Second Christmas

The kids usually get gift cards for Christmas to Borders and ToysRUs which is fun because they get a second Christmas, but get to do the shopping on their own.

In some ways I think it should actually be referred to as a 3rd Christmas because our first one is when Dan comes home from work the day before Christmas vacation. He brings home bags and bags of goodies that he receives as gifts from parents and teachers and students. They are so generous and it is great fun going through everything. The sweets, oh the sweets. They hang on my hips and I type this, but they are just so yummy!

I digress ...

So, we took the kids out to use their gift cards the other night. Elijah got a cute little train set and Madelyn got a digital camera from TRU. At Borders Madelyn got a few books and Elijah got a whole ton of books. He loves interactive books and at Borders they have that whole section of marked down books which are perfect for what he is interested in. We got Bible Story books with flaps that he can lift, a book where each page is a puzzle and they are all emergency type vehicles (he loves puzzles right now), a Noah's Ark book where you can actually make an ark and play with it, a numbers book that comes with a magna-doodle (perfect), a pop-up book about the insides of our bodies (more on that later), an alphabet book with flash cards (of course, he loves the alphabet), and that might be it. So, all in all a good night for all.

I actually set some of the books for Elijah aside because it will be fun to pull them out later. And, I must say I did pretty well with not trying to steer the kids in the direction of things that I wanted them to buy. If I had my way, .we would have bought the Old Yeller book. I think the book would be better to read than to watch the movie again. Oh, to see that boys face at the end when he has to shoot Old Yeller! Oh, it's awful. I have such a love-hate relationship with that movie.

Okay, anyway, back to the body parts book. Elijah loves it. It actually has an ooey-gooey feeling heart on the front of the book that feels very real so you can see why a boy would be drawn to it. We are flipping through the pages discussing bones, joints, our lungs, and then we get to the stomach and intestines page. Well, I didn't think we were ever going to get past it. Elijah was enthralled. It shows how your stomach processes your food and it travels through your intestines and of course then you poo it out. Fascinating! All of a sudden Elijah thinks he has to go potty and insists I come and watch so I can see how it all works. As much as I hemmed and hawed he wouldn't take no for an answer.

Thankfully, much to his disappointment, he didn't have to poo. I assured him he would be able to the next day. And, don't you know, the next morning first thing, I wake up to him saying, "Mommy, I am going to show you your body parts." Oh goody. At least he wasn't ready to poo.