I went Christmas shopping on Friday and Saturday, and I came back with bags and bags of gifts, mostly for people outside of our immediate family. Since then, I have made some observations of how my children have reacted to the presence of presents under our tree and strewn all over the house.
Ian: His love language is physical touch, and he is oblivious to anything and everything Christmas, except for his anticipation of meeting Santa (again) at Nana's house. When he does meet him, he wants to hug him. It will be interesting to see if Ian actually allows Santa to give him love in a few weeks.
Isaac: Isaac's love language is clearly NOT gifts. He goes to bed one night and there are no gifts under the tree, and the next morning all gifts are wrapped and neatly placed - a major transformation has taken place. HE HAS NO CLUE THEY ARE THERE... and, if he does, he could care less. He has not searched to see which ones are his, how big they are, or how many everyone else has. He really is not interested, because Isaac's love language is quality time. However, he is going to be stoked with his gift, because it will offer hours and hours of quality time.
Audrey: Where-oh-where to start with Audrey. She was with me on the shopping trips. Within minutes of shopping, she had asked for numerous things for herself, and I responded by reminding her that our shopping wasn't about us this time, but for others. She would get upset and would completely stop talking to me. I told her I would pass ideas along to Santa to let him know what she wanted. She didn't want to hear it, and hours would pass with her not saying one word to me or acknowledging my existence. She wouldn't stand near me in the store, but would only glare from a distance. Soon after we came home on Saturday night from our shopping trip, she had gone through every gift that was already wrapped and was so disappointed that there was only one for her. You could see the pain in her face because her love language is definitely gifts. She has 4 things on her list this year, and hopefully, she will have a great Christmas.
Awe... I so no the drill you went through with Aud. Unfortunately both of mine are at this stage. I am also trying to be very aware of the number and size of the packages that show up under the tree (becasue they check and care). It looks like it is going to be 3 for each kid but 1 is rather large so I need to somehow make it look more fair (repackaging anyone?).
ReplyDeleteIt is funny... today as I was walking out of Toys R Us with one last stocking stuffer for Audrey, I felt compelled to buy her something else just so she had one more than everyone else. Insane. My mother still to this very day has to buy $X.XX amount for everyone so it is "fair".
ReplyDeleteIsaac now wants to know which gift under the tree is the goat for the adopted family girl. HA! We got one of those World Vision catalogs last month and we pondered doing that until the local family came up. Somehow, I think she will be glad we passed on the goat!
It is funny... today as I was walking out of Toys R Us with one last stocking stuffer for Audrey, I felt compelled to buy her something else just so she had one more than everyone else. Insane. My mother still to this very day has to buy $X.XX amount for everyone so it is "fair".
ReplyDeleteIsaac now wants to know which gift under the tree is the goat for the adopted family girl. HA! We got one of those World Vision catalogs last month and we pondered doing that until the local family came up. Somehow, I think she will be glad we passed on the goat!