It goes without saying that they will not be getting everything. Puppy dog eyes be damned. No matter how many pleases we get. No matter how good their behavior (they would get nothing with that one). We're going on one big gift with each of the kids and make the stockings more of the little things.
My Kindle is always taken over by the children. All three of them fight over it, it's my turn, you went on it first yesterday! Eees my acowwwwnt (three years old and she stands up for herself. fiercely). So we've decided that Donovan and Sophia are each getting their own Kindle. Not the HD one mind you, no, they can live luxuriously with the original Fire. We'll pre load it with the games they love and a couple surprise ones for them. As we do with my Kindle, the internet access and any purchases will be password protected.
I know there are some people who will say we are spoiling them with this purchase. That's fine if you want to think that. I look at it several other ways:
- My children are ridiculously adept at all things technology related.
- My children prefer electronic games and I can't blame them. They like board games but honestly, they just end up in fights every single time we play. We can't even get through a whole round of turns before a game piece is air born or someone says something hurtful to someone else.
- My children get along better (ergo, peace in my house) when they are engrossed in something educational (most of the time) and/or supremely fun. Reading skills skyrocketed and math is improving with both of the kids. I can't deny that.
- I make them read real books and magazines (NatGeo, SIforKids) as much as I can.
- I don't have the room for any more toys. They only play with them for a week and then they are forgotten for the rest of the year or until I go to sell them. I really wish I was kidding on this one. You should see the boxes of toys we have in the storage room downstairs. Stuff they haven't seen in over a year. Boxes. As in many plurals. Many.
- Amazon gift cards don't take up space. At all. Anywhere. WIN!
- Having gift cards to spend will help the kids continue learning about saving money and not blowing it all in one sitting. I can't get them to learn this lesson to save my life. Granted Donovan had $40+ in his piggy bank and was able to get 2 DS games but that's because his bank was in one of those boxes. That sat in the basement. For a year. Forgotten about. Oh hey look! Money! Spent it all in 4.3 minutes at Game Stop.
So if anyone in my family and friends circle is thinking of getting the older kids something for Christmas, please consider Amazon gift cards. If you want to get them clothes or DVDs, I'm down with that. I must really insist on no big toys, annoying toys* or candy. Donovan still has his DS (Sophia's is shot and will not be replaced) and is still obsessed with Spiderman, Angry Birds and cold, hard cash. Sophia loves books (yay!), anything pink and cash too. Hey, I'm just telling ya'll what they tell me. But who doesn't love cash amirite?
Celia is easy peasy. She's getting Plants v Zombies for her DS. She also loves Angry Birds, Plants v Zombies and Strawberry Shortcake. So yeah, DVDs or anything with the above mentioned characters.
So there we go, the kids' lists (via Mama's destruction decimation editing).
* I would like to point out that I rarely (if ever) purchased annoying toys for my friends' kids. So there's that.
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