Christmas Loot

Okay, I'm officially one of "those parents" who buy way too many toys for their kids.  We didn't get Sam anything extravagant, but she got so many different things for Christmas, even after we had to postpone the ant farm due to the mail-order ants being DOA.  We don't have a lot of relatives, so there were only gifts from five people/couples besides Santa and Mommy and Daddy.  But all of those people went as hog-wild as we did, especially Aunt B., who is responsible for almost all of the musical gifts.

The rest of this post is mostly for the relatives to enjoy, but if you're going to watch any of the videos, try the last one with the race track, because there's nothing cuter than a 4-year-old girl saying "munch out" over and over.

Here is the tree right after Santa left.  (Toby gets tired just watching all of that hard work!)



Sam opened every single present on Christmas Day, unlike last year.  She did take eight hours to do it, with a break for a bath, and that ended up creating a wonderful, relaxing day for all of us.  Although what's up with the high quality wrapping paper that is impossible to rip?  We couldn't understand why Sam kept asking for help opening the gifts until we tried it for ourselves.  Here she is needing some help:



I didn't have Christmas-present-unwrapping-angst at all like I did last year, either.  Sitting next to Sam and immediately making separate piles for trash, toys, and owners manuals solved that problem.

Here is what Sam got for Christmas:

Music

• A tambourine


• A chimalong (which is like a little xylophone, with real metal tubes)


• Finger cymbals


• A real, working miniature accordion

• A real ukulele

• Two sets of jingle bells


• A harmonica


• A drum


• A "cat and canary" whistle (which was a huge hit)


• An awesome set of bells

• A foam, step-on piano mat (kind of like from the movie Big)

Books and Crafts

• Books:  Can You Hear It? (A book with music CD), The Secret Garden (audiobook), My Oh My A Butterfly, Olivia Goes to Venice, Angelina Ballerina, Lily's Purple Plastic Purse, Mariette on the High Wire

• Two workbooks (tracing and numbers)


• New York City calendar


• Disney Princess coloring book/calendar

Stocking Stuffers

• Blob gel (you know, just some slimy stuff in a jar)


• Pinwheel pen


• Bubble bath


• Lip gloss


• An indescribable little monster thing that you squeeze and its eyes bug out


• Silly bandz


• Kaleidoscope


• Instant snow in a can


• One of those plastic wiggly things with all the spikes sticking out of it - if you're a parent, you know what I'm talking about.  Sam has wanted one of these things for ages. Here she is dancing with it:

Clothing

• A few outfits


• Barrettes


• 3 pairs of socks


• A scarf (her first one)


• An adorable hat

Other

• A small, real pot (which I just pulled out of my kitchen cabinet and wrapped up) because "I want to cook with mommy"


• A set of wooden magnetic dress up dolls


• Mr. Potato Head


• Popsicle molds (a particular type that she wanted)


• Foam puzzle of the world


• 3 Christmas ornaments


• A butterfly garden (the kind where you grow real butterflies)


• Magic wand


• A wooden frog that you put together


• A chia-pet type thing


• A penguin that poops out candy (another hit!)


• Princess note cards


• A racetrack set (this was the "big" present from Santa)

All that stuff seems crazy!  Did we all get this much stuff for Christmas when we were children?  Well, Adam didn't.  He was raised in a Jewish household.  He's a kid at heart, and since he never had Christmas before, I think he's enjoying it more than any of us.  But we've all been having a blast for the past few days, just playing with toys, including my iPad from Adam.  Yay for Christmas!