Wish List

People often ask what we want or need from America. Since I can usually never think of things on the spur of the moment, I thought I would keep a list on our blog of things that are either difficult to find or outrageously expensive here. These are great ideas for care packages, or fun extras if you are coming to visit and have room to spare in your luggage!

Our favorite candy / snacks / cereals:
  • Rusty - Reeses Pieces, natural black licorice,Wheat Thins (sun-dried tomato flavor), Golden Grahams, Cocoa Pebbles
  • Laura - Mounds or Almond Joy, Triscuits, Cheez-its, Frosted Mini-Wheats, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, microwave Kettle corn
  • Kids - Fruit Snacks (we like the Welch's brand), Goldfish, Teddy Grahams, fruit roll-ups, Lucky Charms, Captain Crunch
* The big Malt-o-Meal bags of cereal are great for filling up space in a suitcase!

Our Amazon.com wish lists:
Other ideas:
  • Dr. Pepper!!!
  • Onion soup mix
  • Ranch dressing packets
  • Taco seasoning
  • Starbucks coffee (Rusty's favorite flavor is Casi Cielo, but we like pretty much everything!)
  • Coffee syrups for flavoring lattes, especially flavors like pumpkin spice and gingerbread that are difficult to find here.
  • Boxes of Japanese curry -- You can buy these at most major grocery stores, including Kroger and Walmart, in the international aisle. Click here to see an example. This is the Golden Curry brand; another brand is Vermont Curry.
  • Instant pudding mix -- butterscotch, vanilla, chocolate flavors
  • Cans of cherry or blueberry pie filling
  • Instant oatmeal packets
  • Pop-tarts
  • Children's gummy vitamins -- generic brands are fine! We like to buy the big jars at Costco.
  • Holiday or seasonal items (i.e. candycorn, scented holiday candles, Easter egg decorating kits, candy sprinkles for cookie cutouts, canned pumpkin, cranberry sauce, etc.)
  • Baking chips -- semi-sweet chocolate chips preferred, but we love white chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips and "candy bits" (like Heath bits and Andes mints chips) also!
  • Velveeta cheese and cans of Rotel
  • the little 4-oz. cans of diced green chili peppers
  • Summer sausage
  • Peanut Butter (generic brands are fine, smooth or crunchy)
  • Sunscreen (kid-friendly, at least SPF 50) -- needed to protect from the equatorial sun!
  • Individual packets of Gatorade, Propel, or Emergen-C
  • Dryer sheets, like Bounce or similar
  • Magazines -- Laura likes Real Simple and Simple Scrapbooks, but any home-decorating or children's magazines are appreciated. We use them for all kinds of craft projects!
  • Stickers for the boys -- seasonal ones are great!
Eventually, I plan to add a homeschooling wish list. In the meantime, contact us for more ideas.