Another one of our Christmas traditions is opening one stocking gift per day leading up to Christmas. This year, the kids' stockings had five gifts each, so we started opening one gift each day beginning on Tuesday. We skipped Christmas Eve since we opened our family gifts that day, and saved the last gift for Christmas morning instead.
I love shopping for stocking stuffers. I don't buy anything big or expensive -- just little trinkets that make me think of the kids. These are usually the gifts I have purchased way ahead of time. I just pick them up throughout the year when I see something that I think they will like.
I always try to get a picture of the kids together with their stockings before we open the first gifts. This year, I wasn't lucky (or skilled) enough to get a great smiling photo of them both, but I thought these were still sweet.
The first gift Rowan chose to open was this princess sticker book. She loves anything purple, pink, or sparkly, and she looooves stickers.
Trey's first gift was a Mater pez dispenser. He was always commenting about pez dispensers when we saw them in the store, so I knew that this would be a winner with him!
Night #2 brought legos for Trey (The small ones! He'd never had those before.) and a monkey notepad for Rowan.
It was way past bedtime, but he wanted to try making the loader right away! Those little legos are definitely good for building fine-motor skills!
Hee hee. Notice his pj pants here? He put them on and I checked the size - 3T! He is almost five! No wonder they were a tad too short. :) One of our Christmas Break projects was sorting through his drawers and getting rid of his too-small clothes. These rocket ship pants found their way into a storage bin!
Rowan (and sometimes Trey too) loves to play "Blues Clues" on her own. She'll walk around the house looking for imaginary clues and drawing in a little notebook. I knew that this sweet little monkey would be perfect for her to draw all of her clues in.
Night #3 we actually let the kids open two gifts since we had missed a night due to our extended Sloothaak family party. I love the pictures I got of Trey and Rowan watching each other open their gifts because that is how they were all Christmas....always watching with excitement and anticipation as the other one opened their gifts.
Rowan opened this adorable flower hair clip.
And Trey got a Michigan football ornament for the small tree in his bedroom.
Rowan also opened sour patch kids -- this girl has SUCH a sweet tooth!!!
And Trey got some design-your-own-car stickers.
And one last gift for Christmas morning. Rowan got some cute beaded bracelets. She loves jewelry and accessorizing!
(Is it just me, or does she look WAY too old in this photo???)
Not sure why these photos are dark on one side, but Trey got two packs of football cards. John got him all set up with a binder and pages to keep his cards in, so this gift kept both of them busy for quite a long time!
I love how these inexpensive gifts can make the kids just as excited as anything big that they receive. Yet another great thing about the kids being the ages they are this year!
3 comments:
Rowan does look old in that pic!! Btw- from past experiences...you probably have part of your hand in front of flash on the pics that are dark on one side:) Like I said, I have done it too:)
I totally agree...Rowie looks way too old in that photo! But my goodness is she gorgeous! Love your stocking tradition too! I think I need to scale back what I put in their stockings too! I fill them to the brim, but then they get a stocking from both sets of Grandparents too! It's a lot of stuff...x3! I don't wrap anything inside. But it might be fun to just do a few things like you did and wrap them. We scaled back on gifts this year, but next year it will be stockings too! They are so excited and appreciative of everything, but it's just not necessary! O.k. now I'm having a whole conversation with you in this comment box! Ha! Think we need a Skype date?! For sure! Love and miss you too much!
Hasn't this time been the best?! The kiddos are looking so big and so fun! I have yet to post anything yet and I see all of yours and it makes me ansy to get going on them...by this Monday for sure(as I type this on my bike I should be more productive instead of looking at others--ha!) Enjoy your last few days!!
Post a Comment