Ssshhhhh!!!

Can you keep a secret??  I'm going to give you a sneak peak under the comforter in the back of my closet and let you see what some of our Christmas presents will be!  Good thing my kids don't know how to work  the internet quite yet... :)

For several years we have been buying three gifts per child.  I have found having a number of gifts per child rather than dollar amount allows me to manipulate my overall budget more flexibly.  Besides ... kids get the fairness of each having three gifts far better than they grasp the concept of the dollar sign!  This year, however, I realized that would be FIFTEEN new toys coming into our home just from our own gift-giving.  That doesn't even count all of the extended family!!  We finally have the house and toys simplified where it is manageable; there was no way I was going back to that kind of mayhem!

Thus, the new Christmas gift guidelines:

Everybody shall receive
One simple thing they need,
Some lovely things to read,
and one thing just to please.

(Kinda catchy, huh?? I just wrote that here, on the spot ... which means I need a life!)


In other words, no book limit ... but only one thing "to please" (which, for kids in my children's age range, would usually be a toy) and one thing they need (this year I got a great deal on Crocs from Zulily ... so we all got Crocs as our "one thing" we need!).

A summary of our gift list would look like this:
toys
Crocs
toys
Crocs
blah, blahbity, blah...
....BOOKS!!!

The awesome thing is, my kids are more excited about some of the books they asked for than they are the toys!  Mwaaahhhahaaha ... I have created MONSTERS! ;)

Some of the new books that will be coming to live in our home are:
The ENTIRE Billy and Blaze series!  (half are for Corbin's birthday, which is in December)
Mr. Popper's Penguins
Little House on the Prairie
The Borrowers
The Little Engine that Could
The Mission of Motherhood
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Family Man, Family Leader
The Phantom Tollbooth (I might wrap this one for myself instead of one of the kids ... I love that book so much!)
Harold and the Purple Crayon


I still have a few more to get ... but I am having a hard time deciding between all of the wonderful living books out there!  If you have any suggestions, make them quick ... because I am serious about being 100% done with Christmas shopping before Dec. 1st this year!!