Early Christmas Gifts

A friend told me her family tradition was to get everyone in their PJ's and drive around to look at the Christmas lights. I loved that idea; so, one night when Michael came home a little early, the boys each got new warm jammies and we piled in the car to go see the lights. We found the house that has lights that dance to the music on the radio again this year and the boys watched the entire 20 minute presentation and still asked to go back again. A few nights ago, we let the boys each open a gift from Boagie and Grandpa knowing that they would have too many presents to open on Christmas day. Mikie reacted exactly like I thought he would. I'm pretty sure this will be his favorite Christmas gift this year. Here's the video:



Yes, you heard him right. It's a new calculator. Only my number loving child would get this excited over a small adding machine! I've posted before about how much Mikie loves math of any kind and that if I ever need to distract him for a good 20 minutes I just give him a calculator. But what I haven't posted, is that he now takes a calculator in the car and just keeps adding +1 over and over again until we get to our destination. Then he asks us to remember the number until we get back in the car so he can keep adding. This has continued for many months and he has now reached the number 147,589. He even remarked the other day: "Now I can reach a 12 digit number. The other one only went to ten digits." While this new machine will provide hours of entertainment for our son, I am mostly looking forward to never having to remember another random number again. When we reach our destination, all he has to do is push PRINT and his number will be waiting for him when we return! THANKS, BOAGIE & GRANDPA!!!!

The second video of him enjoying his new calculator:


Zachary's present was the It's A Match from Discovery Toys. He played with it for over 20 minutes and kept asking Daddy to do another one.

Here's a video of Mikie adding without the calculator: He amazes me everytime I hear him do this!

Another night, we let the boys open their gift from my grandparents (Great Grandpa & Grandma Cassens). You can see in this video these toys were also a very big hit in our house:


All these early presents help spread out the fun of Christmas. I wonder if the boys will take their time and play with each toy as they open it this year and make it last several days (like last year) or if they'll rip them all open in a matter of minutes.

Does anyone else let their kids open their presents early?