Anna made some really neat Christmas presents at school....a tile with a fingerprint Christmas tree, a star Christmas ornament, and miscellaneous pictures. All the gifts were wrapped in handmade gift-wrap, which was as nice as the gifts inside.
Of course we took traditional pictures in front of the Christmas tree....with Truman the cat. Anna adores him.
The presents I picked for Anna to open were a horse musical jewelry box that she spied in the toy store one day and really liked, and a kitty cat that had a carrier like the one we use to take Truman to the vet. Anna was SO excited about both of them. She sat and stared at the little horse turning around in the music box while "fur elise" played over and over. She has carried her kitten everywhere since she got it. Anna was excited about giving me two presents too. She was thrilled with her handmade gifts for me as well as what she picked out for me at the dollar store (I took her to shop for the family at the dollar store and let her pick out and pay for what she wanted to get for each person....she was so happy to do this "on her own".....loads of fun!). I truly enjoyed the slow opening of only two presents in the quiet of Christmas eve....we got to experience the warm appreciation for a gift and the enthusiasm for giving that sometimes gets lost in a big family gathering with lots of presents. This is definitely a tradition we will continue. :-)
