Christmas *Idea* List

****important note: my hair dresser changed salons, so if you were planning on getting Angles gift certificates please get Mane Connection instead. Thank you.***

Every year at some point someone asks me what people in my family want for Christmas. I've been compiling a list by writing things down as people ask for them or dream out loud about having them. Some things I added because I think they would be enjoyed. Here is that list. These are only ideas, feel free to pick from the list or not.

Christmas Idea List 2010

Jay:

• Satellite radio subscription*
• Panera gift cards
• (Jay's Amazon wishlist)

Lily:

• Pink soccer ball
• “We did it” Dora doll
• Playmobile Schoolhouse
• Little girl doll (~18 inches) She really liked the Disney World ones that have Disney dress ups I  just looked for these to link them and it looks like they don't sell them anymore:-( So I showed her the American Girl dolls and she likes Felicity, Elizabeth, Kit and Ruthie the best. I'm sure she would be happy with any 18"doll though.
• Pixie Power playset
• Prince Eric Doll
• Little Mermaid Dress costume  
• This Year's Hess Truck
• a jumprope 
• Pillow pet 
• Pinkalicious and Goldilicious books

Jen:

• Presto Poplite hot air corn popper
• This super cute "Capture Life" necklace (if you get this please tell Jay so I don't end up with nonreturnable duplicates)
• Syrup dispenser
• Umbrella and mount for Flash photography
• Trigger transmitter 
• New cell phone
• Gift certificates for The Mane Connection on 924 in Bel Air
• All in one speakers for my Ipod nano that are easy to move around the house ----  (picture a boomboxish thing that has a nano port)
• Home Depot gift cards for paint- there are a few projects I want to do:-)
• a kitchen island
• 9 cube organizer shelves in cherry finish
• Cherry Bookcase http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S49885937
• 2x other cherry shelves http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40085709
• Acrylic knitting needles- Any gauge is fine since I only have one set of circular ones at this point:-)

Ryan

• General Grievous’s Lego ship
• Lego anything
• playmobiles
• Anything Ravens
• lacrosse stick and ball
• Voyage of the Dawn Treader 3D movie tickets 
• This Year's Hess Truck

Zach

• Legoes -Star Wars sets
• Wii: Super Mario Galaxy 2, New Super Mario Bros.
• Redwall books: "Triss", "Lord Brocktree", by Brian Jacques
• Warrior books: Any "Warrior series" books by Erin Hunter
• Sudoku puzzles
• Chemistry set - individual activity-in-a-box with an experiment to do
• Voyage of the Dawn Treader 3D movie tickets

Family:

• High School Musical 3 DVD
• Prince Caspian
• Toy Story 3 DVD
• Season Passes or tickets to the Maryland Zoo, Aquarium, Science Center or Port Discovery
• 4th Wii Controller w/ nunchuk
• Winter Wonderland Tickets

The Restaurant

Ryan and Lily are playing pretend this morning. They are cracking me up. Some things from the game that made me laugh:

They came to me and told me they wanted to order breakfast. I told them pancakes are $100. Ryan said, "No, they are $.25 because that's all Lily has."

"Mom, you know you don't get to keep the money forever, right?"

"Mom, are the pancakes ready yet? I'm going to pretend your name is Mom in the game, so I can call you by your real name, okay?"

Ryan to Lily, "This is a slow food restaurant, so we can sit and talk until our food is ready."  A slow food restaurant, that just cracks me up.

I love when they play nicely together:-)

Saving Electricity

When the sun is out I like to use the natural light as much as I can. I love natural light and it doesn't hurt the electric bill if you know what I'm sayin'. When I went up to make dinner the family room was aglow with natural light. Of course the sun is setting quite early these days and during dinner I had to turn on a light to see. So imagine my surprise when I come downstairs to the family room and find Ryan in a very dark room reading. "Why are you trying to read in the dark?!" I asked. I suppose a stupid question deserves a stupid answer because Ryan very nonchalantly responded, "Because I can."

Learning Curve

I went to say good night to Ryan. This is a time when he often asks very profound questions. Sometimes I wonder if it's because he is trying to get me into a conversation that will last a long time so he can stay up late. Sometimes I think it's just because he thinks about these things when he is by himself.

Tonight's question was not so profound. "Mommy, do you know how to write a cursive D?"
"Yes."
"Will you teach me?"
"Sure, but not right this minute."
"Good. I want to be able to write [my last name] in cursive. I know how to do the scribble after."

If you've seen my signature you probably got a good giggle out of that one;-)

Lego Boy

There is almost always a pile of Legos in our family room. Ryan LOVES them, especially the Star Wars ones. I'm usually pretty impressed when he builds one of those ships. There are a lot of directions and it takes a lot of focus to finish the big ones. He recently bought the Battle of Endor kit with some birthday money and some money he had saved up. It took him 3 consecutive days of working after school to build all the parts. He had so much fun doing it. I don't think I got pictures of it because it "got destroyed" before I had a chance. It was really cool though.
This morning he showed me this...

I'm sure he knows much more about it than I do, but it's the ship Boba Fett uses in the second movie. The thing is, he never got a kit to make it. He did it all on his own, from memory. And I thought I was impressed when he built ships with directions! I'm sure Star Wars purists will have all kinds of things to say about it's inaccuracy, but I think it's pretty impressive.