Christmas Brainstorming

***If Arwen is reading my blog--stop now, babe, sorry, you'll spoil Christmas! Love you!***

So,  I've been trying to look ahead.  I just hate last-minute Christmas present shopping!!

I thought it would be fun to share with you some of the things I thought were cute.  I think I might be an Amazon affiliate, but I've never sold a thing.  It seems like everyone puts that out there as a caveat. Is that required? If you buy something, I'll let you know if I get a kickback!:)

I told you that Eowyn is hugely into her kitchen these days, and we have only bits and pieces of tea sets left.   I saw a few I liked...

These seem to get rusty when kids (like mine) use lots of water for tea parties:

But they are durable and I like this pattern.  I'm sure I've had two other sets over the years, one was ladybugs and another roses.  I think this one would be perfect for Eowyn...except I've seen them all end up rusted.  So...

The question is, would water be worse with a set like this?  Because I LOVE this set!!

I've mentioned before that I sort of have a Plan Toys fettish...but I think it's the wood!  And the tea bags!! I like the size and shape and that there aren't too many tiny pieces to lose.  But, water?

I'm afraid, so I'm also tempted to follow my sister's advice and go for this one:

Could it be more beautiful?  I think it might actually be real!  But we have a friend who got them for her little girl's three-year-old birthday party.  My only concern: how shatter proof are these?

Well, moving on from tea sets (we can't spend all day)...

I don't know what it is about this little set of princess blocks, but I love it every time I see it!

My sister found this dollie for her girls.  We have so many dolls...but, it's soooo sweet!  Soft and cuddly.

And, I've had these in my cart more times...I just think they'd be nice in the schoolroom.  Good math manipulative, fun, and would keep little hands busy while I'm busy with bigger ones.  Just haven't sprung for it...yet.

Big Kids:

Wish I had thought to go about buying these this way, rather than one by one:

I haven't read them myself, and they are available at the local library.  I'm not sure we need to add the collection to our home library unless my kids really love them and want to read them over and again...I love the idea of getting stacks of books for Christmas...decisions, decisions.

Is it just me, or does everyone think "The Christmas Story" when they hear someone wants a BB gun for Christmas?

I'm not sure this is the one they want.  I leave all fire-arm decisions up to my husband.  I like safety.  

I've got to show this, though, because I think it's going to be a huge hit.  I think I'll put in someone's stocking for St. Nick...

I was also eyeing this one, because they really are so much fun:

Middle girls:

So, for the record I'm completely against Barbie.  I know many women out there grew up loving and playing with them, but I didn't.  Even way back then, my parents thought they were immodest.  Play acting Ken and Barbie hopping into the pink convertable to go to the mall isn't my idea of teaching my girls to grow up to be modest and holy wives and mothers.  Tea parties and play kitchens, babies wrapped in play silks, yes.  Have you browsed the Barbie aisle recently?  The poses of the dolls alone are enough to make a case against them!  No, I haven't mentioned the bust line.  And heaven forbid one of them wind up without their clothes laying around for the boys to gawk at!

But...this summer my two middle girls were playing with their little neighborhood girl friends.  They had buckets of Barbies from their mother's childhood.  Lots of outfits and shoes to try on...and they are girls.:)  Well, my girls asked if they could have just one, modest Barbie.  I'm not sure (given their form) that such a thing really exists, but...I got Galadriel a ballerina and Rosie a cowgirl with a horse.  Then Rosie's Barbie's head popped off, and it just didn't hold straight when we popped it back on.  And Galadriel really wanted some modest clothes to play with.

I searched and searched.  I found

These say something about a "puppy adventure", but I didn't actually see puppies included.  I wouldn't say they are perfectly modest, but they come pretty close, and none of them look like they have bad attitudes.  Fairly sweet and feminine.  I can handle it.

And this for Rosie:

Arwen never really had a chance to play dolls much.  Followed by her two brothers, she sort of went the route of horses and then a huge tom-boy phase.  Now she's interested in photography and she's always loved animals, writing, and art.  She didn't have little neighborhood friends when she was younger (now she does, which is nice) so I'm loving the sweetness of Galadriel and Rosie liking to play house and Lego Friends on picnic tables in our back yards (well, before the snow fell!).  I do keep pretty close tabs on what sort of "play" goes on.  One funny little story, one of the neighbors got the Lego Friends rockstar stage (it's called something else that's eluding me at the moment).

Let's see...there's this one

and this one

  It comes with different wigs for the singers to wear, including a blue one.  Obviously, this isn't really up my alley.  However, Galadriel came back one day and was explaining how she coordinated blue hair with a blue top and blue skirt.  To her, I think it was all about a pretty ensemble.  I'm afraid the punk element of having blue hair was lost upon her ("to the innocent...").  I did refuse to consider buying these sets for our family, but there are some pretty cute ones available.

I picked out this one:

and I think Galadriel would love this (she's into dolphins):

I'm out of time, but I'm just going to post this for the fun of it.   Pretty superficial post, yes.  Maybe I'll get deep as Advent really draws near!:)