What we’re giving…

People are always emailing me asking what we’re giving our own kids for the holidays. This year, they each sat down with a copy of our new catalog (did you get one?) and a marker and circled the things they wanted. Well, in the case of my 4-year old, she also circled a few things she already has (but evidently has either forgotten or likes so much she wants multiples). Anyway, it made the gift selection process easier. A lot of our catalog items sold out early, but I was pleasantly surprised to walk through our warehouse yesterday and find plenty of great options, both from the catalog and from our general selection.

From beyond the world of Magic Beans, my husband wanted to make the girls a new Chanukah menorah using the characters from Super Mario Galaxy, Audrey’s favorite game on the Wii. I was initially skeptical, but was won over by the opportunity to do something creative with my hands. It came out great, but we failed to check on the flammability of Sculpey. Oops. So for now, it is a (slightly singed) decorative menorah while we figure out how to adapt it for use with fire.

On night 1: Audrey got a Vega 600 Telescope from Educational Insights. I somehow completely misunderstood the instructions and wedged a mirror where, it is now clear, it did not belong. So now it is a (basically useless) decorative telescope while I contact the company to find out what to do next. Mira got Illumino, a really wonderful toy similar to Lite Brite, but made in Italy with larger pieces and unlimited design possibilities (because it doesn’t use those paper templates).

On night 2: Mira got Pengoloo, a great memory game from Blue Orange and Audrey got Screwball Scramble (AKA Snafu, pictured above), a classic game requiring a good amount of patience and manual dexterity to maneuver a metal marble over a series of obsticles. We also remembered Zev and gave him a Sunshine Symphony, one of my very favorite toys for the under-6-month set.

So far, so good. The kids have remembered to say thank you, which is always nice. And they’ve been very gracious about the decorative status of a couple of their gifts. Six nights to go. Happy Chanukah, everyone!

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