Bettering a Family Tradition

A couple of years ago, we decided all our kids were big enough to shop for a gift for each of their brothers and sisters. It was a success! They LOVE picking out gifts for each other! Last year, we slowed Christmas morning down a bit by having each of them in turn get the gifts they bought and wrapped from under the tree and give it directly to the person who was to receive it. They had gone to so much trouble picking out gifts for each other, I didn't want them all to be lost in a big unwrapping frenzy and no one ever would know who got them what.

The order on our Christmas morning is this: Santa's gifts first (Santa gives them each one present, plus there's a "family basket" filled with family oriented fun like books and games, then he also stuffs their stockings full of treasures. Santa doesn't wrap their gifts so they come first by default ;)), then each child, in turn, gets the gifts they bought and wrapped and starts handing them out (the kids really look forward to this part!), then the gifts from Todd and me. After all gifts from under the tree are opened, we open stockings. We come down the stairs and they go crazy over their Santa gifts, rummage through the basket pulling out things they can't wait to read or play, then they all want to go in handing out their gifts. I love that they get to experience one of the best parts of Christmas: giving .

This year, I was thinking about their gift-buying and decided to make it a fun afternoon with Mom too :) So yesterday, when I was heading out to run a few errands, I decided at the last minute to take Megan with me to get her shopping done. Best decision ever! Yes, my errands would have gone alot faster if it had been only me, but spending the afternoon with our youngest was way better than running errands efficiently.

First stop was Target where she chose wonderfully for her sister and brothers :) Then a treat for her:

 Her first Starbucks ;) Actually, I went back and forth about getting her a hot chocolate. We still had a few stops and I wasn't sure it'd cool down enough for her. I was in for a big surprise: not only does Starbucks have child size cups (YAY for less sugar!!), but they also have CHILD TEMPERATURE hot chocolate!!! SCORE!

Next up: the library where I had reserves waiting (Christmas books!) and she wanted to choose a couple of books as well:

 Happily reading her choices on our way to our next stop which was a quick grocery trip.

I loved my afternoon with this sweet girl! And I love taking this special little family tradition we've started and making it a bit more special :)