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Monday, November 26, 2018

Lily Grace's Christmas List

Happy Cyber Monday friends! Is anyone else out there SO READY for the Christmas season to begin?? As a girl who starts listening to Christmas music in July, you better believe we are ready to celebrate the most wonderful time of the year. If anybody needs me I will sipping on some peppermint hot chocolate watching one of these with my mom:
Image result for hallmark countdown to christmas 2018
#thankGodforDVR


Anyway, so since it is the time of year to be thinking about all things Christmas, I figured I would go ahead and post our Christmas list for Lily Grace in case any other toddler moms/aunts/grandmas/friends are curious what to get for their little one. That being said, this list is intentionally small. We do not have a lot of storage at our house and do not want an overwhelming amount of toys. Minimalism is more our style. So we typically ask our parents to pick 1 or 2 small things from the list and then if they would like, they can deposit some money into LG's college fund. This has worked very well for everyone in the past for holidays/birthdays/Baptism etc. We found that our parents really loved the ideas of contributing to Lily Grace's education rather than another toy she may or may not be interested in. 

When it comes to our list, I typically make one master list and then divide it up between our families. We send roughly half of the list to Dev's family, and the other half to mine. This way we don't end up with multiples of the same gifts. Anybody else do their kids' Christmas lists this way with extended family? 

 I have been doing a lot of research on kids toys, and everything I have been reading seems to go along with everything I have already known as an early childhood teacher: there are some gifts that are open ended and can entertain for YEARS, and there are "one and done" gifts where the kids are bored with them in a short amount of time. Typically anything that lights up or uses sounds has a tendency to limit creativity for children, and they are more likely to be sick of it sooner. So when it came to our toy list, we tried to pick as many open ended toys as possible. I promise this post isn't sponsored by Melissa & Doug toys (I wish!!), we just happen to be big fans of the quality of their toys. Here are our picks:
1: Wooden Puzzles: Lily Grace LOVES to do puzzles. This sweet girl could sit and do the same puzzles over and over again. We like to rotate them every few weeks to keep them "new" to her. 
2. Doll Stroller: Lily Grace loves to play with all of her babies and stuffed animals. She is always trying to put them in her stroller and push them around the house, but it is too big for her. We figured a little doll stroller would be a great Christmas present. 

1. Cutting Food 2. Diner Restaurant Play Set
3. Dramatic Play Items: Lily Grace loves to play with food. She has a little shopping cart and loves to pretend grocery shop, pretend "cook" her food, and pretend to eat it. We figure she will be playing with things like this for many years to come. 
4. Musical Instruments: This may be something I regret in the future, but Lily Grace really enjoys music and playing with her xylophone. We figured maybe expanding her collection of instruments would be a fun way for her to creatively play. 

We also asked for more clothes, pajamas, shoes, etc. but figured the grandparents/aunts/friends could handle picking that stuff out on their own. 

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