Christmas gifts

My family does not do a Christmas gift exchange, which saves us a lot of stress. What we do is have the girls choose a gift from the dollar store for each family member, all by themselves. Since Bella is still at daycare where they do a "gift gala" as a fundraiser for the PTO, she gets to choose at school. Since Sofia is no longer there, I took her to the store and tried to help her choose.


The teachers at Bella's school told me they try to steer the kids in the right direction as much as possible, but they also told me that Bella wanted none of that. She knew exactly what she wanted for each one of us, and there was no such thing as changing her mind.

This sort of gift "exchange" may sound silly to many, but to me it's really cute and fun. You just can't predict what the kids will come up with, which can really generate a lot of laughs. As a perfect example, this year Bella chose for me a Bengal's bracelet, which made me laugh A LOT. I could totally care less about the Bengals. Everybody - except Bella I guess - knows that!

Other favorite selections by Bella included: A car cup holder organizer for abuelito, a totally random - and old - movie for grandpa, and travel shoe bags for Lionel. Sofia and I did pretty well at the dollar store - if I may say so - but the best idea was probably giving a gift to herself. She actually had fun opening her own gift, as if she didn't know what was in there.