Gift-giving fun

I have always loved Christmas and birthday celebrations. My family never made a huge deal out of them as a kid, so I really get excited now that I can make a big deal out of them for T-Man. I get so into it, actually, that I tend to be more excited to watch him open his gifts than to open my own. (Not that he has actually managed to open a gift on his own. He might be there in time for his birthday.) With Christmas and his birthday coming up, I am getting very excited about T-Man's gifts.

For his main birthday gift, we bought him a whole set of play food. We also got him a bunch of cooking things: pots & pans, a colander, measuring stuff, utensils. Today I found a little chef's hat, too. Naturally, I'm pretty stoked about the whole thing - I love to cook myself, and my only sadness about the whole thing is that he's much to young to cook with me. We tried it with the cookies the other day, and it wasn't a disaster or anything, he just doesn't get it yet.

For Christmas, I just picked up the Play-Doh creativity center. It's a neat little desk with cool molds and cutting tools, extractors, and the like. Also, it came with a free 24-pack of Play-Doh. Just picking up the boxes at the store brought back memories of playing with Play-Doh when I was little. I don't think we had Play-Doh very often, but I do remember having a lot of fun with it. One cool part of the creativity center is that the top try has a bunch of built-in molds, and the bottom part is a massive storage container for all that Play-Doh and those cool tools.

We're not the kind of parents to really spoil our kid and buy him anything he even glances at twice. We buy him cool toys second-hand sometimes, and we buy him things we think any kid should have (last year, we got him a wagon 'just because'). But we don't just go out all the time and buy him new toys to play with. After all, he's taking over our living room with his toys as it is. He's definitely not lacking in that department. I was a little concerned about adding more toys to that amount, actually. But I'm feeling better about it now. (And planning to play with that Play-Doh, just as soon as he gets it for Christmas.)

So, here's my dilemma. How do I wait a month and a half to watch him open it?

And yes, in case you're wondering, I have most of my Christmas shopping done. I think there are two more gifts I need to pick up (one being an exchange that we haven't yet picked names for), and my husband hasn't done anything much, but that's his concern. Also, I have some really cool handmade gifts that are either all done or mostly done. I do have a scrapbook gift I need to get started on...

You may be cringing to yourself, but I like to plan gifts ahead of time. It's so much fun when you think of or find the perfect thing, and I love thinking about the joy each gift will bring.