christmas shopping

dan, donovan and myself went christmas shopping. dan and i take one weekend day per season to knock it out. this year was a bit different because we had donovan....which means more shopping. we obviously have a few things in mind for donovan this year, like a brand spanking new babygate, but our list has also increased due to the new recognition of children in the family. of course we know there are children in our extended family, but the birth of donovan throws us into that pot of gift giving. getting to the point of life where i am giving toys for christmas is lots of fun, but i have hit a hard realization that i am clueless as to what kids want or enjoy. i am taken back to that very selfish time as a child where i would get a gift from someone that i did not want. i do not want to be that person that brings out the selfish.

dan and i have spent the past couple of weeks gathering family gift giving traditions. one family has a traditional secret santa where all names of grandchildren are put in a hat and each grandchild chooses a name to buy for with a $20 limit, and of course it is kept a secret as to who got your name. in another family there is a tradition of buying for all nieces and nephews 5 and under. this tradition had to be revisited this year to clarify if we are buying for great nieces and nephews since we have an influx of new bambinos. then we have my family that is much smaller. on my moms side donovan is the onl

y child, but on my dad's side he is one of 3 new great grandchildren. this means clarifying of traditions, which is to take my generation out of the g

ift giving mix and buy for kids only.

so with all the traditions gathered, and a few ideas of gifts we are on a timeline to mail out gifts by the end of the week and hope that we are not viewed by the kids as the most clueless gift giving family in the world. i know i know this is just the beginning! happy shopping......

oh yeah, and it just so happened on our shopping day we had snow!! well flurries...but it was still fun, and donovan's first snow.