Ohmigoodness. It truly was a wonderful Christmas. The kids were so, so excited…. the countdown to Jesus’ birthday had begun at least 10 days before.
As is our tradition, we took turns opening gifts, one at a time, youngest to oldest. And I thought I’d share a few pictures, as well as the favorites (and a few failures) of Christmas 2012.
Fave :: Pink Ladybug Pillow Pal.
Second fave :: Wedgits. Turns out, all the kids love these — I see more of them in our future for sure.
Fail :: Penguin Pluffie. She loved it online but in person… not so much. Thankfully, there are many arms around here more than happy to snuggle it at night.
Fave :: Giraffe Pluffie (aka Tiptop).
Fail :: Dress-up shoes. Actually, she loves these. But since she’s already broken 2 of the 6 pairs, I’d call that a fail.
Fave :: Scribbles – a “really giant coloring book”. I bought several of these for different ages, and seriously, I wish they made these for adults. They are big, fun and entirely original.
Fail :: Bunny Stompeez. To be honest, I really dislike this kind of as-seen-on-TV-poor-quality-crazy-expensive stuff. But sometimes kids just want something so badly, you indulge them, despite your better judgement. She tried them on once and hasn’t touched them since. Lesson learned — I should have resisted.
Fave :: Nerf Ninja Swords. Shepherd has not put these down since he pulled them out of the package three days ago.
Second fave :: Magnatiles. We already have a bunch of these, and we love them so much we bought more. Lots more.
Fave :: Nerf Gun.
Fail :: YoYo. This year I decided to skip the cheap-o route and bought a real yoyo. Evidently Jude just wanted the cheap-o. I think eventually he’ll use it, since it is really nice. But he just isn’t interested in working hard enough to figure it out yet.
Fave :: Clarice from Build-A-Bear.
Second fave :: Crocs. Isabelle is picky about shoes and she loves these.
Fail :: Remote Control Helicopter. Isabelle loves to ask for atypical gifts. And frequently, these requests involve a remote control, which I generally try to dissuade because they just don’t work. But this year she was sooo insistent. Unfortunately, this helicopter was not an exception. It came out of the package broken and essentially proved my point. Forever.
Fave :: Giraffe Dream Lite.
Second Fave :: Spot It. This is a fun family game… six of my kids sat at the kitchen table today and played happily for hours this morning. Enough said.
My personal favorite :: Fairy wings from Crazy 8. Got ’em with the costume to match at Halloween. On sale – the outfit with wings was less than $15. Love.
Fave :: Cash. Money.
Second fave :: Nerf gun.
Fave :: Ambient radio.
Second Fave :: Cash. Money.
Fave :: Cash. Money. I’m seeing a trend here.
Second fave :: Movies.
Fave :: Drawing Tablet for graphic design stuff.
Second fave :: Hollister sweats. Crazy soft.
Fave :: ONA camera bag. Yes, just like the one we gave away for Fill Their Stockings. My super-smart husband took notes. And y’all, I finally have a camera bag. After all these years, I can hardly believe my camera has it’s own home. Sniff.
Second fave :: Vera Bradley Hipster bag from my kids. Two big surprises this year, especially since I didn’t even make out a Christmas list. Well done, family. Well done.
Fave :: Chaos Beanie. My man loves a toasty noggin.
Second fave :: Bug-A-Salt – a plastic, pump-action shotgun that kills houseflies with plain ol’ table salt. What’s not to love.
And that pretty much sums it up.
Like I said, it was a really good Christmas.
P.S. None of the links above are affiliate links. Just regular links.
Merry Christmas girl. LOVE this family of yours 🙂
Heehee I had to laugh Brahm also begged for the stupid stompeez but due to his dwarfism he just doesn’t weigh enough to open the dragons mouth ugh!
Oh my goodness! What fun!!! My dad (aka Papa) got Milo a pair of those stupid Stompeez. I hate them. I vowed not to get them when Xandra begged for them. And, I was proven right (just like you). I actually just didn’t like them because they looked cheaply made to me. But after watching Milo try them on (just once, mind you), I realized they’re kind of dangerous. They’re so “cushy”-tall that one slight slip of the heel, and you easily lose your balance & fall. They’ll be disappearing. Amazingly, one of our favorite gifts was a free-hand-me-down (just my style! & budget!) – a race track for those shake-up-to-go cars. My 2 kiddos have played with that every single day since they got it!
We LOVE spot it too!
So glad you had a wonderful birthday celebration!
nancy
it is fun reading what your kiddos love/don’t. i had to laugh about the stompeez. ours were a fail too – because they didn’t work! we exchanged them and now they are on the tip top of tia’s faves 🙂 !
merry christmas (belated i guess 🙂
xo ellie
I love your family! How you get the pictures you do, well, I am trying to take notes. 🙂 Thank you for sharing your joys and blessings with us! I am excited to check out some of your kids favorites for this year. Big Blessings!
My father-in-law got a bug a salt for Christmas, too. He loves it! He was disappointed there are not flies here in Montana in the winter 🙂
LOVE this! We have the same Santa Wrapping Paper you have, too (Target!) 🙂 I love the butterfly wings- there are a staple here in my house, too! 🙂
Love your blog! Our dd is from Hubei and just wondering where Lula was from. She, like all of your children, is adorable.
Yep! Lula is from Wuhan, Hubei 🙂
Awww! Wuhan, Of course we were there but our dd is from Da Ye.
I love this post!! Every pic is beautiful!! Looks like everyone had an amazing day!!! Love your camera bag!!
THANK YOU for sharing the links!!! I have two little girl b-days coming up soon and this just helped me shop!!! 🙂
Blessings!
Well Done Mama!!!!! It looks like a great day!! I love your pics.. Yay for that camera bag!! You are going to rock that thing!!!!
Happy New Year!!!
Love,
Diana
Merry Christmas! Love all of the shots. Looks like y’all truly had a blessed Christmas!
Beautiful family!