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Stocking Stuffers for 4 and 2 Year Old Kids/Brothers

Dec 222009

We’re going through a phase in this household that is really important to understand when it comes to gift-giving times. We experienced it full force last month and only then truly understood the depth of the issue. What is it? What you give to one child you must also give to the other child.

Trust me.

While their Christmas gifts differ a little bit (bicycle versus tricycle, Tag Reader versus Tag Junior), there’s a lot of similarity going on in this household right now. And woe to whomever is in charge of bedtime if you do not dress these two brothers in matching pajamas. Woe to you.

I am safe, however, with their stockings. I didn’t necessarily plan for them to be 99.9% matching but they are. I also think that they will be interesting for both of the boys in their own ways. Let’s look at what we have.

A crayon roll is the biggest thing. (Our stockings are for small gifts, not big ones.) A necessity, if you will. I scoured Etsy for weeks and weeks until I found a store that had two similar crayon rolls (Cars print material on these ones). We’ve needed a way to keep track of crayons in our out-and-about bag for quite awhile now. I kept finding stores that had one of Cars and one of Toy Story and one with Princesses and one with tractors but never two with the same stuff. If one boy got a Toy Story one and one boy got a Cars one, they’d fight. Trust me. Now the boys each have their own though they’re easy to tell apart. Win for them. Win for me. Everyone is happy.

Kinda Matching Crayon Rolls

Inside

The rest of the stocking includes: Disney’s Toy Story alien fork and spoon set (each), Disney Pixar Cars that are shaped to look like Toy Story characters, and Disney underwear (2T-3T and size 4, big boys, sigh). A rather Disneyfied stocking, that’s true, especially coming from a Mom who said she’d never get “into” all that licensed character stuff. If you know my children, however, you would know how happy they will be with these small stocking stuffers.

Stockings

Little does LittleBrother know that the underwear are a great ploy to get him to finish potty training. (LOOK! You have the SAME! UNDERWEAR! as BigBrother! Isn’t that COOL?!) The utensils were also needed because, I swear, if I hear these kids fight over who gets the Nemo spoon and who gets the Lightning McQueen fork one more time, well, I won’t do anything more than die a little inside. Hopefully this calms some of the meal time drama.

Hopefully.

Of course, these gifts (and a very small amount of candy) will be put in by Santa after these dudes are snug in their beds on Christmas Eve. Stuffed happily into their fire truck stockings that I snagged on eBay last year. (That’s right, Pottery Barn! I shun your prices!) That said, BigBrother’s stocking came embroidered with his name but I still haven’t gotten LittleBrother’s stocking embroidered. Poor, poor youngest child.

I’m well aware that gifts like these pale in comparison to everything else they’ll receive over the next week. But I was always a lover of those “little” things in my stocking growing up. Perhaps character branded underwear won’t always be fun for them to receive in their stockings but this year it is… and for that I am grateful.

Great Gift for Firefighters: Firefighter Monopoly

Reviews 2 Responses »

Dec 072009

Monopoly Firefighters Edition I love board games. FireDad also loves board games. We’re kind of dorky awesome in that way. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you are probably familiar with the game Monopoly. You may also be aware that they’ve been releasing customized versions of the game for the past few years. We recently got our hands on the Firefighters Edition and, I must say, we’re ablaze with love for it. (Punny!)

FireDad and I sat down one Friday night to give it a go. It had been awhile so we familiarized ourselves with the rules. The customizations for the firefighter game were amusing to the both of us. Houses and hotels were fire stations and headquarters. We also had Flashover and Backdraft cards instead of Chance and Community Chest. A 9-1-1 tax, membership and union dues stood out as well. Places to be purchased were also fun fire related names like Probie Place and Fire Chief Avenue. Furthermore, the pieces to play with were fire specific: a boot, a fire engine, a flashlight, a helmet, a fire hydrant and a dalmatian. FireDad chose the truck while I went with the fire hydrant.

Our Pieces

We had a great time playing our first time through this edition of Monopoly. We laughed at some of the Backdraft and Flashover cards. In fact, one of my favorites was one that FireDad pulled. He still hasn’t earned his Stork Pin yet so he wasn’t equally as moved.

Babies!

We had some good laughs over the course of our game, both fire related and simply at ourselves. In the end, FireDad ended up winning because he bought up some land that I kept landing on every single time. I’d challenge him to another match but I don’t think it was luck. He’s just good.

The question remains: would I recommend this as a gift for a firefighter? Maybe for Christmas, a birthday or a fire service anniversary? I would. Most definitely. It’s running right around $40, plus or minus shipping depending on which online retailer you use for your purchase. FireAwards.com has it listed for $39.95 right now (12/7). That might seem steep for some but it’s one of those gifts that will get more use than, say, a firefighter figurine on a shelf. This is something that can be enjoyed by the firefighter and the entire fire family. Forty bucks for a lifetime of family togetherness and laughter seems like an alright price to me!

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[Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this game from Gary at FireAwards.com in exchange for a published review of the game and a link.]