We opened the "three under the tree" (if three gifts were good enough for Baby Jesus, then it's good enough for us) and two of Sydney's three were her own DS and games to go with it. She was very excited to have a Princess Peach DS and couldn't care less that it was Jeremy's old DS with fancy new stickers.
Her other wrapped gift was an automoblox, which is a wooden car that can come apart into pieces and then the pieces can be changed out with other automoblox.
Later on in the morning, we opened the stockings and Sydney got her first Barbie, the one from Toy Story 3. I had been anti-Barbie for all of the reasons that post-modern women are, but was afraid that a flat veto would draw more attention to the "coolness" of Barbie than giving in and letting her have one -- especially one that was a character (with personality and not just boobs) in her favorite movie.
But of course, a lot of time was spent with the "big present."
Yes, yes, I know. Sydney's big present was the dollhouse. This is Jack's big present she's playing with, the tool bench. But she loves it. And he doesn't mind. So Merry Christmas!In fact, a lot of their gifts were shared this morning, mostly without fuss. Aunt Rachel sent some cool animals to Sydney and Jack loved them. The pop-people that Aunt Dani got are still being played with by both kids. And they both loved Jack's new tea set and had a Christmas tea party.
Was it the Christmas morning I had expected? Did Sydney love her new dollhouse? No, not really. But we had a lovely morning with all of our gifts and Sydney did like most of her presents and will probably play with the dollhouse someday. And if she doesn't, I know a little boy who thinks that dollhouse was the coolest thing ever.
The whole three gifts idea sounds enchanting, but it wouldn't work for us right now. We may get to the point in a few years where the twelve days each have their own activity instead of gift, but for now it's twelve presents per child. I like how you set your limit, though. That's pretty cool.
ReplyDeleteI had to have SOME way to set a limit. Even as it was, I was contemplating adding a couple of "little" things to her stocking as of Dec. 23rd in response to how much Syd liked the Strawberry Shortcake toys she got and a new fascination with Batman but Jeremy held me back. The other thing we do, since Sydney is older, is that all of those other things I want her to have and want to buy for her, I buy, put in the china cabinet and she shops the china cabinet after earning 8 stickers on a reward chart. That's how she'll get more Strawberry Shortcakes and her Batman in January or February (or not at all if she changes her interest level and then we'll have new toys to give to Blue Santa next year). So really, it works out either way.
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