Day Twenty-three

Last night we took the boys to do their Christmas shopping. In years past we have taken them to the dollar store and turn them loose. They both seem particularly fond of socks and coffee mugs as gifts, as their grandparents and my siblings can attest to. This year we went to a used book store. It certainly cost more than then $10 per kid the other would have, but I think they picked better gifts. At least more interesting gifts.
Matthew wanted to get his granparents a Photoshop for Dummies. I tried explaining to him that his grandparents do not even own a digital camera, but he patiently explained that they have lots of the the Dummies books already, so they must be reading the whole series. While I can appreciate the 8 year old logic in that statement, I steered him in another direction.
Paul looked in the cookbook section and was thinking Hotter Than Hell might be a good choice for Grampa Nolen and he really wanted to get the Skinny Bitch cookbook for his mother. I said no to both, even though I thought it would be funny to see those gifts unwrapped.
Another part of their gift giving tradition is that in the past they have insisted that their Grandmother Elisa needs one of those miniature christmas village houses every year. The tradition started the first year that she and Nolen moved to Oklahoma. Some former co-worker of Elisa’s had sent her a floral arrangement that came with a Thomas Kinkade lighted cottage. That year when we took them shopping Paul insisted that his grandmother loved that cottage and that she probably collects them. I was pretty sure the collecting part was not true, but I let him and Matthew choose small houses from the dollar store for Elisa. She very graciously put them out with the one she had already received.
That was just fuel to the fire. For months before christmas the boys are asking to check out the christmas village houses anywhere there is a display. They are very opinionated in their choices, and it takes a lot of discussion to make the final decision. The house can not be a Santa thing, and can not be decorated with a Christmas tree or anything like that, as they know their grandmother does not like that. To date they have given her a lighthouse (our church is refered to as the lighthouse on the corner so I think that is where that choice came from), a chinese restaurant, and two tiny churches they painted themselves. Elisa is a good sport, because she puts them up every year.
Last year we surprised her. Instead of a christmas village house I bought her a lladro figureen of two boys having a pillow fight. We placed it inside a tacky christmas vallage box and wrapped that. The boys agreed the surprise aspect of that gift balanced out not getting to pick a Christmas house.