Advent calendars have been a cherished tradition in our family since the Crack Monkeys were old enough to realize the fun in opening a small gift everyday until Christmas. My boys have always been Lego fans, so every year we'd get them one of those Lego advent calendars, while Vanessa settled for a Littlest Pet Shop one.
This year, with the new Star Wars movie being released right before Christmas, the advent calendar for 2015 sold out super fast. I looked everywhere, but couldn't find any at a reasonable price (a guy in China had bought several and was selling them for $250 on Amazon; no thanks!). And, the Littlest Pet Shop ones that were available were actually collectibles, so the prices for those were ridiculous as well.
So, what's a mama to do?
After a couple days of brainstorming, this is what I did....
I bought the 3 youngest ones (Ryan stopped with the advent calendars a few years ago) a separate stocking from the ones for Santa, then bought small items to put in them everyday. For the boys, I bought Halo mystery packs, Star Wars Micro Machines, Minecraft figurines, mini Star Wars Lego sets, stickers, playing cards, etc. For Vanessa, I got mini Littlest Pet Shop figurines, My Little Pony dolls, LPS mystery packs, MLP mystery packs, and candy.
It was somewhat hard to limit myself to just a few small items; there were a ton of things that I'm sure the kids would enjoy that I found in the dollar aisles. So hard, but I resisted.
Besides, it was all worth it and fun seeing them get so excited over these small toys. Some might say they're spoiled, but, I don't really mind. I spend the rest of the year couponing and saving money, and who better to splurge all of that extra cash than my kids?
Yeah, that didn't sound snotty at all. Sorry.
Sort of.
Anyway, Merry Christmas!
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