For Christmas Evie asked for a Jack-in-the-Box. Yes, you heard that right. A Jack-in-the-box. Not the fast food place, but the creepy toy that gives you nightmares as a child. I asked her twenty times what she wanted for Christmas and she wouldn't say anything else but that. (Last year she only asked for jelly beans, so she's pretty tough to please) Once I realized she wasn't going to ask for anything else and came to terms with that, it was actually sort of nice. I got to choose everything else she got since she basically asked for a whopping $10 gift.
Since this was our first Christmas at home, Nick and I had to discuss some things that haven't yet come up in our marriage. Like ... how do you do Christmas morning? How do you display presents? Are Santa presents wrapped or unwrapped?, etc. I won't go into details, but we did it my way since I'm the criminal mastermind in our house. I'm 100% open to suggestions, but I'm probably going to do it my way anyway. So I wrapped the Jack-in-the-box and stuck it under the tree.
If you read this blog, or you know my child, you know that nothing in the world is more fun to her than play food. She loves to play chef in and out of the real kitchen, so I figured our little cook needed her own restaurant.
Evie's Bistro.
I have NEVER been so excited for anything in my entire life. I knew she would just love it.
And she did! First, she came out and didn't see her Jack-in-the-box and kept asking where it was. We handed it to her, she opened it, excitedly showed it to us and moved on to the restaurant.
She didn't even want her other presents. All she wanted to do was play restaurant. We couldn't get her to unwrap any of her gifts. Finally, several days after Christmas she took a break from the restaurant to finish opening her presents.
It made me so happy to see her happy and playing with her restaurant EVERY SECOND OF EVERY DAY. Plus I spent much time working on it and making sure it was perfect. I even included pictures on the menu (since she can't read) of food that looks exactly like her play food. Hunting down all that clipart was not easy!
Evie will say, "Hey mom, do you want to come eat at my restaurant?" at least five times a day. She's lucky I'm always hungry...
On Christmas Eve, we went around the room and the people who had served missions shared their favorite mission Christmas story. Since I did not serve a mission, my dad asked me what was my favorite Christmas memory. I replied that it would most likely be this one. I had so much fun preparing gifts for the girls, but mostly for Evie since Anna doesn't give a rip.
The spirit of gift giving is so special and you don't have to spend a ton of money to give your kids the Christmas of a lifetime. I seriously don't think I can ever top this. Evie still loves her restaurant and forces everyone who walks through our door to order up! So, if you're bored, hungry or both, feel free to head on over and taste the magic at Evie's Bistro.
No comments:
Post a Comment