First Week of Advent 2011 – Tuesday – The Christmas Shop

Possum is 5 years 6 months

Bandicoot is 3 years 4 months

Little Princess is 11 months

 

The Christmas Shop Edition

Oh dear me!  Did I mention our trip to the Christmas Shop a little while back?  I went in with the brave words, “No we aren’t buying anything today, we are just looking.  After we have put up our decorations we might come back and get something.”  Well, it seems that “something” can be reinterpreted as “the whole shop”, it is all in the emphasis.  Apparently.

Anyway, today was “Grandparents and Special Friends Day” at Possum’s Kindy.  I hated Grandparents Day when I was a child.  I always resented that I had never had any living grandparents.  Given that all our children’s living grandparents are elderly and mostly in failing health, I was glad that my Mum could make it along.

After morning tea and entertainment at the Kindy, they came home for lunch.  The afternoon’s entertainment was The Christmas Shop.

My sister managed to do something useful – buy a whole lot of Bon-bons for the extended family.  Me on the other hand… *sigh*

Somehow we managed to come home with a Christmas Train.  It is very nice, but somewhat cheaply made.  It isn’t meant as a toy, but as a decoration.  Have you tried explaining that to a 3yo train-nutter?  Anyway, the boys love it.  (I can’t believe I haven’t any pictures.  Must rectify.)  In the interim, we are going crazy to the tune of high pitched Jingle Bells, Santa Claus is Coming to Town and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.  Oh-la.  What a crazy Mum to put in the batteries.

And then there is this:

I must admit, I am entirely to blame for this one.  Just as the boys have been talking up the train since our first visit to the shop, I have been hugging to myself the secret that this guy would be parachuting across our front room.  I am a sucker for kitsch.

Yes, the boys liked him, but there wasn’t the request to bring him home.

The idea is that a well placed clap will set him off, sailing across the cable, kicking his little legs and singing “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” (not compatible with the train).  The boys have worked out that various loud noises (a well placed “La”, a nasty pitched growl, a blood curdling scream) will also set him off.  *bliss*  And the irony?  I can’t set him off with my voice, while the kids can from a different room, or even in one instance today, from outside the house.  Maybe I don’t yell as loudly as I thought.

 

We also bought this:

   

It is lit up with optical fibres and it is really very, very pretty.  And quiet.  Did I mention QUIET??  Crazy thing is, I reckon it should play Silent Night or Away in a Manger or something.

Finally, there is the Christmas Turkey.  I haven’t got a picture of him yet, either, but gosh I think he is funny, and Little Princess loves him to bits.  I can’t wait to take it along to the family Christmas!

Tags: Christmas, Christmas 2011