Everyone knows the line from the song “It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas” that goes “And Mom and Dad can hardly wait for school to start again.” Truthfully, since I became a parent, I have always taken exception to that line. For me being home with the kids is just about the best Christmas present ever. With the bad weather we have been having here in New York, it has also given us a time to really get to do one thing I never do in the real world of work: play! I am enjoying every minute of it.
We adults just do not get enough time to play. Walk into any Pre-K classroom and you will see the kids getting some work done, but then they get to have playtime and that develops different (and sometimes more essential) skills such as sharing, creating, and building. Pre-K kids also take a nice nap midway through their day, and that’s another thing we skip because we are just too busy.
Getting back to playing, I have been doing so much of it. Santa was very good to my children, and I am reaping the rewards of his generosity. My daughter’s American Girl doll (McKenna) is a gymnast by trade; therefore, I have seen every outfit imaginable that this active little girl could wear. I have also put on and taken off her cast seemingly a hundred times. Apparently, even dolls can break an ankle in gymnastics.
My son has gotten toys I could only imagine as a boy. The first thing he got was a cowboy town by Playmobil that includes a Bank and a Sheriff’s Office. The details are fantastic on these toys, and the characters come with revolvers, rifles, a safe with money, and a jail cell (with a locking door). We have had so many shootouts, bank robberies, and escapes from jail (the wall breaks away to let prisoners escape) that allow the game to start over again and again. What a great toy!
The next thing Santa must have had a hard time getting. My son likes the Nick Jr. show Mike the Knight, and he put it on his list that he wanted the castle and characters. I exhausted a search in toy stores here, but I hoped Santa would find it (apparently he went all the way to the U.K. to acquire it). Two sets came (the castle and a Viking adventure) that my son and I have enjoyed playing with. Mike comes with a horse and two friendly dragons that help him save the day against the mean Viking warrior. We have been saving the day a lot lately.
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