Bill and I usually give money at Christmas to the kids and I saw a cool idea at Money Saving Pro. So this year instead of just sticking it in a card I decided I’d try to be a little more creative and try their idea and make little money gift boxes. I can put little charms and crystal figurines and whatever else I can find inside as an extra surprise. I think they’ll enjoy that.

As for the grandkids we usually spend more on them, but this year we have two extra ones so that makes 5 instead of the normal 3. For the little girls we don’t like to buy toys because their house is already overflowing. Last year we got them both really nice book cases for their room and a bench toybox the year before, but they have so many toys that it’s useless except to sit on.

We do at least buy them one small toy so they have something to open when they come over for Christmas Eve dinner. Nate of course is 6 and 1/2 and he doesn’t have a house full of toys so we don’t mind getting him a few instead of all the educational things his parents get him. He goes through phases of collecting things, like one year it was Spiderman, then motorcycles, then dinosaurs.

He now likes remote control objects, he has a motorcycle, car and truck, but he doesn’t have an airplane or helicopter yet. I was checking on the airplanes and remote control helicopters online and saw that there are some pretty cool looking ones that I can choose from and I know he’ll love whatever we choose because he’s such a grateful little boy and really appreciates everything.

The little girls are spoiled and they have such a huge family on the Mom’s side that they always get too many toys and don’t seem to appreciate anything and that’s the big difference between Nate and them. With Ethan I intend on getting him his first highchair and I guess I’ll have to send it because they wont be able to come up and the way Miss Natalie is growing, she’s already 15 pounds at 2 months, it will definitely be clothes.