes! (And we go broke!)

Target's dollar aisle is pretty good for finding stocking stuffers: little slinkies (always a favorite!) tiny plush toys, stickers, magnets, those annoying little capsules that turn into foam creatures in water but somehow are incredibly entertaining to kids, and cool things like reindeer antlers.

Simple things like a deck of cards, (or Uno!) some dice, or some golf balls can provide endless hours of entertainment, yet cost very little. My kids are getting green (the Cat) and blue (Splig) racquetballs, plus Sponge-Bob golf balls.

I have a bazillion cousins with a million kids apiece, so this year I'm doing family gifts. Yes, some of you heard about how I had $200 worth of gourmet chocolate in my living room. While some thought this was rather disgusting, I assure you that s'mores kits are anything but disgusting. Paired with some of Rudoph's favorite hot chocolate* and some peppermint spoons, and you've got a pretty good collection for a cozy family night together.

But I wanted each kid to have a little sumthin'-sumthin' too, so was pleased to find mini venus flytrap kits from Solutions. Alas, I see they are sold out. (See another venus flytrap kit from EcoWise.) Probably it is my fault, because of the aforementioned bazillion cousins, thus, a bazillion gifts. (And yes, the Rudolph's hot chocolate appears to be suddenly-missing, too!) Sorry folks, seems my tastes were popular, eh? My cousins' kids will get the flytraps as little individual gifts. My kids will get them in their stockings.

Here are a couple other things from Solutions that aren't sold out: Micro-Eggs are fun: hard-boil an egg in your microwave in 45 seconds. While I've shown I know how to hard-boil an egg pretty well the conventional way, the quick way works nicely with my schedule. And then for the Cat's monkey-loving teacher, we bought a monkey bread mold. (I added some monkey bread mixes from Lollipop Tree, a great resource for organic, all-natural food products.

OK, so the mold and bread mixes aren't stocking stuffers -- I'll get back on track. In fact, why not get a set of bamboo kids' utensils from Branch? While "eating utensils" isn't the first thing folks think of when they hear "stocking stuffer," these are fun, and kids love things all their own, sized to fit.

You can't go wrong with Hot Wheels cars: simple, inexpensive, and universally-loved. My kids would probably like some Littlest Pet Shop Pets, too. (Sure, they are boys, but they love them all the same.)

Earlier this year, Crayola sent me a basket of products. Of course, with all the back-to-school craziness, I didn't have a chance to really mention their generosity until now. Along with my favorite 64-crayon box, they also sent Mix-Ems markers and Paint Brush Pens.

The Mix-Ems are pretty cool: The child decides how much to "mix" (how long to press) to create a dual-colored line of marker. Kids attempt this on their own using regular markers, but end up with messy results. Conversely, the Mix-Ems provide a clean line. If the pen is "mixed" briefly, the main color has just a small line of the secondary color. If the pen is mixed longer, the width of the secondary color is greater. A see-through "mixing chamber" shows the action as the secondary color is pressed against the marker-tip of the primary marker.

I am a big fan of the Paint Brush Pens. Splig is four and would love to play with paint all the time, but we all know the sum of the equation kids + paint. Thankfully, "mess" is not part of the Paint Brush Pens' equation. These brushes have the paint already inside: no glopping, dropping, and mopping involved. Splig loves his new pens and has created many masterpieces with them on paper, not on the carpet.

Both the Mix-Ems and Paint Brush Pens would make fun stocking stuffers or as part of an art gift basket. And both are washable. Yes, they will come out of your kids' clothing. Crayons themselves are also fun as stocking-stuffers. Some of those themed crayon packs from other crayon companies may look cute, but the quality is horrific. So no, I didn't get little holiday-themed crayon packs at the aforementioned Target $1 aisle because I knew the quality couldn't compare to Crayola.

Consider sticking a whole slew of Crayola crayons in a little pail - that fits into a stocking nicely! (We used these buckets as favors for the Cat's second birthday, so long ago.)

Good luck as you find your own little trinkets to fill up those stockings!
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* Point of Information: Chasing Fireflies' URL is www.chasing-fireflies.com. If you forget the hyphen, you'll find yourself in nudie territory... which is not indicative of a festive, kid-friendly site, yes? We got some fabulous personalized sleepwear for our kids at Chasing Fireflies - the kid version.