While I write this post at my studio, Piper has been amusing herself for about two hours with some colored pencils and two boxes an office-mate gave her. She has been having fun with boxes since she was two, they are probably her favorite toy. I have seen her spend entire play dates with her friend Phoebe coloring and cutting up boxes. Two years ago, at the Hello Store, the kids were forced to amuse themselves pretty much all night and day while I worked like a dog during Christmas vacation. One of the funniest things they ever did was put large boxes over their heads. They made eye-holes and arm-holes and went to Starbucks dressed as "box kids". They wrote my Starbucks order on the front of their boxes and amused everyone at the store at the same time. They were a hit and ran up and down NW 23rd like little tramps in their boxes for the rest of the morning.

Yesterday Piper reminded me how much fun she can still have with a box. This will make you either roll your eyes (as if I am totally bullshitting you) or nod your head because your kids are such simpletons too. Piper can play with two things endlessly; colored pencils and boxes. You cannot buy her a single plastic toy that she will play with for more than 5 minutes. We have brand new "Littlest Pet Shop", "Barbie" and "Polly Pockets" in a closet in her old bedroom. (Hey PDX pals, come and get 'em if you need 'em!) 

She cracked me up yesterday and made me feel a little less guilty that Santa is pretty broke this year. The tree will look a whole lot sparser than years past. I'm not so worried about the "stuff," they were hard pressed to tell me what they even wanted for Christmas, but I am more anxious about the visual impact when they walk down the stairs. Maybe I can say Santa was robbed or something. So far I have explained to Piper that Obama asked Santa to "cut back" this year to help the economy (the rationale is completely ridiculous but she's buying it so far.) Either way, it's a great reminder that we don't have to throw a lot of spanky-new toys at our kids to put a smile on their faces.

In the meantime I am selling and buying crap on Craigslist and Ebay to make ends meet. This is a part-time job. When the phone calls stop by dinner time, I get back onto the sewing machine to make presents for everyone else. Honestly, it's the best part of pre-Christmas. Every year we use the holiday evening to make stuff for other people and the time we spend together doing it is the part of Christmas I think we'll remember the most. I'll post some of our best creations tomorrow.

Share |

 

join our mailing list and we'll tell about all our Nifty News!