check us out

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

holiday gifts

We don't do Santa in our house. Christmas and Hanukkah, for us, are about giving and lights and the joy of thinking about other people in the cold of midwinter. Sam gets gifts from us and from lots of other people, and we figured Sam would give gifts to everyone as soon as he was old enough for that to make sense. So this year (starting, actually, with birthdays a few months ago) I started asking him seriously what he thought various people would like. Every kid we ask about, he's convinced would like a train. Or, if questioned again, ("Do you really think Zoe likes trains as much as you do?") he might switch to a truck, or a racecar. Adults, in contrast, he's sure all want glass trains. I don't think Sam has ever seen a glass train, or had such a thing suggested to him; my guess is that he can't imagine anyone not liking a train because, well, duh. But adults like finicky fragile things that you can't play with but instead just have to look at-- so, glass trains it is.

(We ended up going to the candy store instead of looking for glass trains for everyone. He can imagine people liking chocolate too, and I don't think anyone will be sorry to get it!)