Thursday night we put the kids to bed a little early (our rationale: Christmas is coming and they were going to be up late a lot in the next few days). After about 5 or 10 minutes of them getting settled, Dave and I ran up the stairs yelling, "Get up! Come on, hurry up and get up! We still have some Christmas shopping to do!" The kids were so baffled!!! We had them come downstairs and put on their coats and shoes, grab their Dunkin' Donut gift cards, their cup of milk and $6. All the while they were asking, "Are we really going?", "Are we going right now?" "Are you serious?" I'm pretty sure they thought mommy and daddy were off their rockers!!! Then we had them pick a name out of a hat. Once we got in the car, our first stop was to DD for a couple of munchkins each. After that we headed to Walmart to shop. Each of the kids had picked a name of a sibling to buy a gift for so Dave and I took each one of them down the aisles and had them pick out a gift. They were so funny about being secretive and not letting the others see what they had picked. Thankfully, despite the long lines, we got a kind and patient cashier who went along with our adventure in letting the kids each pay for their own items.
We did it! We pulled off the Christmas heist. The whole ordeal took about an hour out of our evening but I'm pretty sure the looks on our kids faces when we got them out of bed will last forever in our minds.
During the Christmas season, you try to instill in your children the importance of giving and how that is what God did for us. But when you bring buying gifts for others, the idea is that appetizing to children. But by pulling the evening together the way we did, we saw joy in our kids buying gifts for each other. They took some time to think about what their brother/sister would like for Christmas and nobody complained about spending their money. And now they are so excited to wrap up their gifts tonight and put them under the tree.
I'm not sure who is more excited for Christmas morning, the kids or Dave and I. We can't wait to give them our gifts but we also can't to see them give to one another.
When I told someone today about our little Christmas heist, he asked, "Is that a Christmas tradition?" I responded...it is now!!!!
I have read about the idea being done in the summer when you take your kids out for ice cream or something like that but I really liked doing it for Christmas. We plan on "heisting" a couple times of year now and the kids will just never know when...
Yes, I know this looks like a picture of nothing much but I just wanted to note that I have NEVER seen my kids put their shoes and coats on so fast!
A friend had given each of the kids their own DD gift cards and I just thought this was so cute with the 3 of them lined up to pay for their munchkins. I am just glad it wasn't crowded and the lady working was very patient with our 3 SEPARATE orders of munchkins.
Future shopper, right?!?!
1 comment:
Very good idea! I would wonder what the kids would pick out for each other...
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