Thanks for all the nice words about our advent calendar. The boys love the calendar and we are enjoying our daily activities together. During the holiday season I've noticed how I struggle with trying to make things that are my style, but also not too non-traditional. Although I was born in the U.S., my parents were both immigrants and American holidays were not celebrated in the traditional manner in our home. So, now that I'm a parent I have to make a conscious decision to incorporate traditions that feel significant to us as a family. I definitely don't want to do things just because everyone else seems to be doing them. I also don't want the boys to equate Christmas with receiving tons of gifts, since that is not the meaning of the season for our family. How I see it gift giving is just an added perk of the holiday season.
Speaking of gift giving I have to make the final push this week/end. Gifts for teachers, classmates and extended family are my first priority. I already plan to make some last-minute gifts for the boys and my family [they are arriving a few days after Christmas]. I tend to shy away from buying toys for the boys since they usually receive toys from their grandparents and relatives for Christmas and birthdays. But I've been wanting to buy them a dollhouse for awhile and finally stopped by Grasshopper and found a great one [chalet dollhouse] for a reasonable price. I liked the fact that the dollhouse is actually two separate dollhouses and you can configure it in different ways. It was also important to me that the boys could play on different sides of the house rather than just from one side and this is possible since there are not any true walls on the dollhouse. I didn't buy any furniture or dolls for them because I figure their dinosaurs and cars will probably spend a lot of time in there. I was initially excited to see they sell an Asian family doll set, until I saw them up close and thought they looked a bit cheesy. C'mon, what is up with their matching bowl-cuts? Anyways, the dollhouse is their main gift and I'm beginning to like the idea of buying one pricier gift for Christmas that they can share. I also bought them some books [my favorite gifts to give to them], but I'm thinking it would be fun to get them an old typewriter to play around with. I saw Elly's photograph and immediately hopped on over to Craigstlist to track down a used typewriter. They are both obsessed with the alphabet and phonics at the moment and a typewriter seems like the perfect "toy" to encourage their learning. I need to do some more research though because I don't want to end up with a typewriter that I can't find ribbons/parts for anymore.
I hope your holiday preparations are coming along nicely. Big J helped me put up some more decorations this morning [man, this boy LOVES decorations] and I'm working on some simple wool stockings and a tree skirt. And then on to the Christmas present making and buying [hopefully more making than buying, but hey, it is already December 13 so I'm trying to be realistic].