Christmas Hits

Sorry for not posting for nearly two weeks.  I've taken a bit of break to spend time with the family (Ryan's been off work) and we've had a blast: trips to the zoo and aquarium, a date night for me and Ryan, sleeping in (yay!) and just general laziness.  Sometimes everyone needs to be lazy for a while, y'know?

But I thought I'd start off this year reporting the Christmas toy hits we had.  We've had plenty of time to play with all of our new toys and if you're ever in need of an idea or two for an upcoming birthday, you just might want to consider these things.

For Evan, the two year old, the biggest hit for him was his bucket of dinosaurs.  He is a dinosaur nut and carries these little guys everywhere.  I like them because the names of the dinosaurs are written on their bellies (along with "Made in China", but really, what isn't made in China these days?) and they don't make noise.  He has to use his imagination to "make them work" which is a major thumbs up for me.








Liam, the four year old, received a set of stomp rockets and a package of refill rockets to go with it.  This is the toy of the year.  All three kids love playing with it and every time they're outside playing with it, the neighbors come over to watch.  Not the neighbor's kids, the neighbors themselves.  They look like they want to play, too. I also bought a set of these for Ryan's great-nephews (ages 3 and 5) and I haven't heard if they like them or not, but how could they not?








When the kids sat down to write their letters to Santa, the only things the boys asked for were Buzz Lightyear and Woody the Cowboy dolls (I got the smaller version of this one).  I knew I was going to have a hard time finding them since Toy Story is the movie of the year and after a frantic Cyber Monday of searching, I found them at the online Disney Store (for $5 each, I might add!).  Again, they don't make noise and they're not huge, just large enough to play with and love on.  Both boys carry them everywhere and sleep with them.  In fact, Evan loves his Woody doll so much that it is clutched in his arms every night when we check on him.

When my sister asked for ideas for the boys, I mentioned that they might like house shoes since that's what Sydney asked for.  Evan got Toy Story house shoes with lights and Liam got house shoes that look like cowboy boots.  They love them!  And of top of that, she bought them toddler-sized snuggies to go with them.  I cannot get Liam out of his snuggie!  He wants to wear it to bed and insists on taking it and his house shoes when he sleeps over at my mom's house.  Definite hit!

For a joint gift, my parents bought the boys a wagon.  It's not just any wagon, it's a fancy wagon.  The wheels are actual rubber tires and the wagon can lift up and dump out the contents so Ryan and I can use it for yard work.  We took it to the zoo one day last week and it was so much easier to pull the boys around than to listen to them whine about the walking.  And I got quite a kick out of seeing the other dads there look at it with wagon envy.  Yes, wagon envy.

Sydney, age 7, asked Santa for books and movies this year.  Santa gave her a Baby Mouse book and the two Narnia movies that are out on DVD.  I'd never heard of Baby Mouse books and it turns out that the series is actually a comic book series starring, you guessed it, a baby mouse, but hey, if it gets her to read then so be it.  Ryan and I gave her the Diary of a Wimpy Kid box set plus the newest one (she read all five of them in five days!) and the Chronicles of Narnia book set (no picture of these - I just picked up all of the books individually at Half Price Books).  She didn't ask for the Narnia books, but was quite excited to see them.  Move over, stupid Disney princesses, my daughter has found a new set of heroes in those Narnia books.  Ha!







Something else that she didn't ask for but we gave her was a watch.  I had a hard time finding an analog watch her size that didn't have a princess on it, but I eventually found this one at Kohl's that was blue (the new favorite color) and with Tinkerbell on it.  She feels grown up wearing a real (not digital) watch and she gets real-time practice with telling time.  Fun and educational - double score!

The kids got many other gifts, but these seem to be the favorites this year and I'm so glad because they're all gifts that don't need batteries (minus the watch) or make obnoxious noises or sounds (unless you count Evan's dinosaur roar).

What was the hot toy at your house this year?  (I'm always on the lookout for a good birthday gift!)