Christmas Shopping Begins!

I went and did the "expensive" portion of my shopping for the kids Christmas gifts this year. Expensive being a relative term compared to say...last year?

I decided that this year, gifts would be limited and that I would try to keep from spending more than $100 per kid. I'm going to end up a bit over for each, but I did very well limiting what I would get them to a select number of gifts.

Each one of them gets one "toy" type gift, one Wii game, one/two pairs of jeans, a package of socks, a package of underwear and then a stocking and two Christmas firecrackers (I'll have to post pictures when I get them made!). I figure since they'll also get gifts from other people, there is no need to go overboard with a lot of toys they won't wind up playing with very often.

I had a very hard time with Caleb's "toy" gift this year. He doesn't play a lot with toys. He likes to play pretend here and there with a select few, or he plays video games or he likes cartoons and that's just him. I'm hoping that what I did find for him will not disappoint and will instead provide some more imaginative play and at the same time teach him some responsibility for when he finally is old enough to have his own cell phone. I guess we'll see!

Lorelei, on the other hand, was very easy to shop for! I already know she'll be excited by her gifts and I can't wait to watch her open them on Christmas morning.

Our Christmas in Pictures

Puppy: Day Two

Max is still sweet and scrumptious and all that you could want in a lap dog. He'll cuddle up next to anyone sitting. He and Caleb had some major cuddle time after school.

Last night, I let him sleep in bed with me. Not a single accident. Much like having a newborn though, he was up a couple of times licking my face or nibbling at my ear to get attention. I'm almost certain I mumbled incoherently, "Lay down Max.", about a hundred times. As soon as my alarm went off this morning he was at it again.

Duke has decided to get a bit feisty. He's been attempting to hide "his" bones in the tree skirt and in the crevices of the couch. Neither are excellent hiding spaces, but of course, Duke is new at hiding his possessions. Before we brought this new thing into our house he could leave his toys where he wanted. Darn rents!

We still haven't had a single potty accident. Leash walking is getting better. And he's starting to recognize a bit that he, is in fact, Max.
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The kids are getting very excited about having a nice long Christmas break. Friday is their last day at school until about January 5th! Hard to believe. It always seemed Christmas break was so much shorter when I was a kid.

We bought them each a small desk today at Ikea. The price was right! We chose not to install the keyboard tray simply because they don't have keyboards and we wanted the design to be as simple as possible. Caleb tried his out tonight while doing homework. After George put Lorelei's together (not inside-out as I did to Caleb's) she sat down and did some coloring while Caleb finished up his shower. Oh, and we got chairs that are either very similar, or the same, as this one here. Thankfully -- those were already together when we bought them.
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That's it for tonight. I'm either off to wrap some more Christmas presents, clean the kitchen, or sit on my butt and watch George play Call of Duty. If he was feeling better I'd challenge him a round or two of bowling. But, headache, so no go.

Playland 2 Kids 0

This evening the school put on a Secret Santa Shop. They've actually had it two other school days this week, but this one was in the evening so that parents could bring their kids in instead of sending money to school. So, we took Caleb and Lorelei so they could each pick out presents for mom and dad. Which was a tad difficult since we were all in the same room and neither of the kids is good at keeping a secret.

After we were done, the car sort of had a mind of it's own and we ended up taking a sort of aimless drive even though we hadn't had dinner yet. As we were meandering to nowhere I spotted a burger king with a playland. BINGO!

Took the kids in and let them play for a good 45 minutes while we ate. Caleb, for whatever reason, was NOT hungry tonight. Lorelei on the other hand ate really good. Perhaps it's her turn for a growth spurt? While the kids played George and I decided we'd take a drive around afterwards in some of the fancy neighborhoods and look at Christmas lights.

After a bit of a detour down the wrong set of streets to get somewhere residential we found a nice big subdivision with lots of houses in the holiday spirit. The kids enjoyed it for about 15 minutes and then it was pretty much, "can we go home now?".

On our way home -- they both fell asleep.

Playland 2 Kids 0

Happy Birthday Mommy

What my children gave me as gifts for my birthday:

1. They helped George bake and decorate a cake for me.
2. They were mostly well-behaved for our dinner out at TGIFriday's.
3. They told me they loved me a bazillion times today.
4. They all let me beat them at Wii Bowling.
5. They went to bed nicely.

Ah, the best gifts aren't always the ones bought in a store!