Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Christmas Gifts 2011




Yesterday we took the kids into the city for part of the day. The plan was to go to Watertower Place and let them choose their own Christmas gift this year. They dream of being able to go to the American Girl store or the Lego store and pick something out so that's what we did. I went to the AG store with the girls and Pete took the boys to pick out Legos. They had a set amount of money they could work with and I had so much fun watching the girls cruise around and ooh and aah over all the sweet doll things. From the minute she saw it, Ella had her heart set on the "Special Occasion Gown" for her Bitty Baby. Leave it to my sweet Ella to choose something that looked like a wedding dress! I told her that she had enough money left to choose a small thing too and she said that the dress was all that she wanted! Charlotte wanted the pet bath tub for her Sugar, but they were out of stock so she went for the Bitty Better Kit and the girls have been playing doctor with their little dogs and dolls ever since we got home. Kate chose the pet carrier for her pet, Pepper and she had Lanie's hair done. Maddie is enjoying carrying her doll around in her new bag and she also had her doll's hair done. In the past I felt that it was kind of a waste of money to pay to have their dolls' hair done at the store, but I let them choose the least expensive style and it was so worth watching them enjoy seeing their dolls in a salon style chair getting their wildly unruly manes tamed. The boys had a really hard time deciding what to get and both chose some Star Wars sets- of course! Teshome was very proud to put his together with very little help and I am very happy that he is developing the ability to stick with something challenging like that!
After the kids' shopping I was able to check out the Vera Bradley store for a few minutes. Then we headed over to Macy's to eat at the Walnut Room for lunch. The wait was four hours so, after checking out the huge Christmas tree, we decided to just head out of the city and we went to Red Robin instead.
It was a great day as a family! I am so thankful that we live so close to such a cool city as Chicago and that our kids can experience the sights and sounds- and then come home to our peaceful little town.

1 comment:

Chandra said...

That sounds like a sweet day together, as well as a fun adventure! It reminds me of the Christmas traditions we had in Philadelphia, going down to the big Wannamaker building to see the light show and Dickens village, and then to Reading Terminal Market to try out the millions of vendors.