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This is my favorite thread. I love this idea.

Okay this is just too weird. A relative gave my kids packs of mechanical pencils for Christmas and they were so excited about them and I was thinking "Huh?"

LOL, DS5 got some mechanical pencils and graph paper notebooks for Christmas. He LOVES them. He was so excited to see that graph paper existed because he kept drawing his own so that he could do different projects with it. When he found out he could have a whole book of graph paper, he realized that the possibilities are endless.

Oh, and another interest (although I won't say obsession really) is dice. DS5 loves dice. We went and got him dice that has all different numbers on them (like ones by 20's, and different shapes, etc.) He thinks they are the coolest things. He makes up his own games with them.

Our DD also. Her daddy is a gamer, so she's been interested in them forever. She especially likes dice of unexpected size. She has some that are very tiny and one inflatable die that is huge. :-)

I had a similar thing with playing cards as a teen. I liked huge playing cards, tiny ones, round ones, etc. I still have most of the decks.

A gift certificate to any office supply store would very likely send my DD15 over the edge! She LOVES all things stationary related!

I don't have an obsession for pencils - I actual HATE pencils. Someone mentioned fingernails on the chalkboard - that's how I feel when I write with a pencil. I really NEED my pens. And I have a couple of really nice quad-point pens that I guard - they are awesome.

When reading some of your posts about how the right pencil feels and how it's like a nice bath, it gave me the willie's. Yuck! I hate all lead. Now a fine point pen with blue, red, and black... that's heaven.

DD9 does prefer mechanical pencils over regular ones, but I don't think she's obsessed.

What a fun thread idea though.

Oh, this is great. My husband is the one with the stationary fix. He loves a nice pen & pencil set. He doesn't have to have mechanical or wooden, but he loves the smooth, clean line. Same with pens - a smooth line, good weight, clean, fine line - definitely gift material in my house. Very personal items for him.

But the real obsession for my guys (DH & DS6), is anything miniature. It doesn't matter what it is, but the smaller & more detailed the better. We have considered setting up a miniature Christmas tree just because of this. DS is the same with this stuff. Anything mini and his whole demeanor changes while he tells you how tiny & cute it is.

When DS was four, he dropped a teeny tiny die (1/8 in square) down the sink drank. He was DEVASTATED. OMG he cried all day and pouted for a week. It wasn't till DH finally found a replacement that he finally got over it.

For my DS4 it was church bells. Mostly via youTube (a fairly safe line of inquiry on there). He would look them up, all his toys were bells, pretend or otherwise and could tell you the notes of any bell he heard.

I've never thought about getting DD7 mechanical pencils, but maybe I should, I've always wondered why she has to have 30 + perfectly sharpened pencils in a plastic bag in her backback, just in case she needs them.