Santa's always loved shopping for Bailey, but Santa's a busy guy and so he needs our help. And I'll tell you, there are few more satisfying feelings than doing this. We used to buy up stuff throughout the year and then make a big donation to Toys for Tots for years and years, but adopting a family seems more complete, more attached, and even though Toys for Tots went to a much larger population, adopting a family feels like an extension of our own family.
We go through a different charity each time, so this time we chose a different Salvation Army in a different local city. After signing up, we were given stipulations and most horrifying, restrictions. I don't do well with restrictions, especially $30 maximums and such. I immediately summoned the head of the organization explaining I don't do maximums and any kind of limitations, because really, what's the point? You can't limit my shopping capabilities. She promised me it was just a guideline and that I could do anything I wanted. Anything. I loved the ring to that. And somewhere in the midst of that we adopted an additional family. They had a lot more families on the list this year due to the economy (and by a lot more, I mean at least 25%) and because of that, they didn't include the parents. Plus, with more people cutting back, they feared less people adopting.
Bailey welcomed our two new families with open arms. Our first family consisted of a single mother with two children, a nine year old little girl named Wendy and a six year old little boy named George. George liked anything Spiderman and really wanted a remote control helicopter. His sister liked High School Musical and needed a twin comforter for her bed. Our second family was a single mom with a little girl (but she didn't come named like the other two children, so I named her Audrey) who was 3.5 and needed winter boots and liked anything fit for a princess. Since our four year old isn't into princesses quite as much as other little girls, I was on the case. (But Bailey was a lot more into princesses this year than any other year, probably because of shopping for Audrey.)
Now I'm not sharing this expecting you to think we're all that great of people, because we do this for our own selfish love of doing it. And Bailey gets really into it. She picked out quite a bit of their presents and when we first told her about them, she instantly made up lists for each child. Her favorite was George and came up with some marvelous options for him. (If you remember our family last year, we named a little girl Heidi and Bailey had insisted on getting her a tricycle and wouldn't allow us to buy her any dresses at all.)
Buying for two kids was a lot harder than buying for one because I was so busy keeping everything even. When we'd done this before, the kids were close in age and the same gender, so it made it a lot easier. We just picked characters and one of each for each child. This time...I had to kind of just hope it all equalled out. I got a glimpse of what life would be like with more children. It was scary.
These are some pictures of the gifts we gave. I felt honored that these mothers allowed us to become part of their lives this holiday season. So, here's Rob and my Christmas present for this year (this is the only real gift we give each other, but it's a big one):
(Keep in mind these are mostly all clearance finds.) Wendy's backpack included glue, crayons, High School Musical ink pens, a five pack of spirals, markers, glue sticks, erasers, High School Musical miniature notepad, High School Musical folder and some pencils with cute animals on them. (I probably spent less than a total of $7 on all of this.)
George's presents included the board game Don't Wake Hulk (picked by Bailey of course), a Spiderman web blaster (also from Bailey), an Air Hogs RC Helicopter and airplane combo set (and thank goodness my friend was able to get this during the Black Friday deals!), a Spiderman backpack full of school supplies, a Spiderman foam play mat, Spiderman bubble bath, a Spiderman puzzle, an Iron Man puzzle, his stocking, a stack of clothing (two pairs of sweatpants and two sweatshirts, a Spiderman hooded sweatshirt, Spiderman pajamas, an Iron man t-shirt, a pair of skeleton gloves, two pairs of solid colored gloves, and a stocking cap), Hot Wheels Speedracer car set, Spiderman briefs, Spiderman slippers, and Walle on DVD (which is actually for both siblings).
George's backpack had a Batman coloring book, five pack of spiral notebooks, markers, crayons, glue, glue sticks, various sport team pencils, Spiderman multiplication cards, and a huge Spiderman eraser.
George's stocking had Spiderman juggling balls, a Spiderman tape dispenser of glow-in-the-dark stickers, Spiderman vehicle, a Spiderman watch, a Spiderman guy that grows, miscellaneous superheroes in coin machine bubbles, Spiderman dominoes, and a two pack of Spiderman toothbrushes.
Audrey's gifts included a blue shirt, a dress, a hooded shirt, Santa hat (courtesy of Bailey), Carters black boots, pink and purple VSmile, VSmile smartbook, Walle VSmile game, Little Mermaid VSmile game, batteries, Dora Smartbook book for the VSmile, five Walle shirts (from Miss Bailey of course as well as the $1 Retail Giant price), two rolls of Disney princess wrapping paper, Walle on DVD, Disney princess shopping cart and food from the Disney website, Disney Princess Memory game, Disney princess band-aids, princess Barbie (from my friends), sidewalk chalk, Little Mermaid underwear, Winnie the Pooh pants, princess coloring book, light up Cinderella dress up shoes, Cinderella baby doll, Disney princess Christmas paint set, purple jacket and pant set, princess pajamas, Disney Princess tea set, her stocking, and Disney princess candy canes.
I wasn't sure if I was going to do the bags of stuff for the families or not aside from their Retail Giant gift cards, but after realizing I had dropped off George and Wendy's gifts without including batteries (and George was really going to need the batteries), I decided to go ahead. The lady I called assured me even though I'd dropped that family's stuff off the Friday prior, the extra items dropped off on Monday would still get to them. (We could only drop off gifts on Friday or Monday and our car only had room for the huge box of Wendy and George's items so we had to make two different trips.)
Bag one had food items for Audrey's family and a letter to her mother. The food included soups, Spaghetti O's, hot cocoa, Disney princess cookies, fruit snacks, Welch's grape juice, and Macaroni and cheese.
In their second bag I included household items. I also had forgotten to include the shoes from my friends. (Bailey discovered they'd slipped out of the box right after I finished taping it up.) The items aside from the shoes were Earth friendly cleaning spray, Lysol wipes, Glade apple cinnamon spray, toilet paper, deodorant, Listerine, hand soap, scissors, toothbrush, tape, freezer bags, Disney princess holiday window clings, a bag of bows, gift tags, tissues, and laundry detergent.
In the household bag for George and Wendy's family were items such as the cleaning spray, toothbrush, 24 pack of batteries, gift tags, gift bows, Glade spray, tissues, toilet paper, freezer bags, hand soap, Lysol wipes, Listerine, laundry detergent, deodorant, and tape.
Their groceries included High School Musical macaroni and cheese, Disney Pixar Cars macaroni and cheese, High School Musical cereal, Spiderman fruit snacks, hot cocoa, Ritz snowflake crackers, marshmallows, and Welch's fruit juice. I also put in a thank you note to their mother for allowing us to do this for their family.
Now this doesn't count the food or household items, but if this seems like a lot of stuff, please keep in mind that I find some really great deals throughout the year, and especially during Christmastime. I'm also not too proud to go find great little odd and ends at Dollar type stores or search the clearance racks online and in stores for clothing. I stretch those dollars further than you knew a dollar could stretch. Sometimes, I stretch it so far, the money even does cartwheels.
When we adopted an angel off the angel tree this year, it was deliberately because I had found an awesome deal on this Hannah Montana acoustic guitar. It was originally over $90 ($130 in some stores) and I discovered it for a little over $22. It was too good to pass up and so when we adopted our families and Wendy wasn't into Hannah, I needed to find a Hannah. I added Hannah Montana wrapping paper, Hannah Montana pajamas, underwear, a Hannah Montana shirt, markers, notebook, Hannah Montana doll, a stocking with a Hannah Montana puzzle, two Taylor Swift buttons, a Hannah Montana washcloth, Hannah Montana candy rings, Hannah Montana ring stampers, a Hannah Montana trivia card game, a microphone full of Hannah Montana chap sticks, and miniature Hannah Montana stamper pens.
Secretly, we're not all that nice of people, I just like the game of finding great deals and the experience of shopping. Anything else is just a bonus. I told you, it's my thing.
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