For the Babies on My Christmas List...

In anticipation of the upcoming holiday season, I've been thinking about Christmas shopping quite a bit lately. I usually buy my first gift in July, get a good head start, and then feel so proud of all the check marks on my list that I decide to give myself a break sometime in November. Of course, I get a little too carried away with the break, and find myself still stressing at the last minute over the difficult ones--like my dad. What do you get for someone who continually returns every gift ever given to him? Oh wait-except for the one year I finally decided to take the oft-heard parental advice which goes something like this: "don't buy me anything!", or this: "please don't spend a lot of money!" In my attempt to prove once and for all why children just can't take this advice, I somehow managed to give my dad the best present ever. The Keene State College "Greek Week" shirt that I was freely handed in passing at some fair in the Student Center, which I then took home and cut the sleeves in an exaggeratedly jagged fashion to mock the ritualistic sleeve-cutting and shirt-mutilating that my dad is so well-known for...that shirt has graced his hairy back about 313 times this year. (I figure he washes it about once a week). Just goes to show you the lengths a parent will go to prove they are always right.

I digress, as usual. Back to Christmas...My mom implanted her love of Christmas in all of us girls at an early age. I love pretty much everything about the holidays...the music which starts on September first (don't think Josh is as much of a fan of this one, but I have to carry the torch into our branch of the family tree!), picking out a Christmas outfit (which mom no longer funds, so lately the outfit is procured from a closet rather than a mall or magazine...), finding the perfect tree at my uncle's farm stand (but mostly eating the donuts inside the stand while we wait for the horse-drawn wagon), and decorating and admiring the tree every time I pass by it (and fully expecting whoever my main "Santa" is that year-Josh listen up- to be aware that I'd really like at least half of my gifts to be bought at a toy store, and the other half at Borders). That's not to mention Christmas Eve or Christmas Day--but it's 1:30 am, so I won't go there. All I will say is my one and only complaint concerning the holiday is the retirement of several key actors--namely, all--in the annual Christmas plays that no member of the audience ever understood. (How were we supposed to know that the 50+ crowd wasn't familiar with the American Girl series?)

I can't wait to watch Lillie open gifts this year and spend her first real Christmas in New Hampshire. (I say first "real" Christmas in NH because the one she spent screaming at the top of her lungs when she was 3 weeks old doesn't count.) And it will be even more fun because there will be another new baby, and a second on the way! Although Jenni isn't due until next spring, our oldest sister Erin is due on October 2nd (her husband's birthday!). Having babies on the brain tonight (don't get too excited, Mom), I have been looking around for Christmas gift ideas for both. Here are some adorable items I found on Etsy:

This hat can be found here from Little Chick Knits on Etsy

These last four hats can all be found here from KinleyAsh on Etsy